Pakistan’s forever war and the politics of exhaustion

An opinion piece by Jawad Khalid in the South China Morning Post analyzes the renewed military escalation between Pakistan and Afghanistan, framing it as the latest chapter in a 25-year 'forever war' that has cost over 33,000 Pakistani lives. The conflict's roots lie in Pakistan's deeply contradictory post-9/11 policy, where the state acted as a key U.S. ally while its security apparatus maintained a dangerous 'good Taliban/bad Taliban' binary—supporting militants fighting NATO in Afghanistan while battling the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) at home. This ambiguity allowed the TTP to flourish, unleashing a deadly wave of domestic terrorism that displaced millions and fractured social trust, particularly among Pashtun communities bearing the brunt of the violence.

The 2021 U.S. withdrawal and Taliban return to power in Kabul initially sparked optimism in Islamabad for a friendly neighbor, but relations have sharply deteriorated. Pakistan now accuses the Afghan Taliban of providing safe havens and material support to the TTP, citing UN reports and the post-takeover release of TTP prisoners. With border clashes and airstrikes escalating, Khalid argues Pakistan faces an existential crisis not from Afghanistan, but from its own shattered economy, security apparatus, and divided society after decades of conflict. The piece concludes that the nation's urgent need is internal stabilization, not another external war, highlighting a generation raised on resentment and deep mistrust of the state.