Monitoring Desk: India is the equal loser of the Fall of Kabul, indicates Indian writer Sunil Sharan in his article titled “The lonesomeness of defeat”.
Sunil writes that Afghanistan has been a debacle for the Americans, but no less so for the Indians.
The Indians trained officers of the Afghan National Army, who all chose to melt away as the Taliban took Kabul in 11 hours flat. What kind of training did our military academies provide the Afghan officers? It must be the same as being provided to their Indian counterparts.” Write Sunil.
He writes:
Since 1991, the Indian power elite have become fascinated by America. Thy, meaning the American, wish is my command, they feel. The Indians trained officers of the Afghan National Army, who all chose to melt away as the Taliban took Kabul in 11 hours flat. What kind of training did our military academies provide the Afghan officers? It must be the same as being provided to their Indian counterparts. Should we not examine what went wrong with the Afghan officers?
Pakistan has now emerged from a failing state to an emerging midtier state. Our power elite abandoned our ties with Russia. Yes, we would buy the odd missile system, but that would be it. The Russians started supplying arms to their former bête noire, Pakistan. We got complacent. Who needed the Russians when we had the Americans? America was facing defeat after defeat, yet we couldn’t care less.
The Americans had humiliated the Russians in Afghanistan. Now it was the turn of the Russians to return the favour. And they found a kindred spirit in Pakistan. Whenever Moscow would hold Afghan talks, the Pakistanis would force them to marginalize us, which the Russians readily obliged. The lone superpower of the world has fled, Pakistan is an emerging power, and Russia is a world power. What about the emerging superpower, China? China is exultant about the defeat of its rival, America.
It is unhappy with India for its stance on the Quad, and through Afghanistan and Pakistan, will attempt to squeeze India. India was an emerging world power, but after defeat in Afghanistan and willy-nilly opening two fronts against China and Pakistan, may not remain so. Most of the time it is iron-brother China that bails out Pakistan.
Afghanistan has been a debacle for the Americans, but no less so for the Indians. Until the last minute, we were supporting the puppet regime of Ashraf Ghani. We made only feeble attempts to talk to the Taliban. In 20 years of warfare there, why didn’t it occur to us to distance ourselves from the Americans, and perhaps act as good-faith intermediaries between the Taliban and the Americans? South Block is busy saying that it is prepared for any eventuality. But that is the language of losers.
There have been two losers in the Afghan war, America and India. One has quit the region, perhaps forever. We are the other loser, left holding the can. Even if we don’t have a Napoleon, where are our Guderians, Rommels and MacArthurs? If our military academies are not producing them, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.
