The Afghan tragedy
Yesterday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled his own country as the Taliban took over the capital city of Kabul. This was not only the consequence of an incredibly abrupt US decision to leave after 20 years of military presence there, but more generally a consequence of 20 years of wrongful interference and flawed geopolitical choices. Let’s recap.
The “original sin” of the current Afghan tragedy, if it were, lies in the fact that the United States went there in the first place. Hailed as retaliation for the 9/11 attacks that took place in New York, it was meant to justify the military invasion of a country thousands of miles away because it was home to extremist groups linked to the terrorists that orchestrated these attacks. The obvious caveat here was that there is a logical impossibility in trying to equate a terrorist attack by a specific group and the invasion of a foreign country with ties to said group. These sorts of brute reasonings could conversely justify Europe invading the US to fight off the risk of Trump “Big Lie” supporters sparking (more) unrest across the planet…
However, as we all know, the US government went ahead with its Afghan invasion anyway. In a fairly obvious attempt by then-President George Bush to create a diversion and channel Americans’ anger away from his administration — and towards a conveniently distant foreign enemy. Later, this “War on Terror” degenerated to nearby Iraq based on an even more demonstrably false pretence: the supposed presence of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” on its soil. As we all also know, these were nowhere to be found and then-Secretary Colin Powell had (more or less) intentionally mislead the American people in yet another avoidable war.
The second key mistake America made, after choosing to invade, was choosing to get involved. And by that I mean, very involved: US officials were instrumental in setting up a new regime that was supposed to be modelled after Western democracies and that would therefore prevent from extremists such as the Taliban from ever re-gaining power. This tactic proved arguably successful once before — in post-World War II Japan. But… US General MacArthur did not depose the Japanese Emperor then; nor was the country so far removed from what these new and foreign principles dictated; nor was the situation quite comparable: this came as the consequence of a global war in which Japan had bitterly fought against Allied forces. Again, no such thing can be said about Afghanistan in regards to the US, or any other country for that matter.
These events sparked 2 decades of US presence in Afghanistan with the stated objective of establishing a new and peaceful Afghanistan. While never being able to achieve any of those things: the efforts felt in many ways forced onto the country’s society and institutions, while Taliban groups remained active, simply waiting for their time to challenge the overall status quo once again. The occasion finally presented itself this year: after decades of failed attempts at peace, President Biden finally called it quits and ordered the return of all US troops home, in a move that was as poorly calculated as the invasion that started it all. And, just like that, the Taliban were back on their way to Kabul…
The kicker? These villainous Taliban groups happen to be the very same that once got US backing against then-archenemy Soviet Russia. And the vicious circle of geopolitical interference continues. Meanwhile, Haiti is facing the third major natural disaster on its soil in a decade.
Have a nice day.