The Taliban Are Erasing What The West Has Achieved

The Taliban clamor for the capture of Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan

The Taliban say they have captured Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name and the second most important city in Afghanistan, an achievement that brings the regional capitals that fell to 13 in the last week. " Kandahar, the second largest city in the country, has also been conquered," Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi celebrated on Twitter , indicating that during the night they managed to take the headquarters of the governor and the Police and other important points of the city. The spokesman also explained that "many soldiers surrendered and the rest fled", and that they managed to seize a large number of weapons, vehicles and ammunition.

With this decision, Joe Biden makes history. The abrupt withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is, that is certain a few weeks before its conclusion, a historic disaster. Twenty years of NATO operation in Afghanistan are ended when the soldiers steal their way out of the country through the back door, hoping that one of them doesn't die shortly before the flight to save them from the country.

Beyond Kabul, the Taliban conquer city   after city. You are only 150 kilometers from the capital, taking Kabul is only a matter of months, if not weeks. It is the Taliban who were driven from power by the US and its allies in 2001. They advance with long lists of deaths that include their Afghan enemies.

Read more: The Taliban | They are Unstoppable

Many mistakes have been made in the two decades of the Afghanistan mission, but this last one may prove to be the most momentous: a hasty withdrawal under military pressure from the Taliban, who are now wiping out everything that has changed the Western forces.

The typical Trump deal

That last mistake of all began with former US President Donald Trump's decision to set a date for the withdrawal and negotiate with the Taliban. It was the typical Trump deal: 

I reveal all my intentions to the despot - and then rely on cooperation between men

That didn't work for Kim Jong Un and it doesn't work for the Taliban. All the worse that Biden does not correct the wrong decision. The US president just wants to get out.

Read also: The Taliban have seized control of...

This threatens to collapse what has been achieved in the past two decades. This included, at least in the capital, a certain diversity, a little public life, limited freedom of movement for women, schools for girls too. Equally important: Afghanistan was no longer a haven for international terrorists. That's what Joe Biden is proud of, which he obviously considers irreversible. Wrong: All of this could now be destroyed in a very short time.

Certainly, the idea, which sprang from the exuberance of the western sense of mission, to turn Afghanistan into a halfway functioning democracy with institutions based on the rule of law, had failed just a few years after the Nato intervention in 2001. There was a lot of hubris going on when Americans and Europeans attempted this mission, but it wasn't a bad goal and therefore worth the try. None of the powers around it, Russia, Iran, India or China would ever spend time, money or the life of a soldier on it. Therefore, even today, hardly any Afghan hopes for the healing influence of these states.

Read more: Notorious Warlord Dostum Returns From Exile

The real mistakes of the West followed after the transformation into the Central Asian model state failed. It was the inability to develop a lasting strategy or just an idea of what they wanted in Afghanistan. At the same time, many thought: if the country could not be rebuilt, then perhaps it would be possible to prevent the fall into a "Talibanistan". But these considerations were hindered from the outset by the stipulation that one absolutely had to withdraw completely and soon. Why actually?

One will still mourn the times

US troops have been in Germany and Europe since 1945. American soldiers have guarded the Arabian Gulf and the Middle East for decades. US troops have been stationed in the Pacific and then East Asia for 100 years. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers at 170 locations. And no one is talking about pulling them off (except for the wandering Trump, who intended to replace soldiers with sanctions against the whole world).

For a long time now, Afghanistan was no longer about large-scale combat operations, but rather simple demonstrations. The United States recently had 2,500 soldiers in the country, a guard battalion with an attached air base, nothing more. Why was it so important to pull it off?

Read also: How The World Is Glossing Over Afghanistan

When the Taliban rule the whole country in a few months, when schools are closed, when Afghans are pegged and stoned all over the country, when the music falls silent, no one will be able to answer this question satisfactorily. But if the Taliban approve the "Islamic State" its base and perhaps Al-Qaeda and whoever else, then the Afghanistan question should be asked again. Then one will mourn the times when 2,500 US soldiers and their European allies prevented Talibanistan for the time being.

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How The World Is Glossing Over Afghanistan

Hundreds Of Afghan Security Forces Surrender To The Taliban