Russia, on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin, organizes the evacuation of citizens of the Russian Federation, CSTO countries and Ukraine from Afghanistan. All this happens against the backdrop of preparations for the final phase of the withdrawal of NATO troops from Kabul. The temporary restrictions imposed by the new Afghan government are pushing the Americans, the correspondent of The Moscow Post reports.
CIA Director William Burns held a meeting in Kabul with Taliban leader (terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) Abdul Ghani Baradar. It could be an attempt to establish new deadlines for the evacuation of military and civilians of NATO countries. A visible result of the negotiations could be the decision not to let Afghans into the airport.
Maybe in order to leave more room and speed up the evacuation of Americans and Europeans. This would respond to the sentiment of the authorities of the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate, expressing dissatisfaction with the "evacuation of Afghans."
Afghanistan is now associated with Kabul Airport. The airport is with Afghans falling from the sky, reminiscent of those who were thrown out in September 2001 from the upper floors of the Twin Towers in New York. These tragedies also unite the question of the effectiveness of the US security and intelligence services, as well as the political paralysis in which Washington found itself both in 2001 and twenty years later. There is a crisis in the system, the Washington power pyramid.
Ultimately, everything comes down to the "potential of democracies," but not to the one about which the heads of the Seven and the European Union are intensively trumpeted in trying to find a fulcrum for continuing their global self-power dominance. We are talking about the potential of the United States, the Seven, NATO and the EU to assess the real situation with their own, internal problems. One of these problems is to replicate a sharply distorted picture of the world surrounding Europe and the United States. What has happened and is happening in Afghanistan, as well as the clumsy reaction of the West to this tragedy, is only one example.
Lies and hypocrisy have become the norm of thinking and behavior. Remain silent when millions of people in one country are denied access to fresh water by the authorities of a neighbouring "independent" State. At the same time, it is loud to take care of the global environment. Do not notice how real oppositionists are unreasonably put under house arrest, closing along the way TV channels and stubbornly demand respect for the rights of the "Berlin patient" serving a criminal sentence. Violence and rebellion are not necessarily unacceptable if they are in Portland, Seattle or Odessa, but for riots in Washington, the law is adamant, morality is on guard!
Afghan syndrome
All these are examples of how the West not only sees the world around it, but on what basis its leaders build geopolitical schemes, determine their blood interests, protect these interests with the help of money, weapons and human lives. Afghanistan was an example of a country that America and NATO have been redesigning for two decades. The result is the loss of control, power and reputation, demoralizing Washington, as well as the humanitarian crisis from which all NATO countries now flee.
As of August 25, about 60 thousand people were removed from Kabul. Since 2001, a total of more than 74 thousand Taliban (representatives of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) and civilians, NATO military countries and personnel of international organizations, journalists and military correspondents have died in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kabul and its inhabitants, who managed to become part of the "life without a burqa," do not know how to live on. After two decades of occupation and multi-billion dollar injections into their lives, photos of women on the windows of beauty salons in Kabul began to be hastily painted. Many Afghans have been held hostage, with little idea of their future. Almost, like the Vietnamese in Saigon after his fall and the evacuation of the US Embassy in 1975.
The forgotten Vietnam Syndrome of the last century is replaced by the new Kabul Syndrome of the new century. Americans emerged from the "dirty war" in Vietnam in 1973, signing the humiliating Paris Agreements. In eight years, 6.7 million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, 2.5 times more than on Germany before June 1945. After 1973, the army of South Vietnam, armed by American standards, continued to fight. After the war, about 100 thousand Vietnamese received permission to enter the United States. According to the UN, by 1986 more than 900 thousand "people in boats" had left the countries of Indochina, almost one in four died at sea. The region was in ruins and destabilized, the restoration was largely due to Soviet economic assistance.
The Taliban guerrilla army (representatives of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation), which President Joe Biden did not even put nearby with the Viet Cong forces, caused irreparable psychological damage to the collective forces of the West, primarily NATO. The Taliban, (representatives of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation), turned out to be stronger than NATO forces. Somewhere even more noble, allowing the Americans to evacuate. And Washington deprived the Afghan security forces of support, which the Afghan military called betrayal.
