Afghanistan, a land that draws the mind to unparalleled scenic beauty yet gory and graphic violence. It is the heaven that has fallen and has been shaken to the core, with the inconsiderate and mindless violence, perpetrated over the innocent Afghan people, for well over a century.
Afghanistan is a story of resistance and persistence, heroism and cowardice, but it is certainly not a story of liberation and freedom. Many doomsayers and many utopians, according to their narrative and beliefs, have predicted various conclusions to the end-game situation in Afghanistan.
But far from conclusion and end-game, Afghanistan seems to have been stuck in a cycle of storms of upheavals and occasional breezes of tranquillity. Currently, the world is presenting another window of optimism for Afghanistan, as the US ends its longest war, in Afghanistan, but the question is, that is this the final shot for Afghanistan to break the cycle and move on a track of emancipation.
The History of War and Conflict in Afghanistan
The history of war and turmoil is rooted way deeper in Afghanistan, than the two-decade war led by American and Western powers, which is supposedly coming to an end. The Soviet Union also led one of the largest forces against Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989.
So, war and turmoil is not something new for the land of Afghanistan, it has seen horrors of the war, where violence has been raging with impunity, deceit and with absolute cold-heartedness. The war which started in 2001, has seen many powers get involved and swirled into a never-ending conflict, trying to find a logical end to the issue.
The initial objective was to eradicate the Taliban from Afghani soil, following the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, and to stop Al-Qaeda from spreading its roots in the region. Even after the completion of the objectives, with which they started the campaign, they could not leave Afghanistan, resulting in one of the most brutal and deadly conflicts in human history.
How Grim Has Been the Situation in Afghanistan?
2,41,000 lives have been lost to the war. The actual severity of this campaign, in Afghanistan, can be estimated by just this figure.
The war has claimed the lives of civilians, army personnel and opposition fighters. But the sheer cruelty of the war does not end here, the war has also ravaged the lives of the most vulnerable, Afghanistan remains to be the worst region, for women and children.
The war has eaten away the lives of 3,219 women and 7,792 children. These children never had any role in the war, neither did they invite anyone to fight for some alienated cause, yet they were victims of the monstrosity that the conflict has created in the region.
Even though no price can be ascertained for the loss the people of Afghanistan have gone through, it can not be denied that the war has cost the world big money. The US continues to pay for the war, with an accumulated bill of $2.26 trillion.
Just imagine, how much this money could have helped the common Afghan people, to live a better and more peaceful life.
The Bigger Picture and the Healing Process
But beyond these cold numbers and statistics, lies stories of a lifetime, generations of a lifetime wasted, in fear and despair, in utter lack of hope, surviving a war which was never their own. For dreams are the actual victim of violence, and too many dreams have been crushed and swallowed by the war in Afghanistan.
No one accounts for the shattered dream of a mother of not being able to send her daughter to school, for the only school in the neighbourhood was bombed last year, no one accounts for the shattered dream of a son of not being able to find a medical treatment his father so dearly needs, for there is no functional hospital nearby.
These dreams, which were never meant to be fulfilled, tell the true expanse of pain the war has brought to the people of Afghanistan. It is the price they have paid, for which can be no compensation, only sorrow. The war is indeed coming to an end, a conclusive end which might, hopefully, hold this time.
But just the end of the shootings and an arm rebellion can not be, and should not be, considered an end in itself, but a milestone on the path of actual recovery. It is the complete healing of the Afghan society, which is needed, and which will take time.
It is a wound that has been scratched and re-scratched over many times, over many years. Today, the Afghan people are again hoping that things might change for the better, for them now. The onus is on us, the entire global community, to not, yet again, fail them, because such a fatality will now be beyond tolerance for the many dreams who are now, cautiously and slowly, aspiring to bloom. Let them bloom!
Written by - Piyush Pandey
Edited by - Adrija Saha
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