NATO Military Operations in Afghanistan

NATO is the acronym for the words North Atlantic Treaty Organization which is also known as the North Atlantic Alliance. It is founded on the North Atlantic Treaty signed on 4^th of April 1949. It is an intergovernmental military coalition whose states involved have come in to an agreement of defending each other just in the occurrence of an external attack. It has its headquarters in Brussels (Duignan 65)

Another thing is to understand the meaning of justice. According to the Webster dictionary, justice is the implementation of the will power of rights aligning with the rule of law. It is when there is no impartiality, unfairness or favoritism. This should be implemented in all areas of life and not only be implemented but also be seen to be implemented.

NATO's function in Afghanistan is to aid the country's government in performing its duties and implementing its authority across the country. NATO accomplishes this mission through the United Nations- Mandated International Security Assistance Force which is known as ISAF in short.

When NATO was first sent to Afghanistan, it only tackled Kabul but currently, it tackles the whole of the republic. NATO's initial plan or obligation was to destroy the Al- Qaeda and Taliban. Though they were defeated and put where they belong, sporadic wars have greatly gone on for the past almost seven years.

Afghanistan like many of the Islamic countries has experienced nothing but war in a very long time. As clearly brought out, what was once supposed to bring peace and joy, has continued to deliver pain and struggles, the exact opposite, for the past couple of years. Even today, the condition has not really improved as they are still considered a danger to the world and especially the United States of America.

Every thing really became tough for the Afghanistan's after the 9/11 attack. Around 6,000 Americans lost their lives during that time but the Afghans have paid dearly for an estimation of 30,000 of the civilians have been said to have died since then. Tough measurements were put in place, interrogations, wars, torture, killings, shedding of blood all was done in the name of finding justice. Unfortunately, this has continued to be the day to day experiences of the citizens of Afghanistan and other similar countries. Therefore, this paper is going to defend that NATO military operations in Afghanistan are not justified.

A good intention gone bad

Initially, NATO operations were put in order in order to protect the other countries and mostly the Atlantic countries' enemies. The loss of innocent children, women, the older generation and other human beings is not exactly what was being anticipated. The play grounds are no longer filled with the voices of young and innocent children crying but  rather  the sounds of gunshots, cries of pain, agony, trauma just to mention but a few.

Many innocent lives have been lost in these wars as most lives that are normally lost are those of women and children. Life to these citizens becomes unbearable and thus others end up committing suicide. They are helping their fellow country men and are going to receive a big reward in their other life (Sandquist 54). 

The Muslims' religious beliefs

The Muslims religious beliefs and their strong following of the Koran has made them and is continuing to make them do some things that other religions or other people cannot probably do. The Muslims are so dedicated to their religion and their God Allah, that they are normally ready to loose their lives to please him. This something that they believe Allah is going to give them a reward for, in their other life.

Other religions like Christianity believe in almost a similar belief and that is why we have people like Martyrs who are known to die because of their faith. The difference with the Muslims is that they are ready to kill their fellow human beings (even ones mother or close family members), who are innocent, or in the name of Allah. This has led to the death of many innocent lives especially those of children. In the recent past, the number of suicide bombings has greatly increased. These people are ready to take their own lives in order to accomplish a certain goal as they believe this is a 'Holy War'. The best way to deal with such kinds of people is not to point guns at them and declare eternal war on them, but rather find another different method of coming in to agreement as an eye for an eye left everybody blind.

However, NATO seems not ready to consider such kinds of options. 1,000 losses of lives in other countries will lead to 5,000 losses of lives in Afghanistan of whom they will be mostly innocent children and women.

An eye for an eye left everybody blind

The solution for violence should not be more violence. This only leaves more and more people hurt and most of the time the innocent ones and not even the culprits. In other cases, the affected end up doing some extreme and bizarre things just in the name of bringing justice to those who are affected. For example, a misguided missile which was targeted at a Taliban showcase ended up killing fifteen innocent civilians and all this just ended up down the drain.

The thirst and yearn of having a revenge almost brings more havoc, pain, turmoil, just to mention but a few because those who end up paying are not actually the ones who did the mistake. NATO does not seat down to strike deals or make any negotiations; it throws fire in the direction it has come from. This is not justice. Paying for the loss of lives with the loss of other lives has never made the wounds heal quicker or solved any problem at one particular time because those hurt are normally hurt afresh.

If all these wars and killings were to stop at this particular time, it would take so many years to put Afghanistan back on its 'feet' in all aspects of life. It may take a whole year, to construct a building but only take a few seconds to bring down the same building to dust. As put earlier, NATO is a coalition of many countries who are ready to cover each others backs when attacked by an external enemy. This, they really accomplish, although it is advisable that they change the way they handle their defense for it might be what it causes to bring more and more attacks. When one has a headache, the do not knock their head or cut it off, but rather find some painkillers or other ways of seeking treatment and use them (Aghajanian & Blood 108).

The death of Innocent people

As mentioned earlier, many innocent lives more than the guilty ones end up paying for the mistakes that bring about all these conflicts and wars that are in Afghanistan. A child in Afghanistan can hardly be compared to a child in the U.S.A or a child in the United Kingdom. This is because this child can only go to school by taking a risk if he/she is at all lucky to go to school, with fear and uncertainty for they do not know what is going to happen next. On the other hand, the child in the U.S.A will freely go to school without a care in the world for it is not every morning that he/she meets people who are ready to sacrifice their lives just to see them dead.