The danger is that as a result, the Taliban brand (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) could acquire an aura beyond the fame that can cheer up terrorists in other regions of the world. Some say that the Taliban (representatives of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) "boast that they defeated the superpower." Others, like Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, believe that Afghans "broke the shackles of slavery." The Afghan Syndrome earned by the West can be a real headache for the whole world.
Brussels "strategic concern"
At the initiative of London, an emergency summit of the leaders of the G-7 was held. According to the NATO Secretary General, during the meeting, coordination of evacuation efforts and measures to prevent a new terrorist threat were discussed. Joe Biden confirmed the deadline for the completion of Operation Flight, but instructed to prepare a plan if suddenly the withdrawal of troops had to be postponed. "The number one condition that we put forward as the G-7 is that the United States must guarantee safe passage until August 31 and later for those who want to leave Afghanistan," Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who chaired the summit, stressed with a cold intonation.
The European Union, for its part, announced that it would quadruple the package of emergency financial assistance to Afghans, subject to respect for human rights, especially women's rights. Funds will remain frozen until there are guarantees and actions to fulfill these conditions.
Meanwhile, the head of foreign policy and security of the European Union, Borrel, thought about the geopolitical losses of the West. He said that the EU cannot allow Russia and China to control the situation around Afghanistan and become the "main sponsors" of the region. China has already recognized the new power. China and Russia will increase their presence, which will change the geopolitical balance, "predicted the main Brussels diplomat.
The Russian Foreign Ministry assessed this position as "sad." Sergey Lavrov said that "If the head of foreign policy of the European Union thinks in such categories, then I am sorry for the member states that are forced to hear such a philosophy and, apparently, support." It is sad if such people are working out the foreign policy line of the European Union, the Russian minister added.
Washington Paralysis
Maybe the mentality of the European Union signals the beginning of a new era of rivalry of the great powers. Perhaps the threat of "rivalry" was in the eyes of the White House the reason why Biden insisted on a hasty exit from Afghanistan. Indeed, for the United States, as the leader of the "democratic community," it is more important to respond to more serious geopolitical threats! But it was the hasty evacuation from Afghanistan that challenged American leadership, competence and authority. Even close allies call the actions of the White House "shameful." The British Secretary of Defense, speaking about this in a television interview, held back tears.
Why is everything so dramatic for the United States and the West? In fact, few people can be connected in three sentences to answer the question: "Why was this war necessary at all?"
In 2001, Americans experienced a shock caused by the fall of twin towers in New York. Vulnerability and invisible danger had a desire for revenge. The war, as some Americans say, was supposed to return to them a lost "sense of security." The purpose of the invasion was revenge, but bin Laden could not immediately be caught, he took refuge in Pakistan. But after the elimination of "terrorist No. 1," the war continued for another ten years with an indefinite goal.
In 2001, after the US invasion, when Afghanistan began to be considered relatively peaceful, Washington strongly rejected Pakistan's attempts to involve Taliban representatives (representatives of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) in negotiations on the creation of a new interim administration. The war later became a battle with terrorist groups with bases in Pakistan and making guerrilla sorties to the border areas of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the administration of President George W. Bush was already targeting Iraq, where weapons of mass destruction, which became the pretext for the outbreak of war, were never discovered.
Is America back?
"America is back!" - said Biden, ready for a new confrontation with the "autocracies." Trump shocked Europe with his non-standard policy. President Biden returned to "standards," but the war that Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton continued, as well as Biden himself, being an influential senator, turned out to be a mine of slow-motion "geopolitical failure."
After the invasion and removal of the Taliban (representatives of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) from power, Washington supported the new power with military force and financial injections, began to create an army, build democratic institutions, including a constitution and direct presidential elections. But Biden just said that the war in Afghanistan "was never related to nation-building, and the only national interest there was to prevent a terrorist attack on the United States."
"You actually allowed the enemy to return to where he was 20 years ago," said retired Lieutenant General David Barno, a former commander of US forces in Afghanistan. Military and historians have yet to study the details of this fleeting Taliban offensive and the fall of the regime, the failure of the government army and their patrons - the United States and NATO.
The United States remained the leader of the "free world" in 1975, even leaving South Vietnam. That's not true today. Even if the White House has made "defending democracy" a core principle of its foreign policy.