By General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg (chief of army staff from 1988-91 and is chairman of FRIENDS (Foundation for Research on International Environment National Development and Security)

In Third World countries like Pakistan, when leaders find the going tough on the domestic front, they turn towards foreign policy pursuits, ultimately losing at both ends. This is precisely the case with US President Barack Obama now. Domestic problems are multiplying. The government favours the elite and ignores the common folk. It has tried to stimulate the economy by buying treasury bonds through “quantitative easing”, which itself is a cause of a political backlash, and is following a risky monetary strategy which has in turn caused high rates of unemployment. Change in healthcare reforms are the only silver lining in the dark clouds surrounding America’s economy. Its foreign policy is drifting into error because of the failure to acknowledge the great setback suffered at the hands of the Afghans in the New Great Game in Eurasia.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the US decided to extend its global primacy and pre-eminence into the Euro-Asian region under the mistaken belief that the 21st century belonged to it, as the dominant global power. The ‘New Great Game’ thus focused on containing and curbing forces considered a threat to its global ambitions. First, the Americans betrayed the Afghan Mujahideen — who had won the war for them against the Soviets — and induced a civil war because a radical Islamic government in Afghanistan was considered a threat to their interests. Hastily, they took on the Iraqis in 1991, who had emerged stronger after the Iran-Iraq war destroyed the bulk of their armed forces. They turned towards Somalia and encouraged their neighbours to invade the country and brought about a regime change. While the ‘New Great Game’ was being implemented, the 9/11 attack filled American hearts with a thirst for revenge. Afghanistan was invaded and occupied because it had committed the unforgivable sin of sheltering Osama, whom the Americans themselves had funded and supported against the Soviets.

After consolidating their hold over Afghanistan, Iraq was invaded on the pretext that Saddam had developed atomic weapons. As the consolidation process continued in Afghanistan and Iraq, the European Union extended its membership into Eastern Europe and jointly brought about pro-West revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrghyzstan. Thereafter, Afghanistan was unilaterally declared as part of South Asia and India was assigned a role under a strategic partnership with the US, with the objective of containing the rising threat of Islamic extremism in the region and the rising economic and military power of China. In the process of implementing this strategy, the Americans and their allies miserably failed because they could not estimate the power of the Islamic Resistance and suffered humiliating defeat at their hands. This happened because of the ‘war on terror strategy’, which became the catalyst for the spread of the Islamic Resistance from Afghanistan to Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Kashmir and Palestine.

President Obama’s recent visit to India and America and India’s joint declaration shows disregard for the emerging ground realities. The Taliban have won the war and have proved true to their resolve, as conveyed to us in March 2002 by Mullah Omar. “We have resolved to fight and fight till we were free to take our decisions in a free environment. The Afghan nation will not follow the American agenda as it is not in harmony with our national ethos and traditions. We will fight till occupation forces vacate our land. We are a free people and know how to win our freedom.”

Mullah Omar stands firm on his commitment, as he pronounced recently that “the moment of defeat of the invaders has arrived due to the great sacrifices of the Mujahideen. We will continue with our strategy to engage the enemy in an exhausting war of attrition and wear them out like the former Soviet Union. The more the war prolongs, the greater will be the enemy’s suffering.” There is no denying the fact that Taliban have won against the combined forces of the US and their allies.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2010