Spring is a season of rebirth and renewal. It is now the springtime. Flowers and plants are beginning to sprout and grow. There is also a damned weed that starts to grow in spring and fully develops in the summer time. This is the evil force of Taliban. Instead of blossoming of hope in Afghanistan, there grow concerns about possible and usual Taliban spring offensive, which results in destruction, disruption and deaths.

This evil force has been resuming its spring offensive every year, killing and injuring innocent people, hampering reconstruction and economic development, and disrupting day-to-day lives of Afghan people. Unfortunately, President Hamid Karzai's government has not been able to grow and water the flowers of governance and service delivery properly, so the spring starts but the land is till barren.

If the flowers of good governance had been grown properly, they would have now overshadowed the weeds that come to the fore in springtime with full strength. Unfortunately, President Karzai is not a good and right gardener.

While he sees the weeds burning the flowers and other cultivated plants, he continues to insist to further water the weeds by calling them unhappy brothers as though everything in the garden is rosy. The evil forces of destruction are now in the eleventh year of their fall and overthrow but continue to carry out terrorist and insurgent attacks.

The general commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, trying to dispel the concern about usual spring offensive by the Taliban and other insurgent groups, has said that the forces under his command have done much to degrade the Taliban's capability during the winter and it will be difficult for them to reorganize for the spring season.

Allen has said, "I believe we've made it harder for them (the Taliban) to succeed in a spring offensive of their own. We need to get through this fighting season for me to fully understand that amount of combat power that we'll need in 2013."

It is good to hear this statement but the reality is that there could be a resumption of violence because of the weaknesses of the government and its inefficiency to provide services for the people who now try to find an alternative.

Corruption is a stigma that makes Karzai's government no better alternative. This is because President Karzai has allowed the weeds to grow inside his administration as well. It is time to increase pressure to weed out the evil forces of insurgents and stamp out corruption from the government.