Invading Iraq haunts today

Iraq War not only affected the Afghan war but is also affecting the American withdrawal from that war-torn country

When Bush invaded Iraq, not only did he indulge in a supreme war crime of aggression, but also diverted his attention away from the war in Afghanistan. While invading Afghanistan was a textbook illustration of international terrorism, America still had sympathy around the world because it was attacked and innocent civilians had died. The invasion of Iraq not only affected the war in Afghanistan but also today is affecting the American withdrawal from that war-torn country. Al Qaeda and the Taliban existed before the invasion. The Islamic State did not because it is a direct result of the American invasion of Iraq.

The Islamic State was born in an American Prison Camp, Bucca in Iraq. Military veteran Andrew Thompson and academic Jeremi Suri wrote in The New York Times, “Their [future Islamic State members] time in prison deepened their extremism and gave them opportunities to broaden their following. The prisons became virtual militant universities: the hardened radicals were the professors, the other detainees were the students, and the prison authorities played the role of absent custodian.” Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State, was in the same prison. Upon his release, he told the guard on duty, “I’ll see you guys in New York.”

The Islamic State is now gaining a comfortable foothold in Afghanistan. Their offshoot Islamic State-K, where K stands for Khorasan, is focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan but is worrying other countries like Russia, China and Uzbekistan among others. These countries, especially Russia and Uzbekistan, have come to a realisation that in order to guard against the Islamic State, the Taliban can be a useful bulwark. There were reports last year that the son of Tahir Yuldashev was leading efforts to spread the influence of Islamic State in Afghanistan. Yuldashev was the powerful Uzbek leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.

The United States has already started to “negotiate with the terrorists”. US State Department’s South Asian Bureau head Alice Wells met with four Taliban officials in Doha just last month. One noteworthy fact in many of the leading newspapers, including The Guardian, The Hill, and The Washington Post is that the Taliban aren’t labelled the usual way as commanders, extremists, terrorists and so forth. They are merely called “Taliban officials”. The New York Times has labelled them as “members of the Taliban political commission”. While the world leaders would huddle in New York for the 73^rd session of the General Assembly in September, “Taliban officials” and American officials would be meeting for the second round of talks in September as well.

The Taliban’s number one demand is for the occupation forces to withdraw. Trump wants this war to come to an end and for the Taliban to return to politics. After 9/11, Pakistan was asked to either side with the Americans or the militants. Now Pakistan is forced to ‘do more’ to get the terrorists to talk. Back then, Pakistan had implored with the Americans to do exactly that. If it’s any consolation, at least it confirms the Pakistani narrative that there is a political way out of this quagmire instead of a military way. Invading Iraq is undoing any gains, if you will, in Afghanistan. It’s as if though a businessman has a cash cow business and opens up another, which turns out to be a white elephant and then it eats up so much of the resources that even the main cash cow business is drained to death as well, resulting in loss in both businesses.

America would have to prop up the Taliban and give sweeteners in the form of releasing their men from Gitmo or giving them political power or both in order for the Taliban to not band with the Islamic State and keep them from taking over. It is very thought provoking that the final game in Afghanistan has come down to politically empowering the same men that America had removed in a violent invasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2018.

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