Only 10 percent of the people of Afghanistan support the Taliban, while between 80 to 90 percent wish the Unites States to retain its presence in the country, a meeting on Afghanistan was told on Tuesday.Peter Bergen, CNNÂ’s terrorism expert who has made frequent visits to the region, said that Afghans were generally optimistic about the future, despite many problems. He was of the view that the eight percent economic growth rate in the country is linked to the opium and drug trade. He found it mystifying that no one has so far made an attempt to identify who the drug barons are. It is time they are identified and exposed. He said much of the funding of the Taliban is being derived from drugs.
He also found that the amnesty programme for the Taliban has been a success. Quoting western military officials in Afghanistan, he said Mullah Omar is in Quetta. In 2006, precise information as to his whereabouts was allegedly provided to the Pakistani authorities but no action was taken. Right now, he added, a regional war is going on in the area. The Taliban and Al Qaeda appear to have joined hands, while Pakistan is suffering from the blowback effect of its past support of militant forces.
Report misquoted: Christine Fair, who recently spent four months in Afghanistan on a UN assignment, and who produced a report on suicide bombing, told the meeting held at the Heritage Foundation that out of the 130-page report that she wrote, the media has just picked up one bit, namely that 80 percent of the suicide bombers in Afghanistan came from Pakistan. That she later clarified was one opinion that she had heard and quoted. She said there is no basis, in the absence of proper data, to call the suicide bombers Pakistanis. She said she had met a failed suicide bomber who was from Sukkur, Sindh. Afghan investigations of these attacks were inadequate, she pointed out. Speaking about what has been called the “cult of martyrdom,” she said she had found no evidence of the cult in Afghanistan. She said it is only a small percentage of Afghans and Pakistanis that supports suicide bombings. She said in Waziristan, the Taliban are forcibly recruiting young boys for jihad. According to her, air strikes are not working and have only produced civilian casualties.
Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation pointed out that US military and economic efforts in Afghanistan need to be better coordinated. She said there has been reluctance on the part of Pakistan to go after extremist forces. The government has been holding back on operations in tribal areas because it is concerned about provoking a backlash in the army, which is 30 percent Pashtun. Despite the threat that Pakistan faces internally from extremism, as proved by the Lal Masjid episode, the government remains ambivalent. She said it should also be appreciated that Pakistan fears “encirclement” by India in the east and Afghanistan in the northwest. Pakistan is also afraid that once the crisis in the region is over, the US will quit, as it has done in the past after the ouster of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. She pointed out that in Pakistan, political leaders have failed to take a public position on the Taliban or on the issue of religious radicalism. Not much effort has been made to convince the public either about the danger that Pakistan faces because of terrorism and religious extremism. She said not all madrassas were jihadi nurseries but those that are must be closed down. She was also of the view that Washington should make it clear to Kabul that the Taliban should have no place in an Afghan government.