Operation: Enduring Freedom - Or, Ten Years On! Poem by NAYYAR SHABBIR AHMAD

They thought
(Mainly the US and the Brits)
That it would be a snip
‘
to nip into Afghanistan
Capture Osama Bin Laden
Then, nip out again'

Whola!
Barely a pistol fired
What could be simpler?

Good strategy?
Yes
Except...

Now, ten years later
The US, NATO and their allies
Are bogged down
In an unwinable war
Which has lasteddd longer
Than Americas involvement in Vietnam

Death, misery,
Injury and hardship abound
And, the West now accepts

It rushed into Afghanistan
With too simplistic a view
And little or no knowledge of its
history, culture or geography
For instance
They had no idea
That the tribes they intended to subjugate
along the Boarders of Afghanistan
were related to those living inside
Pakistan
T\hey could not enter the territory
of a Sovereign Country

Consequently
Kabul and Washington
conveniently blame Pakistan
for ALL their shortcomings

The hard fact is this
The ordinary Afghani
Hadn't a clue what 9/11/ was

When they suddenly saw
Foreign boots on their soil
They saw red

They went out and joined
Either al-Qaeda, The Taliban.
Or a variety of insurgents

Ever since then - foreign troops
Have found it next to impossible
To tell, who is who

As a result
Many innocents have died
Several militants have crossed the border
Into Pakistan
And, just as many insurgents have crossed over
Into Afghanistan

And, what made matters worse
The US and its Allies lost the plot
Rushed off to war in Iraq in 2003
Leaving some hated local Warlords
in charge

B\y the time they returned to Afghanistan
They had lost their place
And had to start all over again