Afghanistan Fall Out: Who Is Actually Responsible? – OpEd
By Ahsan Zaheer
Afghanistan “The Graveyard of Empire” once again, proved to be a graveyard for USA and NATO forces this time in 21st century on August 15, 2021. Whoever came to Afghanistan for invasion, felt sheer embarrassment and big time failure. Unfortunately, people and empires never learn from history. Same result United States got in Afghanistan after trying to conquer it for so many years. United States had spent billions of Dollars in Afghan war and ended up by giving government to Taliban once again.
Question arises here, who to blame for Afghanistan collapse? Why and how it happened so quickly and completely? Was it previous Afghanistan government led by President Ashruf Ghani or United States and West? Or we should blame neighboring countries and supporters of proxy war? Answer is, “Yes.” Everyone is responsible some way or other for Afghanistan falls down like this in a swift manner. Every one contributed in it and United States is a major shareholder of all this game.
Now, millions of people are living a miserable life in Afghanistan and they have no option and resources to go somewhere. There are health related issues and hospitals are short of funds. Unemployment rate is at its peak for Afghani public. Food shortages have become the biggest problem for Afghan people. Many Children and adults could be the victim of this food shortage. These all factors indicate that situation is alarming in Afghanistan.
Senior military officials blamed Former President Donald Trump for Afghanistan collapse and called this decision (withdrawal of Forces) a big blunder related to US policy towards Afghanistan.
General Frank McKenzie, the head of Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that once the US troop presence was pushed below 2,500 as part of Washington’s bid to complete a total withdrawal by the end of August, the unraveling of the US-backed Afghan government accelerated.
The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military – psychological more than anything else, but we set a date – certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end,” McKenzie said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, testifying alongside McKenzie, said he agreed with McKenzie’s analysis.
We cannot ignore the fact about former President of Afghanistan Ashruf Ghani bad policies and governess issues. Afghan citizens never accepted Ashruf Ghani and they were totally against him. Ashruf Ghani was under lot of corruption allegations as well. Throughout his tenure, Ashruf Ghani failed badly to convince Taliban for negotiations and ceasefire. Afghanistan history will remember Ashruf Ghani as a traitor and a puppet of US.
Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen has blamed Ashraf Ghani for the chaos that the country witnessed after August 15 and said that he did a mistake by abandoning the government all of a sudden. “When the Taliban were ‘looking forward to a peaceful transfer of power and the fighters were waiting outside the gate of Kabul, Ashraf Ghani suddenly fled.”
Neighboring country, like India was supporting its own terrorist groups as a part of proxy war to achieve its objectives in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Especially, India used Afghan soil to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan. Pakistan has exposed Indian sponsored terrorism from Afghanistan many times before the world. Similarly few other countries were also supporting their proxies to achieve their objectives in Afghanistan.
In Afghan-US war, one who really suffered is people of Afghanistan. Children and women are badly affected and deprived from their rights. Now it’s the responsibility of the world to compensate Afghan people by helping them out from this man made crisis. Whole World, especially United States should keep helping Afghan people and Taliban government economically to cope with this crisis and to bring stability in Afghanistan. Now, World cannot ignore Afghanistan: every country needs to step out for help to bring prosperity, peace and stability in Afghanistan. Remember the fact: Peaceful Afghanistan is in interest for the world and for the region.
Ahsan Zaheer is a freelance journalist and Islamabad based analyst. You can reach me at: [email protected]