Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Political Harmony must to Taliban

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Political Harmony must to Taliban

The current season of war against the Taliban is a major test of survival and sustainability for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The Taliban are waging its fiercest war ever to gain major successes on the ground and capture key territories across the country. The government has come to the realization that it has no other option but to escalate the war against the Taliban in response to the group’s recent resurgence. The government has long been criticized for lacking political will to fight the Taliban more decisively. But lack of political harmony and unity of action within the government seemed to be the major factor behind the government’s failure to lead a robust campaign against the Taliban and other militant groups. Recognizing the situation, the government has been trying to rally support behind ANSF fighting the Taliban.
In the very first days its spring offensive, the Taliban organized large-scale attack on key districts of Kunduz province, and later carried out a deadly attack in Kabul which killed more than seventy people. The attack in Kabul indicated Taliban’s ability to orchestrate deadly attacks despite all preparations made by ANSF to prevent the militants from making any gains in this war season. The attack indicated the determination of the Taliban for waging war in expense of peace efforts. It virtually doomed the hopes for Taliban coming to the table of peace negotiations with the government of Afghanistan. The deadly bombing in Kabul came as a wake-up call for the National Unity Government (NUG) to respond to Taliban’s escalation of violence and escalate the campaign against the militant group.
President Ghani’s speech at the parliamentary session was largely welcomed by lawmakers and politicians who were expecting the government to take stronger stance against the Taliban’s call for war and violence. Many of the lawmakers in the parliament and some other politicians praised the government’s move in toughening stance against the militants and its pledge to organize far-reaching offensive against them. The Afghan media also broadly welcomed the change of tone and shift of policy of the government against Taliban. All this suggested there is a broader public expectation from the government to overcome differences and hesitation in escalating the war against the Taliban and lead a stronger counterinsurgency campaign. The government has come to the right realization that in order to contain the Taliban’s fresh resurgence, it is crucially important to rally political support behind ANSF.
However, the rallying call aimed at garnering political support behind stronger military action against the Taliban is not sufficient for the Afghan government to effectively lead the war and contain the Taliban’s resurgence. NUG needs to work on a comprehensive policy on security issues and the anti-insurgency campaign backed up by all the stakeholders of the government. Divisions within the government have always been hampering the government’s efforts to maintain security. Politicians and observers believe there have been circles within the government who have sympathies to the Taliban and oppose government’s move to escalate war against the Taliban with the hope the group would come to table of peace negotiations.
Unity of opinion and action within the government is key for success of the government to lead a robust military campaign against the militants. If NUG leaders really want to lead to robust campaign against the Taliban, they should isolate pro-Taliban figures and circles and cut their influence in the decision-making matters. The government would not be able to maintain firm resolve in fighting the Taliban if the decision making processes are undermined by officials who have sympathies towards the Taliban and hope they will denounce violence and come to the table of negotiation.
On the other hand, Afghanistan’s political community is highly polarized over power-sharing issues, shortcomings of the unity government, personal politics-related grudges and other discontents. This would inevitably affect the overall situation in the country. President Ghani’s recent speech in the parliamentary joint session was the first step towards garnering the crucial support from the country’s political spectrum for leading a more robust campaign against the militant groups. The government needs to make it a priority to establish a broader national consensus for backing government efforts to stabilize the country and contain the Taliban insurgency.
More political cohesion in the country will help the government to effectively lead the campaign against the Taliban and boost public support behind the offensive. For promoting political cohesion around the anti-insurgency efforts, the government must be more transparent over its approach towards the Taliban and consult the political parties and the parliament over its actions. However, the national unity government has still its Achill’s heel from inside. It has been criticized as ineffective and incompetent as result of protracted divisions over power-sharing issues and failure to form a well functional administration. NUG needs to continue building on the current public and political support.
When it comes to leadership of war, perhaps the most important point of weakness for the Afghan National Security Forces’ campaign against the militants is lack of leadership. NUG failed to resolve the issue of nominating the top officials for the key security agencies. President Ghani promised in his speech in the parliament he will soon nominate the minister for the ministry of defense to boost the leadership of ANSF. However, there is still room for pessimisms over his ability to keep his promise resolve the issue. The government needs to waste no time if it wants to fix the faulty leadership of the security agencies at this crucial juncture of time.

Abdul Ahad Bahrami is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at ahad.bahrami@gmail.com

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