The Afghanistan conundrum
July 19, 2021
Volumes have been written on the Afghanistan conundrum but for more than four decades, the country is ravaged by war, conflict and strife. In 1979, the erstwhile Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan but a fierce guerrilla war forced the Red Army to retreat by 1989. A period of peace should have followed but internecine warfare and battles for supremacy between various tribes and warlords wasted the country till the Taliban brought a modicum of stability, which was shattered by 9/11. An enraged US, seeking to destroy Al Qaeda, responsible for the reprehensible attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, unleashed its fury on Afghanistan in October 2001. Twenty years of warfare failed to bring order to Afghanistan. Now, the US and NATO troops have been drawn down, apart from approximately 650 US soldiers, who are expected to remain in Afghanistan with the limited mission of protecting the US Embassy and Kabul’s international airport.