With all the targeted killings, suicide bombings and other terror activities that took lives of thousands of innocent people last year, the NATO has termed 2011 as a successful year in Afghanistan. In a "remarkably successful" year, Taliban had been forced onto the back foot in their southern stronghold, said International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson on Tuesday.
"The success has been so great that Taliban have largely lost control of the area and now rely on IEDs as their primary method of attack," he said. And in the east, troops "significantly disrupted the Haqqani network through operations Shamshir and Knife Edge, where coalition forces captured or eliminated over 500 leaders and fighters last fall".
No doubt, in a war, enemies are killed and captured but it does not necessarily mean a great success against them. The ground realities speak oppositely. According to a Congressional Research Service report released recent, a total of 2,262 Afghan civilians died last year in the Afghan violence.
That shows a decrease as compared to 2010 figures according to which 2,777 civilians lost their lives. Nonetheless, killing of that number of innocent people is still a great failure for Afghan government and the NATO. The United Nations has also disagreed with NATO assessments, saying in September that the number of security incidents was up 39 percent on the first eight months of 2010, while ISAF said they were down two percent.
Experience in the last ten years establishes the fact that military success against militants in their strongholds has been fragile. The Taliban fighters escape instead of fighting the NATO and Afghan soldiers but do return to their areas as soon as the pressure reduces.
Also, the ten year fight against insurgency has borne no sweet fruits for both Afghanistan and the US. The US has now turned its attention towards getting rid of Afghan war by starting the negotiation process with Taliban. This is a clear indication of failure. The current NATO report claiming 2011 as a successful year in Afghanistan is only good on papers.
As we move ahead concerns increase further. There are serious doubts over the capability of Afghan security forces to stand against Taliban fighters in many provinces of Afghanistan in the absence of NATO troops. As international forces are set to withdraw by the end 2014, worries over regaining of power by Taliban multiply among Afghans. And that fact cannot be denied by self-praising reports.