Thomas (Special correspondent)
Remember Bibi Aisha?
The Afghan girl whose nose and ears were mutilated by the Taliban for fleeing her abusive in-laws?
In 2010,she posed for TIME magazine,showing the world what it is like for women to live under Taliban rule.
With America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, men,women and children fear a recurrence of the inhuman offenses from the insurgent group.Dismayed by the events,people fleed for life.
The U.S concluded the war, leaving the Afghan forces without a support system to fight the Taliban.
This war wasn’t fought for Afghanistan alone.Biden administration could have made the exit a little less fatal and a little more peaceful.
Bush Created,Trump Signed,Biden Culminated
The US invaded Afghanistan to fight war on terror, after the tragic 9/11 attack.
Since then American troops have been helping to guard against terrorism in the country. It was a ray of hope for the Afghans.
They picked up their lives from a land tattered by the Taliban. Elders dreamt of bringing back the glorious past while women embraced professions considered unconventional.
In February 2020, the then president signed a ‘peace deal’ with the Taliban, declaring the end of the longest war, by May 2021.
Despite political indifferences, Biden kept the promise made by his predecessor. His interest to safeguard American lives must have been a sincere one. But the exit was chaotic,collapsing the dreams of innocent people.
The American Betrayal
People of Afghanistan had little or no hope for the corrupt government.President Ashraf Ghani fleed before the crisis,leaving his people to their fate.
But,the Biden Administration could have been a little generous and kind to the land they invaded to protect their interest.
The Biden administration is said to have neglected multiple warnings by several refugee and human rights associations and members of Congress on the forthcoming humanitarian crisis.
The president was overconfident of the intelligence report that Kabul will not fall for six months. As he was stating this, the Taliban had captured most parts of the country.
Citizens ran from pillar to post to escape to a safer place. Meanwhile, the Taliban continued its search for the traitors – those who worked with America to modernize the society.
They did, ever since the US invaded the country, the Army and people stood with America to build a livable society.
In return,they were betrayed.Biden administration ignored the ground conditions and said, “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”
Afghan Army was willing to fight.Only if the U.S had supported them.Because,for 20 years,they worked alongside the U.S.It’s true that the Afghan Army lost its will to fight.
But that’s because of the growing sense of abandonment by our American partners and the disrespect and disloyalty reflected in Mr. Biden’s tone and words over the past few months,” wrote Sami Sadat,commander in the Afghan National Army in a New York Times article.
General Sadat says the US had designed the military training system in the American way. The contractors maintaining bombers left, air support dried up and Aghan forces were disarmed to fight the Taliban.
Gen. David Petraeus, the retired commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and former CIA director says a model where the US providing assistance to the Afghan forces would have been quite sustainable.
America Lost the War, China and Pakistan Gained
Few days after the Taliban invasion, Pakistan President Imran Khan made a bewildering statement that Afghans have broken the shackles of slavery.
Experts consider Pak as a support ground for the Taliban. Afghanistan and Pakistan are trading partners and share a religious and cultural bond. Associating with the Taliban would further distance it from the global community excluding China.
The East-Asian country eyes Afghan’s rich copper mines and whatever they can capitalize on. By being the Taliban’s closest ally, China may move a step closer in claiming the ‘superpower status. Whoever the benefactor of the new Afghan may be, Biden’s America lost the longest war it fought.
Afghan,a land rich in culture, people so generous and self-sufficient, what are they left with? As a senator who witnessed the crisis firsthand, President Biden could have avoided this foreseen chaos. Like Saigon, this will too be scripted in history.
