MOSCOW – It is America’s longest war, costing huge amounts of “blood andtreasure” as US leaders claim. Yet, the signs are that Washington isfinally accepting a historic defeat in Afghanistan comparable to theignominious Vietnam War.
Intensive negotiations between American officials and Taliban insurgentshave produced the “biggest tangible step” towards ending the nearly 18-yearwar in Afghanistan, according to the New York Times.
More talks are scheduled in the coming weeks to firm up details, butalready it is reported that the US is to withdraw its remaining 14,000troops from the Central Asian country over the next year without anyguarantees of reciprocation by the enemy.
That unilateral pullout is not yet officially admitted by Washington, butanalysts believe the US has tacitly accepted the long-held demand by theTaliban for foreign troops to get out.
At the height of the war, US forces numbered up to 100,000 personnel. Theremnant American military therefore have no way of countering the growinginsurgency. Even with an additional 8,000 NATO troops and thousands ofprivate contractors also present in Afghanistan supporting the US-backedgovernment in Kabul, the sordid game is up.
Zalmay Khalilzad, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation,during the latest round of talks held in Doha, Qatar, sought to portray an“agreed framework for a peace deal” being contingent on the Talibandelivering on three items: a ceasefire; entering into negotiations with thegovernment in Kabul; and a vow to never allow Afghanistan to become a havenfor terror groups.
But media reports cite Taliban officials as giving no firm commitment tothose US demands, while it appears Washington has accepted its troops areto be repatriated regardless. In other words, the American side is lookingfor a face-saving, apparent bilateral “deal” when the reality is Washingtonknows its war is over.
Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, puts it acerbically.Washington is only polishing the optics, while finessing “the terms ofsurrender.”
He compares the American withdrawal from Afghanistan to the disorderlyretreat and defeat that US forces incurred at the end of the Vietnam War inthe mid-1970s. “Then, as now, it was clear that by going to the table wewere surrendering; we are just negotiating the terms of our surrender,”opined Crocker in the Washington Post.
The defeat of US military might in Indochina gave rise to the VietnamSyndrome which entailed a grave loss in national confidence andinternational standing. The war in Afghanistan has already exceeded theduration of the Vietnam debacle by nearly eight years. While the death tollamong American forces is a lot less, the financial cost of Afghanistan ispotentially ruinous. Up to $2 trillion of taxpayer money is estimated tohave been poured into waging war in that country, yet the strategicachievements are arguably zero.
Not only that, but the launching of “Operation Enduring Freedom” in October2001 by the GW Bush administration was the catalyst for a global so-called“war on terror” which engulfed several countries. The total financial costfor those wars is reckoned to be around $5 trillion – or nearly a quarterof America’s spiraling national debt.
In cost of human lives, the Afghan war and its derivative “anti-terror”operations elsewhere have resulted in millions of deaths and casualties,millions of refugees and the decimation of whole nations, which havefurther spawned conflict and the spread of terrorism. Suicide rates andpathological self-destruction among US veterans who served in Afghanistan(and Iraq) are off the charts and will have long-term detriment on Americansociety for generations to come.
The Afghan Syndrome is going to haunt the US for decades in the same waythe Vietnam forerunner did.
What’s more despicable is the utter waste and futility. When Bush orderedthe troops into Afghanistan at the end of 2001, it was supposed to be inrevenge for the terror attacks on the US on September 11. Never mind thatthe evidence linking those attacks to Afghanistan was tenuous at best.
The Taliban regime, which had been in power from 1996, was toppled by theUS. But three presidents later, the Taliban now are reckoned to controlover half the territory in Afghanistan, and can carry out deadly attacks onUS-backed local forces seemingly at will on a daily basis, including in thecapital Kabul.
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Now it seems only a matter of time until the Taliban will be back in powerwith the US and allied NATO forces gone.
Richard Haass, a former senior US State Department planner, commented: “TheTaliban have concluded that it is only a matter of time before the UnitedStates grows weary of stationing troops in a far-off country and spending$45 billion a year on a war that cannot be won… they have little need tocompromise.”
The irony is that the Taliban grew out of the tribal militants that the UScultivated and armed to the teeth at the end of the 1970s when Afghanistanwas governed by a Soviet-backed administration.
The American policy was gleefully calculated in Washington to give the“Soviets their Vietnam.” The proxy war was indeed a heavy loss for theSoviet Union, but in the longer-term it looks like Uncle Sam ended upgetting another Vietnam in terms of creating the longest war ever forWashington, the unfolding ignominious defeat and the global blowback fromIslamist terrorism it engendered.
Washington may be pretending it has reached a “framework deal for peace” inAfghanistan. But the brutal truth is Washington has lost another epic war.
The Taliban have always maintained they are not going to negotiate with theUS-backed administration in Kabul, headed by President Ashraf Ghani. Likehis predecessor, Hamid Karzai, the Taliban view Ghani and his government asa corrupt, venal puppet of the Americans.
The fact that the US sidelined the Kabul regime by talking directly withthe Taliban is a crucial concession by Washington. By doing so, the US iseffectively admitting that the insurgents are in the driving seat. All thetalk out of Washington about supporting “intra-Afghani dialogue” andfinding a “comprehensive peace settlement” is window-dressing rhetoric.
US President Donald Trump last month ordered about half of the Americantroops in Afghanistan – some 7,000 – to withdraw. Trump is said to begrowing impatient with the huge financial drain of the never-ending war.His order to pull out forces before the latest round of negotiations inQatar will have been taken by the Taliban as further proof the Americansknow they are beaten.
Astoundingly, prominent voices in Washington are arguing that, in spite ofthe human calamity and cost of Afghanistan, US troops should remain thereindefinitely. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wants to passlegislation forbidding a withdrawal. The Washington Post’s editorial board– which reflects the foreign policy establishment view – admonished: “TheTrump administration’s tentative deal with the Taliban could returnAfghanistan to chaos.”
“Return to chaos”?
Afghanistan – known as the Graveyard of Empires – from centuries ofdefeating great powers is showing that the Americans are up their necks inchaos.
Courtesy: (rt.com)
