What now with the Taliban?
Now that the Taliban rule Afghanistan, let’s reflect back on the circumstances that led to their institution and where to go from here.
Afghanistan itself can be viewed as the exemplary case of the awful practices and consequences of US imperial foreign policy, characterized by its global policing — similar to Teddy Roosevelt in Latin America — and hawkish military actions. Many people across the developed West (US, UK) view places like Afghanistan and the larger Middle Eastern region as a matrix for Muslim fundamentalism, uncivilized culture, terrorist safe havens, and ultimate oppressors of women. However, if the Judeo-Christian world wants to preserve its legacy, it should avoid its own hypocrisy by not ignoring the evil actions committed by their own members in the name of their God, as well as not reducing all of Islam to a religion composed of depraved brown terrorists. It is the KKK that upholds Christianity as the white race’s religion and source of moral conduct, with the burning of the cross as its central symbolic display of Christian teachings. Further, it is apartheid Israel’s pro-Zionist offensive exemplified by its genocidal actions and ethnic cleansing that is carried out against the people of Palestine. Therefore, if a Christian or a Jew despicably posits the Taliban as the major representation of Islam, then the same can be applied to them with the KKK/white-nationalist and Zionist/Israeli actions. The point is that every major religion will have its unforeseen terrible excesses, used in ways to justify a myriad of atrocities or strict regimentation of life, and it is vital to have open and honest discourse on each one — including all the dirty secrets and horrible byproducts.
I went through some of the YouTube comment sections on the various mainstream media videos covering the events, and one can see right away the ignorance, xenophobia, and lack of empathy displayed towards the Afghans. While this can be seen as New right populist supporters conveying their jingoism, I think there’s more here; namely, an indication of a general lack of historical education among the western citizenry (especially young adults), leading to comments purely stemming from echo chambers that have no factual or logical basis.
By analyzing the history of Afghanistan’s politics, you can quickly learn that during the 1970s the country was the preeminent secular, liberally (moderate policies) progressive state in Western Asia. Ruled by a king who was open to western business and political interests, the country was rapidly modernizing through the support of both Cold War superpowers which eventually culminated in the 1978 Saur revolution that ended the king’s reign and saw the powerful communist party take control — achieved without assistance from the Soviets. The ensuing Soviet-Afghan war led to US support of the Islamic insurgent Mujahideen (freedom fighters) forces as a proxy extension of the Cold War. With the victory against the Soviets, the U.S.-backed jihad forces regressed back into civil war, constituted by a multi-faction struggle for state and religious control over the country — the victors being the newly emerged Taliban movement composed of those formerly part of the Mujahideen that aimed to inscribe strict Islamic law. Al-Qaeda also formed after the war as a militant organization aimed at supporting other Islamist jihads (struggles) in the Middle East against corrupt Muslim leaderships and foreign presence. As a result of being forcibly integrated into Cold War global politics, the country reconverted back into fundamentalism. Given this, the turn to Islamic fundamentalism under the Taliban was not due to conservative-feudal inclinations or the remnants of evil customs belonging to an outmoded religion; rather, it is due to their involuntary involvement in global politics and their subsequent defensive-minded reaction against external forces like the US and Saudi Arabia. It is therefore no surprise that the Taliban’s mode of approach is extremely militant and antagonistic towards western hegemony (imperialism) and ideology (liberal democracy, capitalism).
Now we know that US intervention in Afghanistan had nothing to do with the “war on terror’’ via stopping where Al-Qaeda was situated, since the real locations of Al-Qaeda central command was located in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, two close middle eastern allies they would never go to war with. The goal of the war was to try and reassert the US empire’s global hegemonic position as the top military, political, and ideological superpower (with the secondary factor being to ensure stable cheap oil prices and flows). They failed, which explained their disastrous turn to Iraq.
After 20 years of War, the human consequences are severe: over 51,000 civilians — official count — killed in Afghanistan and 24,000 in neighboring Pakistan; 69,000 Afghan government military personnel killed; 2,500 American soldiers killed believing they were protecting their own country and emancipating the Afghan people; and lastly, creating over 5 million displaced refugees in total (either internally or externally) which was a major contribution to the ongoing European migrant crisis and the presence of nomadic proletarians. Furthermore, The US has spent over $2.2 Trillion — public record — on the war alone, leaving it in further ruins with destroyed infrastructure and worsened living conditions for the majority population who are instilled with perpetual fear of violence. Mass killings, rape, kidnappings, advancing the global opium and meth drug trade, indefinite detention of prisoners (Guantanamo Bay, Bagram air base) and torture (CIA black sites) — that’s what the United States brought to Afghanistan for 20 years.
Now with the world media covering the events taking place the last couple of days, the United States lasting legacy will be the Air Force plane taking off with their own nationals, embassy staff, and Afghan citizens who worked with coalition forces, leaving behind the Afghan security forces they trained and interpreters hired; a shameful embarrassment to the declining US empire.
But Capitalism never ceases to benefit from any crisis, as a Taliban spokesperson told BBC world news that they will be open to new business interests and investment opportunities from corporations, including Chinese, Russian and western firms. Just like with the military industrial-complex before it, financial investors will profit from the effects of the war, as aggressive pursuits to form new commercial contracts with the Taliban are underway. The Taliban welcomes anyone that wants to fund their economic development, primarily their physical infrastructure and large-scale mining efforts of their natural resources (their mineral wealth alone valued at over $1 trillion).
Many Americans however will attempt to partially vindicate the illegal occupation carried out by the United States by saying at least they finally withdrew all their troops and they could safely return home to their families. The problem with this sentiment is that it is simply an escape mechanism used to avoid blame; a blame owing to the fact that no viable safety measures were instituted as US forces abandoned the Afghan people — an easy way out for the US. One must also be very careful to avoid the cheap liberal moralist stance towards the country: the impoverished Afghan people will rejoice in their newfound peaceful environment free from foreign intervention, welcoming any new changes or readoption of prior ones that the Taliban will implement. The liberal stance just conveys their lack of theoretical frameworks that lay the basis for viable and rational pragmatic measures.
In retrospect, it is obvious the US should have never invaded Afghanistan as the Taliban were very cooperative and willing to hand over Bin Laden as long as the US provided clear evidence of his involvement in 9/11. They never did, and their adamant position to invade is best expressed by Bush Jr’s response to the Taliban: “There’s no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he’s guilty”. So where do we go from here? Hard to say given the complexities, but we can utilize the inverted version of Marx’s Thesis 11 as a starting reference point: there should not be any fast-sweeping reactionary mobilizations against Afghanistan, all the conditions must be properly interpreted first — there must be critical thinking. With this thinking, carefully planned steps underpinning policies can be ratified.
