The ‘C’ word

It’s all about Commitment. In this modern, fast paced, constantly updating world we live in, old fashioned values like ‘Commitment’ just don’t have the same coinage as before. We are too busy jumping to the next, tossing out the old and lusting for the new and generally behaving fickle because it’s much easier than the alternative. That’s not what relationships used to be about. To be in a relationship with someone meant single-minded, whole-hearted allegiance to that person. It meant saying, ‘I love you’ even in those moments that you didn’t.

America, of all places, understands Commitment. One hundred and four months ago they made that commitment to Afghanistan. They got down on one knee, held Afghanistan’s battered and swollen hand, looked it deep in the blood-shot eyes and said those magic words: “I am going to invade you.” It’s not a traditionally expressed sentiment but it got the point across. For America, it meant something. It meant not leaving. It meant I-am-here-to-stay.

There were bumpy periods sure. Which relationship is ever just snuggling under blankets and finishing each other’s sentences. Movies have ruined the reality of what it means to be in a long-term relationship. We never get to see those moments that occur after the end-credits roll. You know, when Richard Gere snarkily tells Julia Roberts he is sick of her running up his credit card bill and she yells at him for always wanting her to be someone she isn’t. If Romeo and Juliet had lived together for any longer, it would have been a lot of “Cease to leave yon toilet seat upright!” and “Why must thou persist on cleansing mine favourite cod-piece!” Similarly, there were those moments when America and Afghanistan seemed on the verge of a break-up. Certainly that sad period when America began seeing Iraq on the side. Seduced by the come-hither glances of deep oil reserves and the seductive whispers about Weapons of Mass Destruction, America’s attention shifted. It transferred its passions to the Mesopotamia and poor Afghanistan was left with just vague promises of “I’ll be back” and the few odd thousand marines and special forces. But in the end, America did come back. It renewed its vows and brushed away those tears of neglect.

And now look at how far they have come. One hundred and four months later and those promises that had, so long ago, been delivered with a bouquet of civilian casualties and Guantanamo Bay detainees, have been upheld. Even Vietnam didn’t last this long. For the longest time, Vietnam was that old fling that all others were compared to and it seemed none could live up to. It brought back sepia tinted memories of Agent Orange and Opium addiction. But the expiration date of that old dalliance was just 103 months. A long time sure, but Afghanistan can now stand proud over that broken record. As soon as it is able to stand again.

The most amazing part of the American commitment to Afghanistan is that it could easily go on for another 104 months. There seem to be no serious challenges to American attention anymore. Iran, some say, could be trouble. It too has those oil reserves that America finds so irresistible and those old weaponised promises seem to be returning. But America today is not as easily distracted as it was half a decade ago.

Besides, thanks to BP it’s kind of glutted on oil right now and those Iranian threats of nuclear armament are starting to seem more and more like that girl in third grade who kept poking me with a pen because she didn’t know any other way of telling me she liked me (I have the nib-based scars to prove it). No, thanks to a corrupt sham government, resurgent Taliban and heroin bumper crop, this relationship seems built to last.

So here is to Commitment. A word that America believes in. Whether Afghanistan wants it to or not.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2010.