by Eugene Walker

Days before the “war of choice” that Netanyahu and Trump launched against Iran, the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan began their own. The 1,600-mile border between the two has been violated repeatedly. The overwhelmingly more powerful Pakistani military sent its jet fighters to bomb Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. The outgunned Taliban is launching drones into Pakistan territory as well as making cross-border raids. It has long sponsored the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistan Taliban, which crosses into Pakistan attacking security forces and civilians. In the latest outrage, Pakistan bombed a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, killing over 140 citizens.

HISTORY OF TENSIONS BETWEEN TWO COUNTRIES

To understand this latest outbreak of death and destruction, we need to mention some of the complex history of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations:

• There have been tensions and numerous incidents since the fundamentalist Taliban returned to power in 2021, forcing the U.S. to abandon the country after two decades of an occupying war that killed thousands.
  
• Earlier, the Pakistan military had supported the Taliban during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, providing shelter for its leadership and weapons for the insurgency.
  
• Over decades, millions of Afghans fled insecurity and unemployment in their home country and sought shelter and work in Pakistan. Most recently, however, Pakistan has expelled Afghans by the hundreds of thousands. Iran has also been forcing Afghans to leave this past year.

Two other historical factors should also be noted:

The Durand Line arbitrarily divided Afghanistan from what is now Pakistan. Map: USAID, public domain

• The divisive effects of colonialism. The Pashtun tribal region that Britain controlled was arbitrarily divided via the Durand Line in 1893, dividing Afghanistan from what is now Pakistan. Colonialism/imperialism has left many unhealed wounds in the region.
  
• Religious Fundamentalism. After the USSR’s December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan to prop up its government, the U.S. supported various opposition groups, who were religious fundamentalists, supplying them—through intermediaries—with weaponry. The Taliban, with its imposed slavery of women, is one branch of that fundamentalism. Pakistan, where oppression of women and demonization of feminism are pervasive, has developed its share of religious fanaticism too. The fundamentalist militias in Afghanistan were also supported by Pakistan, China, the UK, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and some other Gulf Arab states.

The Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions and now open bloodshed are mostly being ignored by regional as well as world powers, especially because of the war on Iran, which borders both countries. At the same time, when other powers do enter, it is most often with the intent of manipulation in one direction or another. Only the uprooting of capitalist power relations and religious fundamentalism will allow the peoples of the region to work out their own future.