Nine long years down the road the US and Nato troops have not been able to apprehend Osama bin Laden, killing instead thousands of innocent tribals through deadly drone attacks, who meant no harm to the world. Surges of US troops so far have gained no success as it remained unable to fulfil the war objectives.
I would like to endorse the sentiments of Bob Baer, a former CIA official as he calls this "an insane war" in which the US itself is indirectly funding the Taliban by paying them heavy duties and taxes on the transportation of the US and Nato supplies to Afghanistan.
The Taliban are not merely a physical force that threatens anything that comes its way, but an idea, and ideas, it has to be noted, cannot be killed by drones, fighter jets and all the surges in the world. For an idea or philosophy to become dysfunctional, political, economic and social factors will have to take precedence. A popular government, equality, justice and opportunities can help fight this menace more effectively and go a long way to create peace in the region that not even the capture of Bin Laden can achieve.
That everyone wants the US out of Afghanistan is evident as the security situation seems to be getting much worse by the day. It is time the US realised that it has failed to fulfil the objectives of the war with all the strategies becoming fruitless in bringing peace to the region.
Since decades, wars have been fought to bring peace such as the World War I was the 'war to end all wars' and to bring democracy but instead generated fascism and communism while the World War II had aimed to bring harmony among nations by introducing a 'permanent structure of peace', but produced a truly global Cold War. Let's hope that this time the global war on terror does not unleash something even more horrible than the religious fundamentalists and extremists that it aim to destroy.