Pakistan and Afghanistan can End American Interference

News:

A few weeks ago, Imran Khan made a bold declaration and rejected American use of Pakistani bases to conduct security operation in Afghanistan. He said, “We simply cannot afford this. We have already paid too heavy a price.” He also highlighted “if the US, with the most powerful military machine in history, couldn’t win the war from inside Afghanistan after 20 years, how would America do it from bases in our country?” Yet, despite these comments, Khan held out prospects of “Pakistan is ready to be a partner for peace in Afghanistan with the United States.” [Washington Post]

Comment:

Khan’s desire of collaborating with the US to bring stability to Afghanistan once more is at odds with both American efforts to quash the Afghan resistance as well as the historical record. At the peak of the Afghan occupation, America had almost a 100,000 troops during Obama’s reign in 2011. However, the total number of forces under the umbrella of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) totaled 130,000 in 2012. In the same year, the number of US Department of Defence contractors working in Afghanistan alone reached 117,000. [Military Times]

Logic dictates that if 200,000 foreign personnel or so could not quell the Afghan resistance backed by US military firepower and strong assistance from the Pakistan army (since 2005, Pakistan has deployed 80,000 troops in FATA and along the border with Afghanistan) than what hope would the Islamabad-Washington alliance have post withdrawal. The probability of success for such alliance becomes even more mind boggling considering that the Taliban fighters are poorly equipped, do not possess tanks and fighter jets and are no more than 75,000 fighters. [White House Website] Afghanistan truly is a graveyard for empires: the British, the Russians and now the Americans have found out the hard way. Biden was right to conclude “no nation has ever unified Afghanistan.  Empires have gone there and not done it.” [White House Website]

Reason also suggests that the Taliban nurtured in Pakistani madrassas and trained under the tutelage of the Pakistani army have more in common with Pakistan than any other foreign or neighbouring country. Likewise, the Afghan and Pakistani people share a strong sense of Islamic history and identity, share the same Hanafi madhab and have a deep longing for the return of Islam. Most of important of all, the people of both countries are tired of western interference and subjugation. Subsequently, it makes perfect sense for both Afghanistan and Pakistan to fuse into a single entity to support the return of Islam in the heart of Eurasia and remove America’s influence from the region for good.

Nevertheless, Khan who readily accepts America’s defeat in Afghanistan is not prepared to entertain such facts on the ground and wants to work with America to perpetrate more bloodshed between brothers. There is only one solution, and that is for Pakistan and Afghanistan to merge into a single unified state to become the nucleus for the upcoming Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate) the people (under the leadership of this flag) will tie their horses with the olive trees between Bait-e-Lahya and Harasta (names of places in Jerusalem) [Nuaim Ibn Hammad in Kitab Al-Fitan].

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Abdul Majeed Bhatti – Wilayah Pakistan