Afghanistan is America's longest war and commenced in 2002, during the time George Bush was president. The US attack led to the ouster of the Taliban regime but the US at that time did not go after the terrorist organization with a single-minded aim of destroying the terror group. Top leadés of the Taliban and terrorists like Osama Bin Laden were given a safe haven in Pakistan and the government and the ISI, the covert intelligence arm of the army, began a systematic arming and support of one faction of the Taliban referred to as the Haqqani faction.
Pakistan through this faction tried to create unrest in Afghanistan as well as mount terror attacks with the aim of overthrowing the US supported government in Kabul. The news agency Reuters has reported this news.
Pakistan's role
The US government, the military, and the intelligence agencies were all aware of Pakistans involvement in Afghanistan but took practically no action. One reason for this was that many in the US administration still lived on nostalgia about the time Pakistan was an ally of the USA, in the battle against communism. Pakistan was one of the first countries in South East Asia to join the Baghdad pact, SEATO, and later CENTO.
Pakistan all these years has survived direct action by the USA and continued its support of terror groups like the Haqqani faction of the Taliban, Harkut-Al-Ansar and the Jaish-e-Mohammed.
The US has finally woken up to the Pak role after more than 2200 servicemen have been killed and almost 50 percent of the 407 districts are under the control of the Taliban.
Trump acts
President Trump is now likely to chart a new course of action in Afghanistan and evaluating the role of Pakistan in supporting terrorist organizations.
Aid to Pak will be linked to the action taken by it in controlling terrorism. Drone attacks will be mounted inside Pakistan till it falls in line with US policy on Afghanistan. The government of President Ghani has for years been blaming Pakistan as the destabilizing factor in Afghanistan. Pakistan through its terror organizations also mounted terror attacks in Mumbai and Pathankot.
This has not been lost on Trump and organizations like the JKLF and Jaish-e-Mohammed have been declared as terrorist organizations. The US has also declared Ammanullah Khan the JKLF leader as an "international terrorist."
Donald Trump's change of priority and bringing Pakistan to heel is a significant change in US policy in the battle in Afghanistan and may well herald a new turn of events in favor of the USA.