These two children cannot perform the same and cannot be expected to grow in the same way. NATO in Afghanistan is not making the lives of these children any better. NATO has been in this country for almost ten years now and there has not been any improvements seen especially in the social scene. If anything, it has only become worse for one party's need to revenge for what their people are going through leads to the other party yearning for more revenge and the cycle continues living the innocent people who just pray everyday that they will wake up one morning and find that all this is over to suffer.

Extreme ways of interrogation and especially on the NATO side have said to be used to acquire information from the interrogated. This, in other words can be called torture for a lot of pain and suffering is administered to the interrogated. There are many discussions or arguments that might arise of whether the method is right or not but all in all it is sure a painful way of interrogation.

Due to some of these methods used, one can never be sure whether the interrogated is giving the information because it is the truth or just to give in because of their demands and to evade more pain. Suspects are also said to be kept in the cells before they appear before a judge, which is against the human rights. The cells they are put in are nothing short of pathetic and so all this leads from one mess to another and from injustice to another.

When one watches the every day news on our television sets, most of the news we hear about Afghanistan are about wars, killings and the amount of insecurity in that country. Afghans cannot be defended as being the best nor are just innocent victims of circumstances. They have also played a part in the happenings that go on. However, there must be another way that both parties can use to get their differences settled than to get all this innocent blood spilt for no apparent reason causing all the sadness and feat to zoom around Afghanistan's atmosphere (Clausson 65).

Who is greater than the other?

If this question was to be asked to both parties, we would probably end u p having no concrete answer. This is because each party feels that they are more superior to others in both ways. The NATO feels that they are more superior since they belong to the developed countries category. The Afghans feels they are more superior as they are able to challenge not only the developed countries but also the world as a whole.

In most cases, most parties are not ready stay to stoop a little bit low, sit down, and talk things out as people who have their countries best interest at heart and people who are bothered by the innocent shedding of blood. Each party wants to be the one talking and the other party to be the one hearing. Each country wants the other to adhere to its demand. There is no party that wants to be submissive or give the other some room for adjustments. All these things and hindrances bring what we see on our television sets that most are definitely not proud of.

In any case, war and murder or any other source of suffering inflicted on innocent people is no justice at all. Justice is only done if a person or party is suspected of a mistake then taken through the necessary and legal procedures in accordance with that particular country to ensure that justice has been done. 

As mentioned earlier, there are better ways of resolving these conflicts and wars rather than just taking away innocent lives and denying others the wonderful gift of peace that is a treasure to some and just another good thing to others. Sitting down in boardrooms and arguing until a solution is finally found is one way of ending these conflicts and this injustice done and mostly seem to affect one party (Coalition Combat).

The best way to do this is by both parties forgetting their ego and sitting down as human beings who are not proud of seeing innocent blood being shed. This might not be easy and especially with the countries that feel that they are more developed than others. Since time immemorial, talks have been used to bring solutions to many problems that face the society. What is important is that there should be willing parties to take the initiative of seeing that the talks have gone through to the end (Cordesman, Mausner & Kasten 65).

NATO and the Afghanistan government should sit down and see where they lost track of their goals and obligations. Their main agenda was to help the Afghanistan government establish good authority and good leadership to its people without the interference of illegal groups that care about nothing else apart for their own selfish interest only which mostly will affect the country negatively (Bowman 69).

The leaders of the government can also decide to first deal with their own dirty laundry before they face the rest of the world. The conflicts and wars are mostly brought about by illegal groups that believe that the kind of malicious things they do is all in the name of Allah and that they will be greatly paid after this life is over. This is only a scape- goat to do evil things for there is no true god who would like to see the shedding of innocent blood and especially that of children. These groups go to the extents of throwing bombs even in school boxes or in schools so that they might attract attention.

Though not firmly confirmed, most of these groups are may have a helping hand from the very people that are entrusted with the country's systems. If the government can decide to impair these groups, it can be done and these groups can minimize their activities though they may not be able to completely stop them due to some external forces and influences.

Another way of solving such problems is by establishing relationships with other countries so that a bigger circle is involved and the countries are preoccupied with benefiting from these relationships rather than spend the time and days strategizing on who, when or where to attack next.

NATO should also try to leave the country alone to an extent of allowing them to solve their own conflicts without interfering with them. The thought that they are always being watched or a certain body is there to inspect and analyze how they are running their affairs may provoke them to do different mean things just to show rebellion and show that they are not owned but are only their own bosses (Morelli & Belkin 72).

Whether it is ignored or acknowledged, the NATO coalition has become more than it is necessary to the Afghans which might lead to some occurrences that end up hurting a lot of innocent people. They learn to know where to their boundaries are and therefore stay within them.

NATO had the right intentions of entering Afghanistan in the beginning but it has ended up bringing more pain than good. A lot of innocent lives have been lost especially since the 9/11 incident. It stopped being an assistant mission but changed in to being a revenge mission. The Western countries have been known to dominate over countries that are not so developed so that they rule in accordance to how they feel is best and if the country under instruction does not corporate, it not given a very easy time (Great Britain).

These developed countries should give the other countries time to sort their own issues and run their countries how they feel is best. These are some of the reasons that have led to the conflicts between the NASO and the Islamic countries. In return there is vengeance and the cycle continues living the helpless and the weak to suffer the consequences.  

The revenge of 1,000 American lives with 5,000 Afghans is not exactly what we call justice. This is brutal, unfair and malicious having in mind that most of the people who suffer have nothing to do with the conflicts that go on.

It is not just that a child, woman or any other person in America and easily and freely move around with no fear or insecurity of a bomb attack as it is for an Afghan child who is not sure of whether to go to school for they are not sure of whether they will back home to have the evening meal.

Let every party play their roles within their boundaries having other fellow human beings at heart so that there is no more shedding of innocent blood.