Smoke and Fireworks

The recently-concluded Bonn Conference on Afghanistan, convened on the tenth anniversary of the first Bonn Conference that paved the way for a post-Taliban Afghanistan, can be described as a terrible diplomatic charade that has fooled no one. The ISAF mission is in trouble, Karzai cannot take control on his own and the fundamental question of neutrality is yet to be settled.

The Conference saw delegates from over 100 countries, including Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his American counterpart Hillary Clinton, discuss the future of the South Asian country. However, the absence of any Taliban representative and Pakistan proved to be the greatest hurdles, ones that eventually led to failure.

The truth is that the future of Afghanistan is still being decided by foreign powers who would like nothing more than to influence the country to their side. The history of the nation - often described as the graveyard of empires, after a book of the same name - proves conclusively that external interference has been its bane for centuries. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this was the Taliban takeover, which was akin to a Pakistani conquest of Afghanistan.

Despite this knowledge, the Bonn Conference still kept up a charade about Afghanistan's future. Has there been any agreement on regional cooperation? Has any country vowed not to use Afghanistan to further its own ambitions? Far from it, the Americans have begun to discuss a permanent military presence in the country!

Ultimately, the future of Afghanistan will have to be decided by the Afghan people themselves without any external interference in its affairs. Till this chimaera is reached, such worthless conferences such as the one in Bonn are best avoided.