As the Taliban marches into the remaining “free” areas of Afghanistan, a feat nobody who was watching matters is surprised about, the temptation to “save” Afghanistan from itself may be great. The amount of money made by the defense industry is staggering, but the gain of this policy is negligible. In the end, despite massive aid and training, the people of Afghanistan don’t want freedom, they want a throwback to the most archaic and barbaric religious ideology known to modern humanity.
The US is now sending in troops to rescue US citizens and Afghani collaborators with the US in scenes that will potentially be more dramatic than the fall of Saigon. The Taliban, backed by China and Pakistan and freshly armed with captured US war booty, are about to turn the country back into a terrorist safe haven and 7th century hellscape in which Christians are martyred and women become chattel.
The blame lies with every US President since Bush II, the neocon “genius” who promised that everyone wants “democracy” if only US forces fought for their freedom, even though the actual people being “liberated” never have. But the consequences are to the American people, both in terms of lost lives, changed lives through injury and psychological damage, and trillions of dollars, most of which lined corporate pockets.
The drumbeat of war will begin as soon as, once again, Afghanistan hosts the next terrorist act against the US. Outraged people will want revenge and will forget that this story keeps repeating with no successful end in sight. The propensity of the ruling class to foment conflicts which they profit from has never been greater.
But from the perspective of the average Afghani, most of whom lack the courage and conviction needed to resist the ideology of the Taliban, life will become a horror freak show. The ruthlessness and arbitrary brutality of the Taliban falls on people even if they desperately try to comply with the overwhelming edicts of this throwback religious sect. Nobody, not even a faithful Taliban member, is safe from the possibility of being brutalized and murdered for reasons they cannot even fathom.
Every Afghani who aided the Americans, and there are hundreds of thousands, is going to face dire consequences, and so is their family. The precipitous withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan, brokered by Trump and then carried out months later than planned by Biden, means that almost none of these people will be safe. Simply importing all of them to the US is not a practical solution. Moreover, they didn’t collaborate with the US to have to leave their homeland, many just wanted to make money or, in some cases, they wanted to move their country into the 21st century.
Sending in US troops to Kabul to effect an emergency evacuation while the President practically begs and then cajoles the Taliban, who have no fear of the US, may morph into saving the army of collaborators who have, mostly, turned tail and fled from the enemy. Plaintiff cries to save the Afghani collaborators have already begun and this pressure is coming from the right and left.
But the pressure to just put this behind us, cut our losses, including human losses, and move on is greater. Any “engagement” is likely to be covert and concealed, possibly carried out by mercenaries (contractors), and possibly by buying off more Afghanis to trade money for propping up a corrupt puppet regime. There is no popular support or willingness to sacrifice or fight to save Afghanistan from the China and Pakistan backed Taliban.
Afghanistan and Iraq have been a gross debacle, they have caused massive losses to the US and they have only made things worse in those lands. This is a bipartisan debacle no US President since Bush II has had the moral courage and tenacity to stop. Biden is the last unfortunate President who must oversee the final collapse which was inevitable way back in 2001 when the plan became “nation building” for a population that wouldn’t fight for its own freedom.
US re-engagement in Afghanistan would only serve the defense industry and, while it is unlikely, one can never underestimate the corruption and foolishness of America’s real political shot-callers.
