Kabul is expected to fall to the Taliban in the next 48 hours. The city’s fall marks a remarkable turnaround in a country that just a few weeks prior was split evenly between pro-government forces and the Taliban fighters.
Spurred on by the withdrawal of American troops, the Taliban offensive quickly captured key cities and is now surrounding the capital.
Scenes not seen since the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War are being broadcasted across social networks and major media outlets.
#Kabul Airport right now @Natsecjeff @TahirImran
— Jibran (@kjibi98) August 15, 2021
From Snapchat pic.twitter.com/oP1oSXgaEB
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” –Santayana pic.twitter.com/juXHY1SiAs
— West Wing Reports (by Paul Brandus) (@WestWingReport) August 15, 2021
At least 2,312 US military personnel have died since the war began in Afghanistan. America has spent 2 trillion dollars over the past two decades in development and nation-building inside and around Afghanistan.
It has nothing to show for it.
But while the US will lick its wounds and move on to its next foreign policy fetish, the people they leave behind in Afghanistan will not have the luxury of moving on.
Children who have grown up knowing nothing but American-sponsored education and notions of liberal democracy will now be thrust into a darkness that is both unfamiliar and uncertain.
"We don't count because we're from Afghanistan. We'll die slowly in history"
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) August 13, 2021
Tears of a hopeless Afghan girl whose future is getting shattered as the Taliban advance in the country.
My heart breaks for women of Afghanistan. The world has failed them. History will write this. pic.twitter.com/i56trtmQtF
What the fall of Kabul should tell the rest of the world is that the United States are unreliable allies.
Their fragile and unstable system of government means that no coherent, long-term foreign policy exists. Their surrender means that the developing world cannot look to the United States as meaningful long-term partners in the face of the growing belligerence of China.
Already, the Biden administration is making excuses for this defeat. It blames the Trump government for setting the withdrawal goals and said it was bound by them. But the President of the United States could always overrule those goals and listen to his generals who insisted to the end that a withdrawal would mean the fall of the country.
Biden’s capitulation is reminiscent of America’s lengthy incursions into Southeast Asia most notably in Vietnam. Promising democracy, funds, and access to the world markets, those promises often stand empty over time and are prone to change depending on the US’ domestic situation.
Alternating every decade or so between Republican and Democratic governments, American Foreign Policy is often disjointed with little in long-term planning. It is partisan, ever-changing, and dependent on the domestic situation. In short, the world’s fading superpower is temperamental and unreliable. Explain otherwise how Republicans are now blasting George W Bush’s wars in the middle east.
The developing should know by now the game the Americans play. Money is thrown around willy-nilly but rarely makes its way to the people. Instead, aid is concentrated in the hand of warlords and corrupt politicians that promise to act on America’s behalf. People who oppose American occupation and nation-building are assassinated or banished. America will prop up the dictators until the system breaks and then will act in shock and horror when the pendulum swings the other way. Think tanks will write about how nation-building failed, they will muse how the hearts and minds weren’t won, how unreliable their allies were, how they empowered corruption and failed to listen to the will of the populace.
Afghanistan will remember. Just like how Vietnam remembers, how Iran remembers, how Latin America remembers, how Thailand remembers.
Taliban inside General Dostum’s house. pic.twitter.com/yVj1hu3gUd
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 14, 2021
Our heart goes out to the young men and women in Afghanistan. They did not ask for American intervention and its silly notions of nation-building. They are the ones that will be left behind. They will be left behind with the interpreters and security officials that worked alongside their NATO colleagues, risking their lives while being falsely believing they were building a better future for their country. Only now, in the face of Taliban reprisals will the truth finally reveal itself, that American promises are empty. They have been left behind alongside their family and colleagues to weather the worst of Taliban reprisals because the US could not process their visas in time. What a joke.
The stain that this leaves on American prestige should be permanent. The developing world should never look to or trust American aid or promises again.