Fixing Afghanistan by Twitter

AN indiscriminate tweeter US President Donald Trump met his social media match in Pakistan PM Imran Khan. Trump’s rant accusing Pakistan of taking ‘our money and doing nothing for us’ was quickly put to sword by Imran Khan who pointed out that even when no Pakistani was involved in the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan participated in the US War on Terror. It suffered 75,000 casualties and lost over $123 billion while US ‘aid’ was a miniscule $20 billion. Wanting to know if Trump can name another ally that gave such sacrifices, Imran felt the US should not play the blame game, and instead, seriously introspect why the Taliban was on the top despite 14,000 NATO troops and 2.5 lakh Afghan troops.

If the US needs introspection, Pakistan can also do with some honest soul-searching. None of those who hijacked the planes was from Pakistan but the mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was a denizen of Karachi. Apart from Osama, a long list of Taliban and Al Qaida top brass was killed or arrested in Pakistan while the Taliban imbibed its first lessons in narrow sectarianism from madarsas in Karachi and Akora Khattak. And, the resilience of the Taliban in the Afghan battlefield owes to military advice from across the border. In other words, while both countries play the victim card, the Afghan pot was kept boiling mainly because of a clash in the interests of their respective proxies.

The outcome of the Trump-Imran social media showdown has led to the US turning off the aid tap to Pakistan. But it has come at a fragile time in Afghanistan’s peace process: the Taliban has opened talks with both the Russian and American camps. Unless back channels do not work, differences at the top level will jeopardise all the preparatory work that has preceded the Qatar and Moscow talks, including a helping hand by Pakistan in releasing some top pro-talk Taliban commanders. Both Trump and Imran should be aware that if it was so easy, Afghanistan would have been fixed on social media long back.