Vanishing hope for peace

The search for peace and stability in the troubled region comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and the surrounding areas where life would be secure and the future predictable to a reasonable measure has been taxing the most penetrating minds in the world for quite some time without their having a clue how to find a way out of the current turbulent situation.

While the Taliban government's refusal in 2001 to hand over Al-Qaeda leaders to the Americans provoked them to launch an attack on Afghanistan, it also afforded them a historic opportunity to pursue their cherished imperialist designs in the region: to have easy access to Central Asia via Indian Ocean (Gwadar), Pakistan's tribal area and Afghanistan to counter the Chinese and Russian influence there.

In Afghanistan it has come up against a stone wall. Nearly seven years of the suffering of war has not dented the resolve of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to hold their ground; rather the unfolding events since the invasion - unprecedented brutality of the occupation forces, their prolonged stay in the country and the West's denigration of Islam - have lent a new strength to the Afghan resistance, which has been a major foreign policy concern of the US. It is also unhappy at important NATO allies, which are not committing their fighting forces to the war zone in Afghanistan.