The American empire and its lackeys are going down, as we have mentioned many times before. Afghanistan is another nail in the coffin.
Every day can be said to be history-making. But this week saw a watershed event with huge historical ramifications: the final collapse of the United States' and NATO's military occupation of Afghanistan.
America's longest war has come to a close after 20 years of futile fighting, destruction and suffering. The Taliban militants whom the U.S. ousted in an invasion back in October 2001 are now back as the governing power in Afghanistan. And a regime that Washington propped up with billions of dollars folded like a house of cards as the Taliban took control of the capital, Kabul, on August 15.
This week the new rulers declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. America's avowed starry-eyed project of "nation-building" and "Western-style democracy" lies in ruins. Fittingly, this week also marks the centennial anniversary of the liberation of Afghanistan from British colonial rule in 1919. Another one bites the dust.
The desperate, chaotic scenes of the U.S. and its NATO allies evacuating from Afghanistan speak volumes. The pretensions of Washington and its Western partners have fallen to Earth with a crash - like the bodies of poor Afghans who clung to U.S. military cargo planes as they took off from Kabul airport. What the world witnessed was the shameful, diabolical end to a two-decade criminal occupation of Afghanistan that has wrought nothing but destruction and grief. And the Afghan people have been abandoned to their fate.
This was never about the alleged 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 or the so-called "global war on terror". Just weeks before the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Biden administration is pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan in what can only be described as an ignominious retreat. It is grotesque to "justify" the two-decade-old war in the Central Asian country as somehow a kind of retribution for the murky events of 9/11 which involved no Afghans.
America's war in Afghanistan was just one chapter in a period of presumed unipolar dominance. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Washington moved quickly to demonstrate geopolitical power with a litany of illegal wars and military interventions. It became known in Neoconservative parlance as "full-spectrum dominance". We also saw Neoliberal narratives for imperial power under the rubric of "humanitarian wars". But basically, the underlying rationale was the same: unilateral military force to assert U.S. global hegemony.
The first Gulf War against Iraq came in 1991 followed by the U.S. invasion of Somalia - Operation Restore Hope with its Orwellian rhetoric that set the pattern for many subsequent military escapades. The U.S.-NATO blitzkrieg against former Yugoslavia in 1999, and then other wars for natural resources and regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and ongoing in Syria, among other places.
This is the proper context for the U.S. and NATO occupation of Afghanistan. It is more accurately explained in terms of Washington trying to impose imperial might aided and abetted by Western lackeys. The 20-year war in Afghanistan fits into a 30-year period of presumed American hegemony in the absence of perceived geopolitical rivalry. But the lawlessness of that period has left the world shattered and more insecure than ever. However, the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia, along with a multipolar vision of international relations, has served to check the roguery of Washington and its NATO satraps.
There are indications that is why U.S. policymakers realized the need to finally get out of the Afghan quagmire. As President Joe Biden hinted in an interview, the calculation to get out was driven by the U.S. being more able to confront "true competitors" China and Russia, as well as to free up American power for other imperialist challenges in the Middle East and Africa. U.S. prestige has been ravaged by the Afghan debacle but there is no sign that Washington is going to curb its foreign interventions. Things could get a lot hotter in "big power" stakes. American corporate capitalism is an economy based on militarism which, in turn, is dependent on aggression, confrontation and war. Unfortunately, the Afghanistan debacle - no matter how shameful - doesn't change that fundamental dynamic.
The fallout between the U.S. and its NATO accomplices has been bitter and intense. European leaders denounced the way in which the Biden administration left them in the lurch without any consultation over the sudden pullout from Afghanistan. European embassies have quickly emptied of diplomats rushing for airlifts. There have been sharp recriminations over citizens and Afghan aides left behind in unknown circumstances amid reports of Taliban groups taking revenge on collaborators.
Uncharacteristically, British and other European politicians and media have been vociferous in condemnation of the United States. Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, said it was a "catastrophe". A German party leader said it was the worst event in the history of NATO since it was formed in 1949 - 72 years ago. A British lawmaker claimed it was the most shameful episode for Britain since the 1956 Suez Crisis and for America since the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
One thing seems clear. Western powers and their "rules-based order" of imperialist intervention have nothing to offer Afghanistan - or any other nation for that matter.
It will be up to the Afghan nation to resolve their internal differences and salvage the failed state bequeathed to them by the U.S. and its NATO accomplices. China, Russia and other neighboring nations are best placed to help the Afghan people chart a new direction of independence. Both Beijing and Moscow have established good communications with the Taliban and other Afghan parties over the past several years. The non-interference policy of China and Russia gives them credibility as regional partners.
Amusingly, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell remarked that NATO's failure in Afghanistan must not become an opportunity for China or Russia. Is that all he cares about amid the disaster?
Eurasian co-development and partnership as promulgated by China and Russia make sense for Afghanistan's future. The Taliban's Islamist form of government is not unfeasible. If it can be inclusive and uphold a national consensus, not based on repression, and excluding extremism while maintaining regional stability, then there are grounds for a better future.
The ultimate losers are not the Afghan people. The ultimate losers are the charlatans and war criminals of the U.S. and NATO who stand exposed more than ever in the eyes of the world as a threat to international security and peace.
The American empire and its lackeys are going down, as we have mentioned many times before. Afghanistan is another nail in the coffin.