Afghanistan

This is not entirely on  topic for Stayin' Alive, but I wrote the Today in Iraq and Afghanistan blog for nigh on 15 years so I feel compelled to comment. A link isn't really necessary because it's all over the news that with the withdrawal of U.S. forces, the Afghan security forces are collapsing and the Taliban are conquering territory, including major cities, much faster than almost anyone expected. But here's a link for the heck of it. Given the abject failure of the Afghan National Army and other government forces, predictions are that the internationally recognized government may not hold on to Kabul for more than a couple of weeks or a month, so NATO countries, including the U.S., are evacuating their nationals.

From the point of view of people like me, by which I mean secular, cosmopolitan, democratic and egalitarian types such as we commonly encounter in the so-called West, this is bad. The Taliban are, as far as I'm concerned, really awful, and I despair for the fate of Afghan women and girls, and for everyone in Afghanistan who values reason, justice and for that matter basic material well being, because the Taliban will not deliver that either. 

President Biden will come under fire from various quarters for this outcome. Notice, however, that Republican and conservative voices have been fairly quiet. Mike Pompeo, in aid of his presidential candidacy, has been disapproving, but some have even supported Biden's decision to cut our losses. I won't link to The Federalist because they're 95% insane, but they have a column by a state department official in the former administration that I agree with completely. (You can find it if you're interested.) It's also maybe a bit hard for them to be overly critical because Biden only affirmed a policy that began with the previous administration, although facts don't usually get in their way.

The fact is this is one area where I have a lot of overlap with the paleocons. (The neocons, of course, started the war.) It was apparent to every informed, impartial observer from early on in the Afghanistan misadventure that it was doomed. The government set up by the invaders was a fraud, utterly corrupt, incompetent, riven by ethnic factionalism and largely consisting of warlords with private armies who were given high level federal government posts. The hundreds of billions spent on "reconstruction" was largely squandered, siphoned off by corruption or wasted due to lack of understanding of local needs and conditions. The NATO-backed government never controlled much territory beyond the provincial and district capitals, and slowly but steadily lost ground to the Taliban and other insurgents throughout the 20 year occupation. 

 

The Afghan National Army was a hollow shell. It's soldiers had no intrinsic loyalty to the government, many of them were ghost warriors who split their salaries with their COs in exchange for not showing up, and many of them who did show up would cut and run when attacked leaving equipment and weapons to the insurgents. As a result, Taliban were riding around in U.S.-built humvees and wielding U.S. army issue machine guns. The Afghan Army never developed a logistics capability and depended on NATO for transport and supply lines. All of this has become obvious in the past weeks.

The rural economy depended largely on opium, which the Taliban taxed to support themselves. Their leadership enjoyed safe haven from our "ally" Pakistan, which probably also provided financial support and weapons. 

So while what is happening now is tragic, it was always a question of when, not if. And nobody has ever been able to explain to me why it is the responsibility of the United States to export its values and its concept of democracy to lands on the other side of the planet by means of guns and bombs. Which, by the way, in case you hadn't noticed, doesn't work.

So Biden will take a lot of flack, but he's doing what had to be done. We were just digging ourselves deeper and deeper into a hole. It's time to stop digging.