Muhammad Mahmood |
Posted:
July 17, 2021, 8:55 p.m.
On April 14, US President Joe Biden officially announced the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, but troops left the giant Bagram air base north of Kabul in the middle of the night he about two weeks ago without notifying the Afghans. The base’s new Afghan commander told the BBC that the United States left Bagram at 3 a.m. local time on Friday, July 2, and that the Afghan military discovered him later.
The United States also announced on the same Friday that it had left Bagram Air Base, officially completing the military occupation of Afghanistan ahead of the September 11 deadline, as announced by President Biden earlier this year. . Such a precipitous withdrawal took place despite President Biden’s assurances that the withdrawal of US troops would proceed in a safe and responsible manner and in full coordination with his partners and allies in Afghanistan.
The Economist (July 10, 21) commented that the US war in Afghanistan ended in crushing defeat. Many other observers also believe it was a humiliating debacle for the United States and its foreign legion, NATO. Much soul-searching is now going on on this issue. What was billed as a decisive victory by the United States backed by its foreign legion and troops from other client states against the Taliban, has now turned into the current rout.
In fact, the Taliban have never left Afghanistan because it is their home. More importantly, the Taliban have never been defeated despite all weaponry, including high-tech armed drones and the brutality of US forces during the past two decades of US occupation.
However, the situation is not so black and white. In a country like Afghanistan that emerged in the middle of the 18th century is made up of a multitude of ethnicities. Moreover, there are too many actors inside in the form of rival ethnic communities and outside the country like Pakistan, India and Iran. Therefore, the term “decisive victory” or “decisive defeat” cannot be applied in such a situation because competing groups cannot afford to lose or see an enemy win. As such, the United States did not “decisively” lose the war, but it certainly did not win either.
Many political commentators such as RT’s Peter Lavelle have drawn a parallel between the US exit from Vietnam and Afghanistan, describing the result as “Saigon in Afghanistan”. But such a comparison is quite simplistic. The United States left Vietnam after being decisively defeated by the Vietnam People’s Liberation Army.
This is not the case in Afghanistan, in fact the United States has left behind a client regime and an army in Kabul to do whatever it wants and retain its central role in the future arrangement in the country. Moreover, the Taliban do not have a military power comparable to that of the People’s Liberation Army of Vietnam. The Taliban will also find it difficult to rule a country driven by ethnic rivalries and the ever-shifting allegiances of these rival groups, even if it defeats the government in Kabul.
The United States spent US $ 2.3 trillion on the war but failed to win the war. His claim to rebuild Afghanistan is completely hollow and condescending. The country still remains miserably poor with a per capita income of $ 507 in 2019. The country ranked 204th in terms of per capita income out of 213 countries in the same year. It is estimated that a quarter of a million Afghans have died as a direct result of the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan since 2001.
In fact, the injection of money for what has been described as development and reconstruction created a kleptocratic elite and the United States never made any serious efforts to prevail. No wonder the US challenge in Afghanistan has always been a US sponsored Afghan government that couldn’t rule the country. The Afghan government in Kabul is so widely vilified that it has lost all legitimacy to rule the country. In fact, Afghan society remains a shattered society as a result of the American invasion and occupation.
In fact, Afghanistan should remain a clear example of what happens to a country when the United States undertakes a nation-building mission after working there for 20 years – a total failure. Such American missions to many other countries have also resulted in the same result, it only benefits American companies and entrepreneurs with a small amount of crumbs thrown at local collaborators.
In addition, hundreds and thousands of other civilians have died from hunger, disease and injuries from the devastating war. According to United Nations (UN) estimates, at least 2.7 million of Afghanistan’s 38 million people were forced to flee the country due to the war and became refugees in neighboring Pakistan, Iran and beyond. Another four million Afghans have been internally displaced.
Foreign occupations are not about nation building, they are aimed at safeguarding their personal interests. By withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, the United States pursues its national and economic interests. President Biden in his nationwide address made it clear that the United States would be more formidable if it focused on the challenges of the future, not those of the past.
What are these future challenges? The President went on to describe these challenges and said, “From an increasingly assertive China, we need to strengthen our alliances… to ensure that the rules of international standards that govern cyberthreats and emerging technologies that will shape our future are rooted in our democracy. values, not those of the autocrats “.
It is therefore now clearly evident that the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is aimed at redeploying military resources against China with an axiological democratization program for the world. However, the democracy that the United States offers is utterly incompatible with the extreme levels of social inequality that prevail in the United States and endless wars, despite the fact that the United States has long since passed into plutocracy.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken didn’t mince words when he said on April 18 that the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was in line with the Biden administration’s goal of focusing resources on China. Some political commentators have even suggested that the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan would allow the United States to focus on Washington’s number one foreign policy priority: China. The United States is aligning its focus and domestic resources with its goal of long-term strategic confrontation with China by further strengthening its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
As the Global Times of China pointed out, the United States has repeatedly stirred up unrest in the Chinese environment over issues such as Afghanistan, Myanmar and the Sino-Indian border, with the aim of creating instability around China, then affect China’s development. There are valid reasons for the Chinese to be skeptical of the US withdrawal.
The fundamental question remains, what exactly does the withdrawal from Afghanistan mean? In fact, there will be a significant US security presence in Afghanistan following the troop withdrawal in the form of private security forces, defense contractors, and local agents who are in a patron-client relationship with the states. -United. The latter group includes the political elites in Afghanistan. Therefore, the United States will continue to be able to destabilize the northwestern region of China or more specifically, the United States will continue to use Afghanistan for tactical purposes in the region.
Meanwhile, President Biden also insisted on the national issues to be addressed. He faces an undeclared civil war in his country. The Republican Party under Donald Trump has evolved into the white supremacist party actively seeking to destabilize its administration. There are now fears that it will be only a matter of time for the situation to turn into something more threatening and ugly.
Last week in Philadelphia, President Biden had to respond to Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas in which he (Trump) reiterated his claim of a “stolen election” and defended the violent assault on Capitol Hill to take America back from radical left Democrats. He also spoke out against socialism.
President Biden has criticized the unprecedented attack on voting rights in Republican-controlled states following Trump’s Jan.6 coup attempt. Since the November election, 28 laws have been passed restricting voting rights to poor and minority voters in 17 Republican-controlled states. In fact, a total of 400 such laws have been introduced to date in the United States.
He further added that an assault was unfolding in the United States, an attempt to suppress and subvert voting rights, an assault on democracy, an assault on freedom and an assault on who we are as a. Americans. These are very serious acknowledgments of the unstable political environment that currently prevails in the United States.
It is difficult to imagine how the Biden administration can conduct its foreign and defense policy in such a deeply divided American political establishment where open political warfare has become the norm on all subjects except the budget. military and hostility towards China and Russia.
Deep domestic crises coupled with the country’s declining economic fortunes have created uncertainty about the country’s future direction, with serious implications for the rest of the world. The United States still remains the hegemony of the world with a corresponding military might. Such a hegemonic power tends to compensate for its economic decline with a new military adventurism.
The United States also has a strong track record as the most belligerent country since gaining independence in 1776.
Over the past 245 years, the country has expanded by taking back territory from other countries using military force, and has maintained its global hegemony for the past 100 years using its brutal military force as well. In fact, the warmongering of American society goes quite far even before the formal declaration of independence in 1776. Statistically speaking, the United States has been at war for 227 of its 245-year history since 1776. Therefore, it is not only probable but possible that the United States could be militarily adventurous against China. The most likely question now remains when, where and how it will take place.
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