And so the proxy war continues with a different cast. India is working on hearts and minds, opening consulates and providing over $750 million in infrastructure and training support, while Pakistan is trying to bridge the hostility existing since the Afghan and Pakistan governments ended up on different sides. Now, 15 years later, the battle over influence in Afghanistan has not stopped. When Soviet forces pulled out in 1989, Pakistan continued to support the rebels India supported the forces that years later became the North Alliance. Pakistan and its intelligence service became the middleman between the United States and the mujahedeen (later to form the Taliban). India stood by the Soviet Union as it quietly did in many other areas. There were no winners.Īmerica and the Soviet Union brought two other neighbors into that Cold War fight: Pakistan and India. One could argue that America was the winner in that battle (the Soviet Union and Afghanistan certainly weren't), except that US actions then created the threat from the Taliban today. In the 1980 s and early 1990 s, Afghanistan was a proxy battleground for the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The focus should be on the Afghanistan-Pakistan-India triangle. There's talk about the U S -Pakistan-Afghanistan tripartite, but it's the wrong one. Is it the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence that is pulling the strings? Is President Karzai powerless, or is he boosting the warlords, or is he a puppet for Americans, or all three? The blame is widespread.īut a large part of the problem is being missed. NATO isn't stepping up to the plate, or is it the Germans, or the French people. America didn't do enough or did too much. The Pakistanis are to blame no, the Afghans no, the United States. THE PAPERS ARE full of the slow demise of Afghanistan.
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