In a single stroke of presidential decree, ordering the return of all the US troops, President Joe Biden has undone Afghanistan and the image of the US. He has handed over Afghanistan on a platter, with arms and ammunition, rockets and launchers, aircraft and choppers, hummers, and tanks, in the hands of the Taliban. Taliban would be declaring Afghanistan as an ‘Islamic Emirate.’
The US action is a repeat of 1975, when the US, in a huff, quit Vietnam and conceded a long-fought battle for reasons never clear.
I look at the Indo-Pak war in 1971 to liberate Bangladesh, when the US, under President Nixon and the wily Secretary Kissinger, had allied with Pakistan and threatened India with their Seventh Fleet. India pursued regardless, took 90000 Pak troops as prisoners, liberated the country. Soon after that, India returned and gracefully returned the captured Pak troops. That was one loss of face for the US. India had the advantage of the Bangladeshi people, Mukti Bahini,’ fighting alongside. Bangladesh is free and a thriving democracy now.
Such crucial people’s support never existed in Afghanistan, or the US had taken the people’s support for granted. Taliban defied much-studied variable scenarios by American thinktanks to march into Kabul at lightning speed, much ahead of any forecast. President Ashraf Ghani and Vice President Amrullah Saleh have fled their country, and the Taliban will be directly taking over Afghanistan after twenty years.
It is fine for any party with the majority support of their citizens to rule. Taliban is different. They rule by the barrel of their guns, lashing and hangings in public to instil fear on others and, above all, to treat women as a cursed gender, denying them education and equal status.
For India Taliban’s return to Afghanistan is a cause of concern. Pakistan assisted the return with weapons and aid. China is the Taliban’s newfound love. The combination of China, Pakistan, and the victorious Taliban, is a lethal cocktail, as they will try their next target, freeing Kashmir.
For once, I cannot but support Donald Trump, who has demanded the resignation of Joe Biden for his failure in foreign policy. The NATO members must be concerned as newer power equations challenging the rule of law emerge, affecting many nations with high numbers of minorities.
The US can still fake WMDs, bomb and kill dictators, but that could be only to satiate their arms industry and the lucrative infrastructure reconstruction contracts to their supporters.
The US has slipped several notches as a responsible ally, who act in their interests and their interests alone.
It is amusing that the US issued a statement that their Afghanistan goals have been accomplished. Pray explain, was it to install the Taliban government?
To end: instead of becoming an actor in South China Seas, India must concentrate on its Northern borders and the Indian ocean.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
Pic courtesy: asiasociety.org
