Today is the 76th anniversary of the capitulation of the Imperial Japanese Forces to the Allies, heralding the endand of the Second World War. It had required the detonation of two atomic bombs, over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to prompt the Japanese to surrender.
15th August 2021 will go down into history as the day that twenty years of military intervention in Afghanistan, by the USA, the UK and other countries, came to nothing. It was not the first time that foreign intervention in that beautiful country failed. The Soviet Union came away with a bloody nose in 1990, after ten years.
Afghanistan was invaded in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on the US. The country had become a safe haven for Al-Qa'eda and other extremist groups from which to launch attacks around the world. Initially, the US made a clean sweep, removing the Taliban from power and establishing a more humane government across the country. The following years were punctuated by mounting casualties; we all remember the planes coming into RAF Brize Norton, carrying the remains of fallen servicemen and -women. They were paraded through the town of Wootton Bassett, whose inhabitants would line the streets to pay homage to the poor souls who had made the supreme sacrifice in a far-off and distant land. The town was bestowed the prefix of "Royal" by HM the Queen in acknowledgement of their efforts.
US President Joe Biden announced that all American forces were going to leave Afghanistan on 11th September 2021. The Taliban came out of hiding and in a matter of weeks have overrun the country. As I type this, they are poised to take control of the capital, Kabul. It shows that the efforts by the US and others to bring change to Afghanistan and permanently remove the Taliban from power have failed monumentally.
The point of this post is to express the bitter disappointment that all those sacrifices were in vain. Not just by US or UK forces but by all others who sought to introduce a better life to the people of Afghanistan. I cannot imagine how those who lost loved ones in that conflict must feel today. I cannot imagine how those who lost loved ones in 9/11 must feel, for it was because of their loss that the US went into Afghanistan in the first instance.
What a waste.
Yes, Guido, it WAS a waste. Because, in the end, the people of Afghanistan did not desire "freedom" enough to mount their own strong resistance to the Taliban. What "the west" offered them was not attractive enough for them to throw off thousands of years of their history and religion--regardless of how "backward" and "repressive" we see it--and embrace western ways and values. If we're honest, we were never there to offer them better choices. We were there to protect/advance western economic interests, and to appeal politically to a populace screaming for Muslim blood after 9/11. The Afghan war was always a sham, built on a lie, and was always destined to end badly. Much like Viet Nam.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good thing to kick the Taliban out. What the US failed to do was to plan ahead for the post-Taliban era. They failed to understand the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, although there was plenty of talk of that. They did not know where they wished to end up, and that is a failure. Twenty years have gone by, and the world has changed; Afghanistan has changed too. Let's hope something good comes out of this debacle.
ReplyDelete