(Submitted August 25th to USA Today)
There is no other way to describe the Afghanistan situation than as a debacle of epic proportions. There is much blame to go around, and rightly so. A cursory Wikipedia study of the recent history of Afghanistan reveals that the CIA was involved during the time of the Russian occupation, providing material and monetary support through Pakistan to any group fighting against the Russians and the Marxist government the Russians established, and this included the Taliban.
The Taliban successfully drove Russia out of Afghanistan and established an Islamic-based government. Their error in judgement was to allow Al-Qaeda to establish a safe haven in Afghanistan, which led to the planning and execution of the 9/11 terrorist attack and brought U.S. retribution to Afghanistan.
Once U.S. forces forced the Taliban and Al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan, the U.S. established its own democratic government. It did not take long for the Taliban to harass and attack U.S. forces and the Afghan government. Ultimately, twenty years later, the U.S.-backed democratic experiment in Afghanistan failed due to government corruption and a lack of support from the Afghan people.
It should be clear by now that the Afghan people prefer to have an Islamic-based government instead of either a Marxist or democratic government. This is their right, although it may be a situation where they will find themselves in a more oppressive society than expected, particularly when it comes to women’s rights and freedoms, music, art, dance, freedom of worship, freedom of expression, and many other aspects of Afghan life that were permitted and practiced during the past twenty years.
Afghanistan is just one more in a long line of attempts by the U.S. to establish western democratic capitalistic systems in countries whose culture is not particularly receptive to such a system. Whether the rational is to stop the spread of communism, to protect U.S. business interests, or to achieve some other purpose, this just never seems to be successful. All we ever seem to accomplish is to create resentment and to lose opportunities to establish long-term alliances that benefit the people of both countries.
Limiting the blame for our Afghanistan debacle to the current Administration is all well and good, and clearly the Administration has had an extreme failure in timing and coordination, so criticism is warranted. But this does not acknowledge the fundamentally unsustainable basis for many of the foreign policy decisions the U.S has taken over the years. The current torrent of righteous indignation, dramatic handwringing, dire predictions, calls for impeachment – all of it – is an epic waste of time.
Right now, we need clearheaded thinking. We need to keep this debacle in context. History shows that Afghanistan is a wild country that cannot be controlled for very long by anyone. The Taliban are in control for now, but how long will their control last? The Afghan people have had a taste of freedom and will not forget how sweet it can be. The Afghan warlords may have made the deals necessary for their survival, but this does not make them Taliban.
The Taliban would be well advised to allow Afghan women to work and speak and study, and to allow the Afghan people some degree of personal freedom of expression. In this way the Taliban may be able to achieve a stable Islamic state. Otherwise, there will be no lasting peace in Afghanistan.
Our regional interest was, and is, to prevent the continuation of terrorist attacks on the U.S. and our allies. Our current interest in Afghanistan also concerns its natural resources, more specifically, rare earth minerals. In addition, it is in our best interest to minimize Russian and Chinese involvement in Afghanistan to the greatest extent possible so that the destiny of the Afghan people remains their own.
Alliances within Afghanistan seem to be fluid, always changing in pragmatic ways. In this spirit, why not continue to pursue our interests by developing an alliance with the Taliban? The Taliban is now effectively the government of Afghanistan, supported or at least accepted by a majority of the Afghan people.
We have only to look at our experience with Vietnam as an example of how a successful alliance can be created between countries following years of conflict. Vietnam is an increasingly important trading partner of the U.S. and is now accepted by the American public as such. Past differences have been put aside.
The Taliban will soon be faced with a great deal of difficulty in continuing to provide the services that Afghans have become used to, such as the availability of fresh water, food, electricity, medicine, etc. Unlike other countries who have had to live through conflict, the basic infrastructure in Afghanistan remains intact. Who better to assist in the continuation of these services than the people who paid for and installed them, namely the U.S.?
It is understood that the U.S controls Afghanistan’s monetary reserves, and that Afghanistan is no longer receiving financial support from foreign benefactors. The Taliban has limited financial resources itself. Having the U.S. recognize a new Taliban-based Afghan government and allowing the new government a measure of access to Afghanistan’s monetary reserves would be of great benefit to the Taliban.
Initially distasteful though it would be to both the U.S. and the Taliban to form an alliance, this could be of great benefit to both parties.
The U.S. has a tradition of religious freedom, and in principle this extends to Islam as well. Islam does not have a very well-received presence in the U.S., primarily due to Islamic terrorism, but that can certainly change. If Islamic terrorism is no longer a concern, Muslims would be accepted more warmly into this country and become part of its melting pot culture.
Instead of expecting other countries to change their government and customs to match our own, the U.S. needs to learn to accept countries for who and what they are. This whole focus on nation-building has been an epic failure and has done nothing but cause discord and resentment wherever it has been attempted. Even assuming that this was always a noble cause and never an attempt to protect the interests of American companies, it has proven to be an unsuccessful policy long-term. Leading by example instead of by force is likely to be a much more successful strategy.
There is much to evaluate regarding the debacle in Afghanistan. The intelligence community and the Pentagon appear to have been misleading several administrations regarding the actual conditions in Afghanistan. Independent military contractors responsible for various support services have been financially exploiting the American people for years. Politicians have ignored problematic questions so that they could continue to receive dark money PAC donations in exchange for appropriating billions of dollars to the Afghanistan war effort. God only knows how much of the appropriated money was wasted on unnecessary materials and equipment, or just disappeared into unknown pockets and bank accounts.
How many years ago did Afghanistan become more about the business of war than about the principles of war?
Instead of blaming the current and/or previous administrations for this ongoing debacle, we should be asking what comes next? The ongoing withdrawal is going to play itself out over the next few weeks, a month at most, hopefully without too many horrific acts being committed by undisciplined Taliban religious zealots. There is little that the U.S. can do to prevent this should it occur.
At this point, regardless of what President Biden says or does, his administration will be blamed for losing the war in Afghanistan, even though history will provide him with some vindication. Previous administrations continued to support a corrupt Afghan central government that did not have the support of the Afghan people or the military. In the end, the Afghans did not believe that there was anything worth fighting for, which is why the government collapsed so quickly. The U.S. should have left Afghanistan years ago.
Extending an olive branch to the Taliban and negotiating an agreement that leads to a new alliance within the Islamic world seems like a worthwhile effort. This may prove to be the best means of preventing future terrorism directed towards the U.S.
Would the Taliban agree? It is certainly possible. The Taliban needs access to Afghanistan’s finances, expertise in running the country’s infrastructure, a stable economy, and legitimacy as the new Afghanistan government. In addition, the U.S. would be a wealthier and less-threatening partner to either Russia or China, both of whom have a long history of mistreating Muslims and of exerting a heavy controlling hand on those countries that align with them.
This is an alliance that would benefit both sides. It is certainly something to consider.