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CIAO DATE: 09/04
Afghanistan at the Crossroads of History
Hikmet Çetin
It is a well-known postulate that democracies do not wage war against each other. Today, this proposition applies to NATO's engagement in Afghanistan: Our commitment to assist the Afghan Nation to transform their country into a self-sustaining, stable and prosperous democracy while reintegrating Afghanistan into the democratic order.
Our collective efforts with the Afghan Nation started in the aftermath of an unexpected tremor across the Atlantic, with Afghanistan at its epicenter. Suffice to remember the terrorist atrocities of September 11, the shockingly graphic images every television station around the world captured and broadcast round the clock. These very images signaled the nascent beginnings of a new era, laden with a new threat at our doorstep: Terrorism at its full speed, prepared and willing to strike at anywhere, at anytime.
The intransigence of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in complying with demands of the international community to hand over Osama Bin Ladin, master mind of the September 11 atrocities, paved the way for a military intervention in Afghanistan. The US-led coalition's response to Taliban was a swift and decisive military operation leading to the fall of the House of "Ameer al-Momeneen," Mullah Mohammad Omar, the runaway leader of the Taliban movement.