THE DEFEAT OF YET ANOTHER SUPERPOWER AT THE HANDS OF A RAG TAG BUNCH OF PRIMITIVE AFGHAN FIGHTERS

 History repeats itself

               Vietnam 1975                                            Kabul 2021

             Desperate Afghan nationals clung to the U.S. aircraft and fell to their deaths.

The Soviet Union bit the dust in Afghanistan in 1989 and now another arrogant Superpower, the United States of America bites the dust in Afghanistan in 2021. This is despite the fact that U.S. lost the war and ran from Vietnam with its tail between its legs in 1975 and yet again history repeats itself as the U.S. runs from Aghanistan exactly in the same manner in 2021. Desperate Afghans clinging to helicopters/aircraft in the hope of redemption for siding with the U.S. over the last 20 years and being the partners in the death and destruction of over 100,000 Afghans.

The U.S. in its wisdom built an Afghan Army of 300,000 strong and equipped it Western-style but when the push came to a shove, the 'American trained' Afghan soldiers capitulated like a house of cards, or perhaps they did not want to fight their Taliban brethren. The U.S. in its arrogance forgot that Afghans don't need training and even a five-year-old kid is better at handling an automatic weapon than a fully laden American soldier. The Afghans only joined the army to get a salary and over the years many disappeared with their weapons and joined the ranks of the Taliban and yet the Americans kept raising and equipping more Afghan soldiers.

The Afghan leadership that was planted by the United States came to power through rigged elections and with only 5% voter turnout. Fiest Hamid Karzai and later Ashraf Ghani proved to be must corrupt drug peddlers while the U.S. conveniently looked the other way. The so-called Democracy was nothing but a farce and had no public support. The way Ashraf Ghani escaped from Kabul and tried to take suitcases full of dollars shows the lack of credibility of such criminal leaders.

India was allowed a free hand in Afghanistan by the U.S. setting up five consulates and several training centres throughout Afghanistan. Their notorious intelligence agency RAW jointly with Afghanistan's NDS to finance terrorists to launch bomb attacks in Pakistan. The biggest crime was the cold-blooded murder of 165 innocent children of Army Public School, Peshawar by the Indian financed TTP, a criminal organisation of exiled Pakistani Taliban. Mr. Ajit Duval , Modi's National Security Advisor is on record admitting financing the TTP to launch attacks into Pakistan. They also financed the bogus Balochistan Liberation movement. All this under the nose of the American occupiers and no doubt with their blessings. The terrorism supported by the U.S., India and Afghanistan was as bad as if not worse than the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. It is a shame that a country that suffered such massive tragedy had a hand in terrorism in this region.

Many a great power have disappeared over the course of history. The Soviet Union evaporated after its invasion of Afghanistan, it remains to be seen if the U.S. follows suit.

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THE SHAM ELECTIONS IN AFGHANISTAN

Vote rigging, ballot box stuffing, duplicate ballots, validity and final outcome of elections in doubt, no we are not talking about Iranian elections but Afghan elections supervised by U.S. and NATO. In one District alone, not a single vote was caste and yet all 38,000 votes showed up in one candidate's column. Where is the outrage? Why are the U.S. leaders not raving and ranting about it and why is Mr. Fareed Zakaria not blowing hot and cold on CNN's GPS Program?

Before the elections, NATO's representative in charge of overseeing the elections foolishly claimed an expected 80% voter turnout. The actual number seems well below 30%. Even in India, a country with perpetual 62 year democracy and frequent election history, voter turnout has not yet reached 80%, it is usually around 60%.

Obviously NATO does not understand Afghanistan where half the population i.e. women are not allowed by their husbands/fathers to go out of their houses let alone participate in elections. This shows a complete lack of understanding of Afghan culture and realities on the ground. It begs the question, if after eight years of presence on the ground, U.S. and NATO still do not understand Afghanistan, then what are they doing there?

The West is trying to succeed in Afghanistan by pinning its hopes on two men with tainted background. Mr. Hamid Karzai's is alleged to have enriched himself through corruption and by giving free reign to his brother, reported to be the biggest drug czar in Afghanistan. Mr. Abdullah Abdullah represents the Northern Alliance, a group with criminal history. When Kabul fell during the civil war under Alliance's control for a couple of months, they looted every house, murdered many able bodied men and raped as many women as they could. Also, a component of the Alliance headed by Rashid Dostum of Mazar-e-Sharif, who after the U.S. invasion is alleged to have killed over 1,000 people by locking them in cargo containers for months on end without food or water. Mr. Abdullah Abdullah may not himself be involved in any killings, but he is supported by these criminal elements. Hoping that people like Karzai and Abdullah can bring renaissance to Afghanistan is like handing over power to the I.R.A. in Northern Ireland and the Mafia in the U.S.

