On October 07, 2011, the counter terrorism war in Afghanistan completed its ten years. Achievements are being measured against losses in Afghanistan over the last decade. Last week a protest was staged in Kabul against the US presence in Afghanistan. The limited number of participants of the protest chanted slogans against and burnt the Flag of America.

According to them all the faults is Americans' – if they had not invaded Afghanistan, today we would have a better day. But has the presence of international community been destructive for Afghanistan?

In case the US had not invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban would have continued to rule Afghanistan from Kanadahar under the leadership of Mullah Muhammad Omar. The Taliban just in five years of their government 1996-2001, turned Afghanistan into a nest of terrorists. By now every Afghan would be a terrorist, if the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had continued to live.

Unfortunately, the war against terrorism has not been as successful as was expected. The Taliban and groups associated to them are still at large and pose serious threats to the lives of Afghans and the people of the world.

The fate of Afghan war is still vague as its destiny is completely vague. The international community is withdrawing at juncture when the Taliban are stronger than before which has increased the concerns of the Afghans.

With all the failures the counter-terrorism is facing today, Afghanistan is on its way towards development in almost all fields. The international community has helped Afghan generously in the last decade in the areas of economy, democracy, civil society, education, women rights and so on.

Achievements are fragile and needs to be safeguarded but Afghanistan is still better than if it had been under the Taliban.

There are still hard challenges ahead of Afghanistan but that can be resolved by establishing better ties with the world and by furthering cooperation with and gaining support from the international allies of Afghanistan, especially its neighboring countries. The Afghans, by no way, want the return of Taliban in any shape or any role.