Recently the United States government decided to withdraw its personnel from its embassy in Kabul and has asked all Americans to leave Afghanistan due to the impending civil war at the end of Soviet withdrawal from that country. Earlier, many of the western nations had decided to close their embassies too.

It is very obvious that there is going to be a large scale bloodshed in that country very soon. The situation is fast deteriorating and even the Soviets are more than eager to pullout earlier than expected, after trying all these years unsuccessfully to hold on to Afghanistan.

In this uncertainty the security of the foreign nationals is not guaranteed and hence the eagerness of the western nations to pull its personnel out, but in a larger sense aren't they to be partly blamed for this tragic situation?

I have always said like most other people that the Soviet Union made a mistake in invading Afghanistan, but I believe the continued supply of weapons to the different groups in the Mujahideen by the western nations, primarily the United States was a violation of the Geneva agreement.

Though the arguments for such a supply to the Mujahideen is to restore parity with the heavy weapons left over by the Soviet military to the Afghan government, the consequences are very dire for all the people of Afghanistan. Even after the certain collapse of the current regime in Kabul, stability is very doubtful.

There are four main groups in the Mujahideen, each armed to the teeth and distrust towards each other. These groups are certain to fight each other to become the sole contender for power. Since each is so heavily armed thanks to the United States and equally motivated, I suspect we will no have a clear winner soon.

In all this bungling, who suffers? The poor innocent Afghan who is probably more concerned of his daily survival than ideology.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Sure. No matter what, it's the innocent people who pay the price with their blood.

Because when the situation is out of hand, both the right and the left will of course run for cover leaving the innocent to be caught in the crossfire.