By Yu Zhixiao
BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The two wars the United States carried out years ago in its so-called preemptive offensive and its not-so-successful post-war policies have created a "volatile triangle" on the world map containing Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, analysts say.
Iraq, Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan, which are being bedeviled by daily bombing attacks and conflicts, now substantially form a "volatile triangle," Fu Mengzi, director of the Institute of American Studies under the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told Xinhua.
Yang Yi, a professor and director of the strategic studies institute under the Chinese People's Liberation Army National Defense University, also agrees to the "triangle" concept.
The U.S. military launched the War in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 and swiftly toppled down the Taliban regime, and the Saddam regime experienced the same fate very soon after U.S. troops kicked off the Iraq War on March 20, 2003.
"The current chaos in Afghanistan and Iraq can be seen as sequelae of the two wars. The U.S. policies toward the two countries are proved to be not so effective," Fu said.
Eight years after the War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan and its people are being plagued by rising Taliban violence and insurgency, although the number of foreign troops deployed there has been step by step lifted from several thousand in the beginning to 100,000 currently.
On Oct. 28, a band of Taliban militants broke into a UN guesthouse in the Afghan capital Kabul and killed six foreign UN staff members. Just one hour later, Taliban rebels fired several rockets into the city from unknown locations.
Six years after the Iraq War, the United States just shrugged off its earlier "firm" and "long-term" commitment to Iraq, and plans to withdraw all its troops from the country by the end of 2011.
On Oct. 25, two suicide car bombings nearly simultaneously ripped off the main buildings of the Iraqi Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial government, killing at least 155 people and injuring 500.
The situation in Pakistan is not better at all.
On Oct. 28, a car bombing killed at least 90 people and injured over 200 in Peshawar of northwestern Pakistan.
On Oct. 11, some Taliban insurgents even boldly launched attacks against the headquarters of the Pakistani army. The militants, who kidnapped 33 hostages after fleeing the headquarters, killed three pawns before Pakistani soldiers shot them dead and freed the other 30 people.
In an apparent response to the attacks, the Pakistani army initiated an offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan of western Pakistan on Oct. 17, and has killed some 300insurgents so far.
"In Afghanistan, the Taliban and its ally al-Qaeda are showing a strong trend of resurgence, and they are unceasingly expanding their orbit," Fu said, adding one important reason for this is the complacent Bush administration rashly shifted its focus and resources from Afghanistan to Iraq soon after the War in Afghanistan.
"In Iraq, we should wait and see whether the U.S. troops there would be pulled out as scheduled since the situation is deteriorating there," he said.
The Obama administration's new strategy of enforcing troops in Afghanistan has yet to yield tangible and convincing results, Fu said.
"Afghanistan and Pakistan are closely interrelated as many Taliban militants hole up in Pakistani tribal areas and carry out attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan," he added.
Yu Wanli, an associate professor of the School of International Studies of Beijing University, told Xinhua that the recent bombings in the "volatile triangle" were aimed at causing fear and chaos in the three countries, and have also posed a grave challenge to the United States.
The two wars masterminded by the United States and its incompetent post-war policies have stirred up insurgent activities and violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, Yu said.
"The United States is facing really tough tests in the volatile triangle." he noted.
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