The writer correctly pointed out Cold War mindset.
The thing is military can do so much, good or bad. The perception management is the work of political government. India is getting away with murder in Pakistan but no one is willing to listen to Pakistan. India is officially sponsoring terror in Pakistan. Despite getting hold of a RAW agent and his network, a tactical success, Pakistan has not been able to convert it into strategic success.
Pakistan approach in Afghanistan is flawed. It has miserably failed in perception management despite suffering insurmountable economic and social upheaval in the last 3 decades. Crying hoarse about suffering looks like we are complaining. We have not been able to gain anything from this suffering. Despite doing so much, more than we were economically capable, common Afghans still dont have a good perception of our country.
This is a failure rightly pointed out by the author. Usually the answer to such argument is that its the military that created a mess. If it was politically owned and the politicians had a vision other than how to steal, this mess could have been our biggest gain.
But look at how other countries are using Afghanistan for their strategic gains. While we doing so much have been left out.
It does not matter what Afghanistan has. It matter how its being used. And its being used against us quite successfully while we have no answer except narrating our misery.