The last American soldiers are only supposed to leave Afghanistan a month from now, but the Taliban has already reached the capital Kabul. It is true that the Biden administration thought that, with the withdrawal of the American forces, the Taliban would take control of the country within a few months, but they never thought that it would happen within a few days.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The sight of the hurried evacuation of the Americans from Saigon, Vietnam, in April 1975, as well as the frenzied flight of thousands of refugees in the face of the advancing Vietcong troops, is now repeating itself in a major way all over Afghanistan, as around a thousand witnesses testify. In Washington, they have not learned anything from history.
There was no more just war than the one American embarked on towards the end of 2001, with the goal of destroying the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This regime had provided refuge and assistance to the Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin-Laden, who was behind the September 11 attacks in 2001, which led to thousands of deaths in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan was an oppressive regime, exactly like that of the Islamic State, which is nourished by the same sources of inspiration. The Taliban jailed women in their homes, forbade the entry of Western culture and technology into the country, as well as non-religious education to children, and even barbarically destroyed archaeological treasures from the pre-Islamic history of the country. But there are oppressive regimes in many countries, and the international community does not do anything to overthrow them.
But in Afghanistan, and two years later also in Iraq, American ambitiousness knew no bounds. Washington sought not only to punish the Taliban, but also to build an Afghan nation, in a place where the people's allegiances are to their families or tribes, and definitely not to an imagined nation that does not exist.
The Americans brought success to Afghanistan, paved roads, and developed the economy. They brought the winds of change to many Afghanis, who now had open to the possibilities of education and employment. But a nation has no builders, rather it develops and grows slowly by itself, and definitely not as a response to foreign dictates. The American experience in Japan and in Germany after World War II is not relevant in the case before us, which involves a traditional population, backward and lacking in national identity.
Many Afghans were rewarded by the American presence, but many more were left behind and chose to give priority to tradition instead of changing the world order and in preference to a foreign and threatening world of Western values and culture.
Above all this, the government that the Americans installed was rotten and corrupt, maintained by dollars and reliant on American soldiers' bayonets. And like a story with a predictable ending, the moment the Americans announced their intention to withdraw from the country, the regime collapsed like a house of cards. In 2001, maybe it would have been better for them to have struck a blow against the Taliban and left the country, avoiding two decades of bloodshed.
The United States doesn't have to worry. It remains a strong and secure power, which at the end of the day is looking to cut its losses. It will continue to thrive even without Afghanistan, and even North Vietnam later became an ally of America, economically reliant upon it (because of a fear of China of course).
But the heart goes out to the Afghan people, who have fallen to a brutal regime that is determined to set the country and its people back a thousand years. In any case, no one asks for their opinion, and anyway, they have neither the desire nor the strength to oppose it. If there was, we would see a bit more opposition to the Taliban and minimal mobilization in support of the government.
One can only hope that the 2021 Taliban will be one who has learned the lesson, both from the 2001 Taliban and from ISIS. And who knows, maybe in the future it will become an ally of Washington, because of its hostility towards Iran and Russia.
Either way, the lesson is clear. In world politics, there are no friends, only interests. And nobody will volunteer to protect someone who is not capable of defending themselves.
Like a story with a predictable ending, the moment the Americans announced they were withdrawing from Afghanistan, the regime collapsed like a house of cards. It would have been better for them to have struck a blow against the Taliban in 2001 and left the country.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
