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The United States is sending 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan. With this the total deployment would increase to over 100,000 in addition to about 45,000 NATO forces already there with another 5,000 promised.
Unveiling a new strategy on Afghanistan, President Obama, on the other hand, set an ambiguous timeframe for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. He said: "After 18 months our troops will begin to come home".
He did not set down a final exit date. The new strategy is based on mere an assumption or optimism that in ‘three years' the Afghan government will be able to stand up to the Taliban.
The past military adventures by the US - in Korea (1950-53), Vietnam (1964-73), Gulf War (1990-91), the just-ended war against Iraq (2003-09) and the ongoing war in Afghanistan that began in 2001 cost the superpower heavily. According to a news report, quoting the Defense Department and other reliable independent sources, these five adventures cost the US more than $1tr. About American casualties, it said, over 100,000 soldiers were killed while about 300,000 were injured.
In the ongoing war against terrorism in Afghanistan alone, the United States has so far spent $171bn during the past eight years. The cost, per soldier per year, has been estimated at $1m. With more reinforcement, the annual cost would shoot to $100bn.
Besides poverty and ignorance, it is the injustice that breeds crimes like extremism and terrorism. Had these breeding grounds not been allowed to take roots, the scourge of terrorism would have never emerged on the globe.
In Afghanistan, there were not even the traces of this menace prior to 9/11. The elements that planned and executed it were those who were against American policies in the Middle East. These elements moved to Afghanistan. With the US invasion of Afghanistan, some of them fled to Pakistan's tribal region. As such the epicenter of militancy has been the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
If the United States does not have ‘other plans and intentions' in this region; makes amendments to its policy vis-à-vis Palestinian's just cause; ceases its unjust support to the oppressors and withdraws, sooner than later, all its troops from Afghanistan and other regions of conflicts, there would be peace in the world. There would be no smoke, if there is no fire.
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