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JUNE 2021 Download this Article
For nothing?
Twenty long years and NATO is coming to terms that they must quit. Unfortunately, the US quitting is too early and too fast, leaving the region vulnerable.
More than 125,000 civilians, nearly 6,000 US troops and contractors and 1.100 from NATO countries. 20,600 are injured, suffering from post-traumatic syndrome. About 60,000 Afghan security forces were killed.
(Different sources have different numbers, but they are in the same range)
There is no precise estimate about the tolls taken by the Taliban, but it is estimated to be around 50,000. They also include the children suicide bombers who were allegedly coaxed into blowing themselves up.
The cost of human lives on both sides have been devastating. Statistics, though unbelievable, still cannot reflect the magnitude of pain endured by the families losing their loved ones for the last two decades.
The list of war crimes is numerous on either side too. Afghanistan, like Iraq, had been an epicentre of the worst war led humanitarian crisis.
The economic cost to US taxpayers is about $ 1 Trillion. Education and tuition fees for all students in the US could have been free with that sum of money.
While the US is now focussing only on a safe passage of NATO troops out of Afghanistan, not many questions human cost.
As a principle, the capitalist hemisphere derives benefit from every unit of cost spent. Is someone trying to account for the benefit that NATO and particularly the US have gained?
The war destroyed the Afghan families and villages. Generation of a single-family wiped out because a click on the drone console dropped arsenal on a marriage party.
There are many incidents like this one. Thousands of children were born after the NATO invasion and killed before the dawn of peace.
Those left crippled with poverty for no role of theirs. Afghanistan is a symbol of human catastrophe, all manufactured. This misery will continue for ages to comes in the destabilized region.
There are conflicting ideologies at war and no counterweight to calm things down.
The soldiers and the private contractors who lost their lives are irreplaceable for their families. When they flew into Afghanistan, they were there to punish the culprits of 9/11 and bring a civil society.
Little did they knew; they will die in vain. It is now that their families realize that deceit by their governments has lost their loved ones.
For those injured with a permanent disability, each step they walk reminds them about being used for no benefit. Veterans, anyway, are coping with mental health issues and economic troubles.
There are few things left for them to pursue as a career. Whatever will come their way is a makeshift option.
All these questions are arising today for a reason.
We are where, we were 20 years ago. The only difference is that today the NATO wants to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.
If the US and NATO allies took the same approach two decades ago, it would have saved many lives. The other difference is that the world is a more dangerous place now.
The hate west propaganda and terrorism is at an all-time high. It will only rise, as the negativity NATO adventure has created without purpose is way too much for generations to forgive and forget.
It is all good video documented in bulk and will be maliciously used to recruit avengers. So if NATO and others think that a peace talk will make the Taliban take a positive stance, their assumption is wrong.
On the other hand, nothing will stop the Taliban from walking out of peace talk and violently take over Kabul. They have supported both as moral and economic across the border from Pakistan.
There is a trade route via Chaman Spin Boldak, which are in control of the Taliban now. Moreover, the goodwill of the US in Pakistan is at an all-time low. They might have been allies once, now not more.
Who has benefited from the Afghan and Iraq wars? The defence industry as well as the security surveillance industry. When the war started, there were no drones. Now they are watching each square inch of the enemy territory.
They have become a lethal weapon against obscuring enemies like the Al-Qaeda and Taliban. The same technology has now grown its application into domestic policing and managing security.
Although it has made borders safe and alert to oncoming attacks, sooner this technology will fall into the wrong hands too. It is a dangerous trend.
The other outcome of this war is the high alert the world is experiencing for the last twenty years. The security systems employed at the airport and other vital installations have made a fortress out of this planet.
Surveillance cameras with face recognition and tracing have become common. Thus, the big brother has taken birth after 9/11, who is now growing into a giant monster.
Afghanistan was producing 11% of world opium before 2001. After that, opium production has increased to 93% of the world’s requirements.
It is solely to fund the Taliban’s war on NATO in Afghanistan and across the globe. Unofficially, opium accounts for 50% of Afganistan’s GDP today.
There are now talks about creating the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan again. Like the rise of ISIS after the US withdrew from Iraq, the same threatre is played.
Let us trace back to Nathan Ross Chapman, the first US soldier to die in Afghanistan. If asked in 2001 whether his sacrifice would result in Afghanistan of 2021, he would have opted out of it.
The same would be the answer of all the four thousand soldiers, too. As for the Afghans who died, many were too young even to understand the concept of war. For others remaining, they didn’t have a choice but to be there at the wrong time.
Accountability?
Those who declared war and those who supported the idea of war are not in their position anymore. George Bush is not President anymore. Donald Rumsfeld is dead.
British PM Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and others are happily retired. The leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, is killed by US operations, and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar died in Pakistan out of natural causes.
He was the leader at the time of the 9/11 attacks sheltering Al-Qaeda. There have been three US presidents, four British prime ministers, and numerous army generals gone in those two decades. So whose war was it anyway?
It is not the first time, in our recent history, soldiers have fought a purposeless war. In fact, after World War II, all wars fought by NATO and the US have ended without a favourable result.
Whether it was Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan war, the most sophisticated armed countries have the most dismal outcome record.
Their armies have taken a severe toll, and still, lessons have not been learnt.
From the graves and their lonely loved ones, voices are asking, “Why?”
Photo Credit: By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ace Rheaume - This image was released by the United States Navy with the ID 100628-N-0475R-287
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