For decades, Pakistanis have been told that Afghanistan is a “brotherly Islamic country” with cultural and people-to-people ties with Pakistan. For decades, Pakistan has also consistently faced long and short waves of terrorism and crimes, a good proportion of which have been traced to Afghanistan.
We have a phrase at CommandEleven – be a victim or a volunteer. A victim is someone who fights to the end. A volunteer submits.
Which one were you?
Saudi Arabia, in a first move to pressure mostly Muslim states to join its campaign against Qatar, has persuaded six sub-Saharan African nations with threats of reduced financial aid and restricted quotas for the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, to follow its lead in taking punitive steps against Qatar.
Buried in the Gulf crisis are two major developments likely to shape future international relations as well as power dynamics in the Middle East: the coming out of small states capable of punching far above their weight with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, a driver of the crisis, battling it out; and a carefully managed rivalry between the UAE and Saudi Arabia that has weakened the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and aggravated suffering in war-wracked Yemen.
Saudi King Salman’s appointment of his son, Mohammed bin Salman, as crown prince at the expense of his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, could prove to be a mixed blessing for a kingdom in transition that faces significant international challenges of its own making.
A two-week old conflict in the Gulf goes to the core of key issues in international relations that hamper the fight against political violence and govern diplomatic relations: the absence of an agreed definition of terrorism that allows autocrats to abuse efforts to counter extremism by repressing non-violent critics and the ability of small states to chart their own course and punch above their weight.
Some people are of the opinion that India and Pakistan could have better relations, and that it is Pakistan who causes acrimony, with the Establishment specifically to blame. They qualify their argument by accusing the Establishment of creating an artificial situation so as to justify a huge defense budget, pay and allowances and perks.
The stakes for both sides of the Gulf divide could not be higher. Saudi Arabia and the UAE cannot afford to fail in their effort to force Qatar’s hand after leading several Arab and non-Arab states in a rupture of diplomatic relations and declaring an economic boycott that also targets Qatar’s food supplies.
Cracks have appeared in a Saudi-led, US-backed anti-terrorist political and military alliance days after US President Donald J. Trump ended a historic visit to Saudi Arabia. The cracks stem from Qatar’s long-standing fundamental policy differences with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about Iran and the role of political Islam.
Following the 9/11 incident in 2001, US and its allied forces invaded Afghanistan in a bid to eliminate Al-Qaida and Taliban, their safe-heavens and free the country from their “oppression.” Apart from providing billons of aids for reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, the United States have spent $70 billion thus far to build 350,000 strong Afghan National Army and Police to fight against terrorism and provide better security to the people.
