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Fighting terrorism together
Published: 30 July, 2009, 20:49
Edited: 04 January, 2010, 13:43
“A symbol of trust” – that is what Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dubbed his meeting with the leaders of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan during a visit to the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
The only way to solve the problem of narcotics trafficking and the related criminal/terrorist activity, is to work regionally. Only countries of the region know how the drugs are produced, processed, and transported accross the region. And only these countries know for sure, what happens to the money earned by drug traficking. It is sometimes comical to hear the discussions between Russia and Tajikistan about a military base. As if Russia and Tajikistan are not already allies in CSTO and SCO. CSTO alone should have intensified joint efforts to shore up the vulnerable Central Asian countries against the traffickers whose money corrupts politicians and buys the loyalty of militants of every stripe, along with the abundance of arms. CSTO seems to be late in coming with a clear voice. And a clear concerns. Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgizstan should love their children a bit more, and love the peace a bit more. For if they do not act in unisone, they will pay heavy toll in thousands upon thousands of youth being radicalized Pakistani style, and will share the fate of Afghanistan. What seems to be the real curse, is the tendency of some elites in the area to try to sit on as many chairs as they can. They are LOOSING OUT OF SIGHT what will happen to their countries, as they play these games. Russia has done the best it can. It has provided US with all the support it needs, and those that are banking on bad US/Russia relationships to promote their own interests, cannot win. When they cannot be even a fair weather friends, what will happen in real crisis? It is good to see the regional gathering. The concern that I feel is that Uzbekistan is not doing enough to protect the future of its population, especially youth. Tajikistan cannot alone be on the front-line, while other Afghanistan's neighbours close eyes to the drug traffickers.
I really dont think anyone knows where this road is going to take us. A fight against terrorism, is a fight Russia is involved in on a daily basis. It needs to do it, so I reckon that's logically why we are engaging more, so the big issue is what about the approach, what about the timing. Well we do see a different approach, we see the word trust, and we see the regionality of the 'coalition'. There must be some plan we have, so what is it, is it the local approach, try to talk the same language to the less militant goups, whilst at the same time trying to bring some improvement and wealth to Afghanistan. Is it the Chechnya model of fight hard, build diplomatic bridges and raise the living standards of the people. What about timing and outside players, are we going in too early, too late, just about right. Well the war isn't possible to win militarily, and we are good pragmatic negotiators, and it is dragging on a bit, and most people do want to live in peace, so maybe the timing isn't so bad. But what about outside players like NATO and the US. I am sure we would want to keep them suffereing as much as possible, so how do we do this. maybe we will go for a slow process, one of us being the carrot and the US and NATO the stick. This would keep them suffereing, whilst developing our standing, so could be a good approach. We could probaly be happy trading off less western suffering, for more regional influence. But who knows the real plan! As long as we can somehow reduce terrorism around the world, I am happy.