The Afghan-War and Power

Its been 96 months since the Afghan War began. The situation hasn't changed much since 2001. Osama Bin Laden is still at large. Afghanistan's situation -as a country- has pathetically deteriorated. Its become more of a ruin. And the best part: the objective behind destroying this land was to destroy certain extremist groups that had been blossoming in it. Far from the goal, even after 8 years of war, these groups are more than surviving. They run on the principle of "In this world there's enough poverty and frustration and anger and passion. There will never be a shortage of martyrs"


As the CIA boss Edward Hoffman (Russell Crowe) very rightly suggests in the Body of Lies, "It is a fallacy that prolonged war will weaken an occupied enemy. It most likely will make your enemy stronger". Nothing better can describe the situation in the middle-eastern war-torn countries. 

Not only America, but all the NATO allies are in such a position where their accelerator is on full throttle, their brakes don't work, and deceleration is not possible cause the enemies of the world -the terrorists- are advancing from the opposite side, are in full throttle too, they don't have the concept of brakes (only acceleration and death), and are ready to Die. A complete catch-22. 


It is not even possible for the NATO allies to Rio-hedge themselves. For if they lift their hands off the enemy  for even a second, the enemy will hit back so hard as to rock the entire world apart. 
So how do we, as peace-lovers, come out of this bizarre unavoidable quagmire? If I knew the answer, well, President Barack Obama would have me on his cabinet. 
There is not point fussing over why back-stabbing cultured politicians initiated such mass-destruction only to catch one Bin Laden (who still hasn't been caught). Even if Mr. Osama would have been executed, someone else would have been passed the baton. And it is a lesser known truth, that the Taliban was the brain-child of the US so as to counter Russian invasion of Afghanistan. So, fundamentally, our policies have been faulty right from the beginning. We are facing the 'tat' of the tit-for-tat principle.


Jumping on to another paradigm, what is the root cause of all this troublesome unrest? Religion? The very fact that 98% of all religions preach the same principles... and us wanting to kill each other on the pretext of the remaining 2% is not digestible. All this turmoil might be blamed on religious differences... but the fact of the matter is that, doesn't it all boil down to the expanse in our population? Separatism exists because it is impossible for all the 6billion+ of us to be under one roof. With the millions of factions existing within our human race, there is a tussle for supreme power. The mantle of which, is now held by America. Everyone wants to be the supreme force. Be it Russia, China, Iran, India or the Jihadis. This had been a constant throughout history. First, it was-mythologically- the  Indians, then the Romans and Greeks, then the English, and now the Americans.


As Sun Tzu remarks in his The Art of War... To win without fighting is best. Only if Former President George Bush had considered his advice... Which is what I like about President Obama's peace-keeping strategy. He is letting the world know, that America wants to make friends. America is a peace-loving nation. He wants to diametrically change the faulty policies which are at the moment, being unsuccessfully implemented. 


What is done is done. What will result from our past deeds, will happen. However, to avoid future unrest... the population levels have to be curbed. With so many people on the planet (so many people, which nature cannot cater to), and resources becoming scarce by the hour... we're looking at a very dark future. Already, there are predictions saying that due to the shortage of drinking water, we will have to face the wrath of a World War III. 


In every way, I respect America as much as I love my own country. They have held the mantle of success and power for the whole century (which is very credible, considering the population burst ever since the 1930s.)
But I haven't any answer of my own to the resolve the clash between the Westerners and the infidel-loathers, and since every other country looks at only fruitful results for itself, therefore nurturing vested interests, there is no solutions that can be formed where the entire world unites against terrorism.


If the forces are pulled out of the troubled regions, there will be terroristic havoc across the planet. And the aggression continues, more troops will lose their lives. Tax-payer money in the billions would be wasted, which could have been used for greater causes such as population-control drives, or battling the menaces of poverty and so on...


RIP all those who've sacrificed their blood during the last 8 years. RIP all those who've lost their lives due to the extremist-aggression. 
We'll need a real stroke of brilliance, a one-in-a-trillion coupe to be pulled off by the NATO policy-makers to come out of this mess.