Imran Malik: Bon Voyage, America!!

The Chicago Summit sealed the withdrawal plan of the US/NATO/ISAF from Afghanistan. Although all present there tried to put up a very brave face, yet it was obvious to all and sundry that the US/NATO/ISAF combine was leaving the Afghan Theater of War, but hardly as victors! Victors in war have a different body language and a certain spring in their gait. None was apparent in Chicago and least of all among Americans. They appeared to be embittered, frustrated, irritated, agitated, angry, fuming, writhing in some sort of internal agony. It came across as the pain of defeat, of failure. They seemed to be in too big a hurry to bring this colossal misadventure to a close. ASAP. Anyone, read Pakistan, who was not playing ball or helping an orderly retreat from the region was unceremoniously and summarily snubbed and sidelined! The Afghan campaign has been a resounding failure for the US and its coterie of submissive allies. Its failure has been epitomized by not only whittling down of the Afghan campaign's strategic aims and objectives but also by an unseemly desire to egress from the region. The failures of this sorry Afghan campaign are multifaceted: Geopolitical Failure: By occupying the Central position in the region, the US had intended to contain China, sit at the under-belly of the Central Asian Republics and by implication Russia's, and deny them all an approach to oil rich Iran, the ME, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. By its departure by 2014, these grand objectives will go even further beyond reach: The US has also failed to install India as its regional plenipotentiary in Afghanistan!