Afghanistan is once again under the hands of fundamental Islamists.
The Taliban are marching towards Kabul and in a few hours, their forces will take over command of the country.
The president of Afghanistan has already escaped in Tajikistan and a big part of the 40 million Afghan population is massively exiting the country, migrating towards Europe.
An event that will have various consequences, starting with the millions of political refugees that are expected to walk towards Europe and ask for asylum. A similar event to the Syrian civil-war immigration waves.
The Taliban state will be a brutal and authoritarian regime enforcing a strict approach in governance.
The US-led coalition, which recently withdrawn almost all forces, did not turn Afghanistan into a modern democracy as it was proclaiming.
The US government has spent more than $2 trillion in war efforts and reconstruction of the country. And it was all in vain since nothing changed. They found Osama Bin Laden and executed him, but was all of this required just to take revenge on a single person?
Tens of thousands of Afghans fought against the Taliban and lost their lives for a free country, yet this didn't seem to matter. Once the geopolitical value was decreased Afghans were abandoned to the hands of a weak government and an army incapable of defeating the organized Taliban forces.
Modern History - A Nation Ravaged by Wars
Back in 2001, 911 was a tremendous shock that caused an unfortunate string of events.
George Bush Junior, the president that led the "War on Terror" and the hawks of Washington, declared their plans. First, it was Afghanistan and a little later Iraq.
Any online information on Afghanistan was instantly censored. Wikipedia page on Afghanistan was down.
With total respect to Americans, the shock was too much to bear and the news was taking advantage of it, brainwashing the population. Anyone in the same position would demand from the world's top military to act and bring those responsible to justice.
When a superpower at the magnitude of the US gets attacked, retaliation is the only outcome. I do not condone the war in Afghanistan but I see it as a precursor for the second war that followed in Iraq.
In 2001, Afghanistan was the poorest country in the world. And it seems that the Taliban and Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden managed to plan and perfectly execute an attack that would change everything from that moment.
The geopolitical importance of Afghanistan is enormous for the region. It was the first defeat of the Red Army (USSR). It was the USA that created and funded the Taliban to block the USSR expansion in Central Asia.
Afghanistan is war-ridden country. It is home to 40 million in population and since there are wars fought constantly, the side that seized the power radicalizes the population.
But Afghanistan was not this secluded and not always run by a repressive regime.
Before the Soviet invasion of 1979 and the guerilla war that followed and lasted for 9 years, the Afghan country was resembling one of the Western societies. It was a booming society and economy and a nation that was defending civil liberties. The Soviets required Afghanistan as part of their geopolitical expansion, invaded the country, and taken control of Kabul in 1980.
Image from: Source
A 9-year guerilla war was fought with the US, UK, China, Pakistan, and other regional powers in support of Afghan Mujahidin's. The Afghan population and the different factions within the country united against the Soviets. Eventually, the nine-year war led to the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan and the Mujahedin declared victory in 1989.
But this wasn’t a victory that united Afghanistan. A struggle for power after the victory began and a civil war erupted in the 90s.
The Mujahedin victory, today, is not widely celebrated as it was a predecessor of the most violent moments Afghanistan is suffering from ever since.
After the Soviet occupation, some factions blamed the US for the poverty and situation of their country. Regional interests and conflicts fueled the civil war that erupted in 1992. The four-year civil war had as an outcome, the Taliban forces rising to power in 1996 and establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Image from: wikipedia
The picture above explains the impact of the 90s Afghan civil war. The country was once again devastated after massive bombings with the aid of Pakistan leaders that wanted to seize power for the Taliban regime.
In 1996, the Taliban gained control and ruled the country with authoritarianism under strict Sariah rule and an anti-American stance.
Rally against the Taliban (Peshawar). Source: Wikipedia Commons
For the American geopolitics, all that mattered was to increase its presence in Central Asia. The US spent over two trillion dollars in these twenty years and nothing really changed for the living conditions of 40 million Afghans.
The Taliban turned to diplomacy and the remaining Afghan army had no real fighting capability against the sheer numbers and extreme tactics of the Taliban. The slaughters increased, and the Afghan army wasn’t ready to defeat the Taliban after the US army evacuation.
While we don’t know yet why the Taliban marched with ease and took over Kabul without a fight, it is possible that the Afghan army wanted to avoid unnecessary slaughter of thousands of civilians as the Taliban had threatened to perform.
What Next?
We will witness increased immigration from Afghanistan into Europe. Europe will have to accept political refugees and everyone of Afghan nationality will be a war refugee. Many will immigrate just because they would want a better life outside of a strict authoritarian regime that is notorious for its brutality and the clampdown of political dissidents. Afghanistan wasn’t providing any religious freedom, even under the US occupation. Religious minorities suffer and are considered second-class citizens, having no voting rights and most times, being treated unfairly.
The Taliban regime is expected to enforce extreme punishment methods like stoning, beheadings, and dismemberment, as it did under its previous ruling, and will govern in similar ways with the Islamic State.
It is a very sad moment for a world that today looks into space and tries to find answers. We are just a century away from beginning the colonization of our solar system, and yet humanity is still so immature and driven by stupidity.
The Taliban, the Islamic State, and any kind of aggression is not the action though, but the reaction. It is the mistake made by the foreign intervention of superpowers since the colonial ages.
It is a country that has fought wars since Alexander the Great conquered these lands. It fought the Great Brittain, the Soviet Union, and was invaded by the US-led coalition. Under these conditions, anyone born in the Afghan region is born a fighter. This is what the US occupation could not change and the Taliban will only replace the puppet government with an even worse one.
The refugee waves are already increasing and Europe will also have to face the consequences of this war that started 20 years ago. The worst of course is for those people that will have to abandon everything and try to find peace thousands of miles away from home.
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Hello from here too @Pantera ! I have read your article in doses during the previous days and I read it again fully now. Thanks for all the valuable information and history facts on the subject. It's a really awful thing what happens with these countries and the invasiveness by the "big forces" and even more awful is the fact that for so many years people in the West could not have a grasp of what is going on, where, why and how they are connected. And the most important question, how can this be tolerated in the name of anything.
I really hope that we will collectively start learning the history and the facts as thoroughly as possible and start taking a stand against it. Also help in any way we can.
Does anyone have knowledge or ideas on how people from all around the world can help these countries and people completely get their lives and lands back, free of foreign interests and authoritarian regimes?