The destination of Afghanistan is still quite cloudy. Its future has become vaguer with announcement of drawdown plan of international troops by US government, intensification of insurgency and low capacity of Afghan forces. After ten years of fight against insurgency, the question, "Where is Afghanistan moving to - towards peace and prosperity or further destruction?" remains quite ambiguous. Although the world has turned into a global village and information can be shared with the whole world by a simple and single click, the information on Afghans' fate remains either unshared or even the US that is leading the war against terrorism is unaware of the future of Afghanistan and US itself is flying blind.
If on one hand, President Obama thinks much has been achieved against insurgents in Afghanistan and it is time to kick off withdrawing process of coalition forces from this country, on the other, outgoing General David Petraeus says, "Much work remains to be done in Afghanistan." There is no common view about what will be the prospects of the people of Afghanistan.
Words and realities on the ground are quite opposite to each other. During his recent visit to Afghanistan the British Prime Minister, David Cameron announced his country's commitments towards Afghanistan – his government's support to reconstruction process will continue beyond 2015 for longer term. He praised what British military was doing in Afghanistan. But the importance of his visit faded away as it coincided with a bad news for UK. The Taliban killed the British soldier who it had kidnapped on Monday.
The same kind of situation applies to Karzai administration. Since the last two years, Karzai has been inviting Taliban to tables of negotiation. Even he has pronounced Taliban as his brothers. But oppositely, the Taliban continue practicing violence and have denied talks with Karzai and his team.
If it is politics, one gets perplexed knowing its complexity. Towards what direction Afghanistan is moving should be clear and even a layman should know his future. If strategies are made clear, the trust and confidence of people over the promises of their government and international community can be increased.