Everything in the world is possible. From reaching Mars to inventing nuclear weapons, the humans have decoded everything that our ancestors reckoned unattainable. However, the only thing that hasn’t changed a bit is the United States’ approach against terrorism. They were not even an inch short while troubling the anti-peace goons. Afghanistan, the hub of the terrorist group named Al-Qaida, could never maintain good relations with America due to its inability to clear these radical troops and harbouring them. However, on the eve of the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, former president Barack Obama headed to Afghanistan to sign a strategic partnership pact with President Hamid Karzai.
Kimberly Jones, a faculty associate in Northeastern University’s Middle East Center for Peace, Culture, and Development and of the international affairs program examined and put forward her conviction on the state of the U.S.- Afghanistan relations. Although the U.S. went into Afghanistan to go after al-Qaida, bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan. That fact has several implications for all involved. Jones thinks that an interrelated point that we have to think about is the U.S.-Pakistan relationship and its impact on the engagement with Afghanistan as well as Afghanistan’s engagement with Pakistan and its neighboring rival India. In terms of the U.S.-Afghanistan relations, the previous year has been one of ups and downs.
On the positive side, the U.S. has made moves to reduce its figurative and literal footprint in that country — there are more Afghan security forces and more personnel have been trained and partnered with NATO troops. Events such as the U.S. soldiers’ burning of the Korans and the massacre of 16 Afghans, many of them children, however, have negatively impacted relations. Jones opined, “We should keep in mind that terrorism, particularly in terms of successful attacks on the U.S. soil, is a relatively rare phenomenon. Assessing each threat individually and identifying vulnerabilities remain a key challenge and one that U.S. counterterrorism officials and analysts diligently strive to meet”.
Harminder Singh
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