Written by: Adi Satsangi
The scene of the Helicopter circling over the US Embassy in Saigon in 1975 is repeated in Kabul in 2021. Joe Biden’s response was that Vietcong was much more organized than the Taliban. That is true, to some extent, if we believe the Soviet’s funded the Northern Vietnamese armies in 1975. Who was funding the Taliban then? Taliban defeated the American-trained forces on motorcycles armed with Ak-47s. The USA has equipped the Afghan national army with more than $89b worth of equipment & training in the last 20 years. How could a supposedly well-trained Afghan national security force capitulate without fighting in less than twenty days after twenty years of training? What was the quality of training given? All the assurances of Biden over the Afghan military fight back against the Taliban seemed to be just an eyewash. Was it an American intelligence failure, or was there a secret understanding between the Taliban and Americans that led to the Afghanistan President fleeing to Oman via Tajikistan to reach the USA ultimately? Many questions remain to be answered, which time will reveal. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is an existential threat to non-Muslim minorities like Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan. Even the Islamic State of Pakistan is a regular state sponsor of terror against their non-Muslim minorities.
However, looking at the reviews in the international press outside of the NATO alliance, it is a unanimous conclusion that Americans lost a war against Terror in Afghanistan. The scenes at the Kabul airport reveal an impending humanitarian disaster for the common Afghanis and especially non-Muslim minorities left in Afghanistan. The declaration of the sharia ruled ‘Emirate of Afghanistan’ by the Taliban also reveals the failed imposition of democracy in Afghanistan. If we look at the gainers around Afghanistan, it is Pakistan, China, and Russia. All three immediately recognized the Taliban indirectly. Russia was the first one to establish lines of communication with the Taliban, followed by China. Many military generals and even ex-President of Pakistan, Gen Parvez Musharraf, had proudly claimed to have created the Taliban in their past interviews. The war on terror in Afghanistan seemed to be a wrong choice by Americans in the very first place. The war on terror had to be at the source of the Taliban, where Americans had also ‘surprisingly’ discovered Osama Bin Laden. Then VP Biden had watched that operation in the White House alongside President Obama. Whom did American strategists fool?
The repercussions of the perceived American military failure in international diplomacy will be seen in the coming decades. The American-led NATO retreat from Afghanistan has emboldened American adversaries such as China and Russia. Many countries in the Middle East and other countries will attempt the Taliban-style takeover of the democracies. The deafening silence of human rights activists of what is happening in Afghanistan is worth noting. Where are all the champions of women and children’s rights? Are those watchdogs just meant to destabilize the democracies? Where is the USCIRF which jumps on every fake news story against India? I don’t see a single statement by the democratic ‘quad’ on the atrocities by the Taliban against the civilians of Afghanistan. The internet is filled with videos of Afghanis trying to board the US military planes to escape Taliban rule in Afghanistan. One of the ex-presidents of the US had very proudly claimed that they spend more money in Afghanistan daily than India’s entire humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan of $3b. Well, India built schools, dams, hospitals, and the Afghan Parliament House, which was meant to serve the people of Afghanistan. America’s responsibility was to build security infrastructure to sustain Afghani development. As per the
Indian military doctrine, Indian forces will fight under a clear UN mandate if it aligns with their national security priorities. With India being a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, which has become obsolete, there is little for India to rejoice in the UN when its biggest military adversary China is holding the veto stick. Americans have perfected the art of choosing military tactics over the overall national diplomatic strategy. Or does American global strategy really exist today?
Today China controls Pakistan (supposedly an American ally) and Russia (American public adversary). It is clearly the Chinese who greased the palms of Corrupt high-ranking officials of the Afghani Military and Afghani government to capitulate against the Taliban without a fight. How did Americans miss that? To control the Taliban, Americans should have waged war against the source of the Taliban, the Pakistani army. Antony Blinken went to India to make a show of friendliness while privately checking the Democratic credentials of India. That’s what enemies do. Does the American State Department have any moral credentials to preach about democracy today? I don’t see a single Islamic nation and their leftist media allies in the west questioning the human rights violations of the Taliban today. If American policymakers are serious enough to reverse the Taliban gains today, they must check the influence of the rogue Pakistani military and their secret services in Afghanistan, which are all funded by China and the drug trade. That would be calling a spade a spade. Otherwise, we are looking at the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan and the global rise of terror.
Photos courtesy: Shireen Mazari Twitter