Afghanistan needs reconciliation and new leadership. It needs new faces and until new leadership is developed, civility and peace is not likely return to that country. The West's efforts of nation building are doomed to failure as long as it continues to provide oxygen to leaders with criminal background in Afghanistan.

US IS LOSING THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, IN PRESENT CONDITIONS AFGHAN ELECTIONS WOULD BE MEANINGLESS AND SHOULD BE POSTPONED

US is fighting an un-winnable war in Afghanistan. They are hoping to achieve results by use of military means that neither the British Raj could in a hundred years nor the Soviets with a much larger manpower and equipment. US Military Commanders know that they are losing this war, only no one has the courage to stand up and tell it to the Administration. There are no General Shinsekis any more.

The Afghan elections due to be held in August will be meaningless under these conditions and should be postponed for at least another six months. An interim Administration comprised of impartial and moderate elements (not Zalmay Khalilzad as he will be seen as a US plant) should replace the corrupt Government of Hamid Karzai. To achieve fair and impartial elections, interim leaders must pledge not to be candidates in the elections.

It is time to bring this war to an end and settle Afghanistan politically and not militarily. Continuation of this war is destroying the entire region as Taliban cross over into Pakistan and create problems for their security forces. After initial contacts are established with Taliban there should be a cease fire under which all military activity comes to a halt. Then a conference of all Afghan players (including Taliban) should be called to discuss participation in next elections. Without stopping the war a political settlement is unlikely, so fighting will continue. After the disastrous Iraq war, US public has little capacity to stomach this war and if things continue on the present course, US will probably have to up and leave in a couple of years, leaving behind a bigger mess.

It is imperative that military activities come to an end and a political solution starts to take hold as soon as possible. It is a fallacy that Taliban can be defeated and then development can begin in Afghanistan. Taliban are not likely to be defeated so real development cannot begin. How can foreign troops hope to defeat the locals who are supported by some of the same war lords who claim to side with NATO and at the same time finance Taliban from their profitable poppy crops. The decision to allow Afghans to grow poppy (completely eradicated during Taliban rule as un Islamic) has been one of the biggest mistakes of Afghan war. More than likely Mr. Karzai and his henchmen were behind this decision, no wonder his brother is now allegedly the largest drug dealer in Afghanistan.

Nearly 50% of Afghan population is Pashtun and yet for the last five years they have not had proper representation in the Afghan Government. After the US invasion, most dominant players running the Government were from the Northern Alliance, a minority non-Pashtun group defeated by Taliban earlier. They forced their will over Hamid Karzai and virtually controlled the Government. Situation has changed somewhat since then, but still Pashtun majority does not have a fair representation.

To start an all party dialogue, it is important to bring Taliban to the table, but this will not happen under a Karzai Government. A neutral interim administration comprised of elders is much more likely to make it happen. First, the US has to realize that Taliban are inclusive and not exclusive to Afghan society, so they need to be brought to the conference table. Some Afghan elders have already shown willingness to help start this process and this should be taken advantage of.

Only a fair and impartial election with all parties participating (including Taliban) can bring a representative Government to Afghanistan. Ever since Soviet invasion in 1979 Afghanistan has been devastated by war and the country needs a major economic plan. Pakistan has also paid a heavy price for supporting and training Mujaheddin against Soviet forces and by the influx of three million Afghan refugees, one million of which still reside there. Also, influx of Afghan weapons into Pakistan since 1979 has played havoc in their society, virtually destroying law and order.

Instead of spending one hundred billion dollars on a losing war, US and NATO should create a 'Marshall, style plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Probably a much lower figure than the cost of war (say) $25 billion will bring massive development to both countries, creating new schools, building new roads and markets, airports etc.

Peaceful Afghanistan and Pakistan can start building oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to the Arabian sea away past the Straits of Hormuz to ensure safe and unlimited supply of oil and gas to US, Europe, and the Far East in addition to meeting energy needs of these two countries.