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“Several suicide attackers and a group of armed men stormed three government buildings in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan today. These acts of violence left at least 20 dead and 50 injured. In one of such attacks today, two suicide bombers stormed the building of department of prisons in the north of Kabul. In the mean while, a group of armed men stormed the building of Ministry of Justice. Yet another suicide bomber who wanted to blow himself in the Ministry of Education was shot just outside the ministry building, however, he did blow himself. Taliban have claimed responsibility of these attacks.”
This is what engulfed the world in thought today, and definitely Mr. Richard Holbrooke who is on a peace making mission to the region. How could a terrorist organization carry out such an attack successfully and well coordinated was showcased yet once again. The first kind of such a coordinated attack was caried out in the Indian commercial city of Mumbai which left the city in awe for at least a month. That also resulted in creating a bigger gulf of distrust between the nuclear armed traditional arch rivals India and Pakistan. Now these attacks in Kabul, a city that is strongly protected by International Security Assitance Force (ISAF), Nato and American forces plus the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army personnel. This failure to stop such an attack means the world in its totality has failed to stop terrorism.
If seen through another angle, it was a strong display of power by the outlawed, outruled Taliban showcasing its might of spreading fear in the face of nomination of Richard Holbrooke and his subsequent visit to the region which kicked off just recently. Alarm must have rung in his ears as well that the regime American forces overthrew 8 years ago is preparing for a stronger return. And they will return if the scenrio doesn’t change. A poor and incompetent Afghan leadership in the form of Karzai in Kabul won’t help the situation. The first thing Mr. Holbrooke must have in mind is to find ways of replacing him in the face of changing American policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In addition, these attacks also reminded the citizens of Kabul that you are no more safe like you used to be in the last eight years. Till now, the south was burning in the fire of the hell created by the war between Taliban and the allied forces, it will now be Kabul to burn after a gap of 8 years (Kabul burnt from 1992-1996 in which over 65000 people died).
Who’s going to save Kabul now? Afghanistan has never been at a state of total rest through out its history since being named Afghanistan in 18th century. Does it mean that the world is on the verge of defeat in Kabul? It’s also to be understood whether it truel is the world that run afghanistan now or is it occupation forces led by US? Whatever the case might be, the truth of the matter is that Kabulians still have to wait and watch what they still have to bear in the name of religion, freedom, or democracy or ......
RSS 
There’s a popular saying ”Biggers can’t be choosers”. The notorious civil war of afghanistan, with the influence of neighbors burnt the lot of afghans to the ground. Now, without the consent of international and regional players, no government or organization can survive in Afghanista. Faheem, you are right in terming afghanistan as the battle field. It is a battlefield where man dies without any recognition. It’s an unfinishing war that has destroyed millions of people across the world.
The only way to save Pakistan and perhaps Central Asia is to leave Afghanistan immediately. That would take the pressure off Afghanistan’s neighbors.
Obama is a lovely, very nice young man but given his handling of the credit crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan thus far pretty clear he is totally out of his depth.
Not only is Karzai at fault, so too is the NATO command that’s supposed to be keeping a watch over that nation.
Where did all the funds to rebuild Afghanistan go? As far as we can tell, the country is worse off than it was when the Taliban was toppled. Why doesn’t Karzai try to modernize Afghanistan, for example by changing its alphabet to latin, like Ataturk did in Turkey back in the late 1920s, so that the Afghan children can have an easier time learning how to read and write?
It’s coming to the point where the world is not going to have any patience whatsoever with countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The bottom line is, Karzai is ineffective, the command control of NATO is out of work, US is playing a double game, regional players are cashing benefits and many more.
But Firdows, Afghanistan is not at a position to talk of changing the sytem over. Ataturk must have done a great service for Secular Turkey, but Taliban are exactly the opposite of Attaturk. Karzai has been an unpopular leaders since his election. In a country like afghanistan where traditionally the head of the tribe is the person who has more sons, similarly the president should be one who has at least the backing of a major part of the country. Before 2002’s Bonn Conference, no one knew who karzai was. Now, he is playing a risky game by challenging US and NATO claiming that he is talking of afghan civilian deaths. Was he blind when those innocent afghans would die in heavy bombardments of TORA BORA and related areas of the south eastern provinces?
One thing probably good about the current government is that at least the Media and History is recording them properly. What would you do under Taliban? No media and no writer to write. It’s right to criticize the present system and it truely is a part of democracy but it is never realistic to prefer a fundamentalist regime that took the country to the stone age. How many voices were allowed to, for example, criticize the massacre of Shomali and Bamyan areas under Taliban? Now you are free to criticize and show the government that the track they have chosen is wrong and your voice is at least heard (may be to the minimum) but there’s a confidence that your voice doesn’t go unheard. Therefore, instead of being so critical of the governmetn, one should also appreciate the freedom that most parts of the country enjoys. It’s another story what the Media commonly reports. Being a citizen it should be your responsiblity to see for yourself as to what happens instead of criticizing everything. The recent hunt down of the terrorists in Kabul is appreciatable. One can feel confident that at least you have commondos who act as effectively as any other commondo in the world. So, as we crticize the governmetn, we also have a moral responsibility to appreciate its positive endeavors and be realistic of the situation.
