NATO Forces Responsible for Events in Afghanistan

NATO and extra-regional forces have announced that they will postpone the program of training newly-employed police forces in Afghanistan. A collective of events has caused NATO forces in this country to make such a decision. As usual, international forces have declared that the Taliban are the main cause of such events. But it must be said that the incidents that have, hitherto, occurred in this regard have not been correctly analyzed so that the reason behind them could be understood. It is often said that radical forces in Afghanistan are responsible for these incidents, but no file has been studied in this regard and no conclusion could be made. But, based on recent events and news, it can be said that these incidents are the result of the non-action of international forces in Afghan affairs. During the past few days, extra-regional forces have stated that they will stop the military training of part of the military forces in Afghanistan. The collection of events which led to such a decision by the extra-regional forces in Afghanistan, are due, according to Afghan experts, to the behavior of NATO and extra-regional soldiers.

A quick look at the past shows that, what happened in Bagram, where volumes of the Qur’an were burnt by foreign soldiers in the Bagram air base, near Kabul, which led to the demonstration of hundreds of people in front of this base, or the incident in Helmand, where soldiers attacked safe houses of people at night with no reason and during which several innocent people, including women and children, were killed, caused people's negative reactions in Afghanistan. During the ten years of the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan, the behavior of these foreign forces have been indicative of incompatibility with the people of this country and insulting their beliefs and thoughts. This issue has caused a reaction by the army or police forces of Afghanistan against foreign forces, leading to an increase in so-called attacks of the green against the blue. The green attacks against the blue have resulted in the death of at least 45 foreign soldiers during the past year. As long as the military and extra-regional forces in Afghanistan do not treat the people of this country with respect and according to their culture, the world will be witness to such incidents.

But there is doubt about the impact of stopping the training program of Afghan forces by the extra-regional forces on the present situation of Afghanistan. What the people of the region and Afghanistan have, so far, seen is that, after ten years, the security situation in Afghanistan has not yet reached the minimum security level. Therefore, stopping or delaying the training of the police and the army does not seem to be an important event in the collection of events in this country. 

On the other hand, the extraordinary attention of foreign media on this issue can be considered as a lack of correct evaluation of the trend of developments in Afghanistan or intentional exaggeration of this issue to demand higher prices for it. 

In the end, it seems that, with the experience of Jihad against the former Soviet Union, and with more than three decades of resistance against radicalism, Afghanistan has the ability to meet its military training needs. If, of course, the international community and regional countries act upon the commitments that they pledged in the Bonn Conference ten years ago, the situation in this country will be better. The halt of military training in itself will not impact the trend of developments in Afghanistan, if the international community fulfills its commitments with regard to the security and development and the level of effectiveness of the regime reaches an acceptable level.