Afghanistan Times
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President Ghani and his entourage have capped their two-day visit to Washington with some defending the presidential trip as highly productive for the country’s future. Indeed when you see the concept, the United States would still offer security assistance, as well as diplomatic and humanitarian aid. This is what the US reiterated from the very beginning when Washington announced the deadline for all US exit from Afghanistan after 20 years of presence. The US and NATO troops are set to finish their withdrawal on 11 September. The continuation of support from the US is coming at a time when the Taliban, a group to whom the US signed a deal last year, has captured dozens of districts in a recent offensive across the country. Indeed, the Taliban violated deal with the US and failed to live up to commitments to reduce violence. Anyways, a very important message made by the US President Joe Biden was when he said that Afghans are going to have to decide their future. This is a key message to the Afghan leaders. He put it very straight forward. Though Mr. Biden said that partnership between Kabul and Washington would continue, at the same time, his stinking message that Afghans should decide on their future is worthy of consideration. Whatever Mr. Biden meant by stating that, but in the true sense it’s our country and it’s our duty to fix it. In the history of this modern world, no other countries ever built other countries. There are obviously some sorts of agreement and strategic partnership, like Afghanistan has with so many countries, but it would be naïve to put all the blame to the foreigners for our own failure. We missed a great opportunity. 20 years ago, millions of dollars were showered on this country, but see the level of corruption which is unbreakable now. Tens of thousands of foreign troops were there, but war is yet to be finished – instead we are losing more territory to the militants and war has been intensified unprecedentedly. Today when the foreign troops are about to leave, we are seemingly not happy, but this is not the solution. They must go one day and why not today. The more we have them here the more there will be problems. This is time for the Afghan government and the Taliban to answer the question posed by Mr. Biden that what the Afghans want. The ordinary people want peace and this senseless violence must be stopped. But what the leadership from both sides (Afghan-Taliban) is really up to as both sides are engaged in violence, even the Taliban are now daydreaming of military victory. The Afghans will definitely overcome all the problems and will reach peace with determination, with unity and with partnership and most importantly with accepting each other. Persuading an increased military role is futile, and also it could hurt regional diplomacy pulse overshadowing the prospect of foraging domestic consensus which is key to end the endless war and reach a durable peace and stability.
