For What

“We have won the war, America has lost.” 

“We have won the war, America has lost.”

Taliban spokesman hearing Biden’s Afghan withdrawal statement

 

We began retaliation against Taliban-held Afghanistan two decades ago because they harbored the terrorists who took down the World Trade Center in 2001. Our efforts seem to have succeeded relatively quickly as we imposed a profound and ultimately super-corrupt “democracy” on that tiny mountainous nation, purportedly pushing the former ruling Sunni extremist Taliban regime into oblivion. Our attention was soon distracted in our “fake war,” a pursuit of non-existent weapons of mass destruction and the ouster of former ally Saddam Hussein in Iraq, another interminable war that sort of ended, as that nation’s newly installed Shiite majority began to lean heavily into the camp of its Shiite neighbor, Iran.

 

We succeeded in destabilizing Iraq, empowering Iran, abandoning the Sunni minority in Iraq as well as the Shiite-governed Sunni majority in Syria, just as the worst levels of a continuing drought in Sunni dominated regions of Syria and Iraq turned farms into unproductive dust. The Shiite governments in Syria and Iraq turned a cold shoulder to those farmers’ desperate pleas for assistance… and ISIS stepped into battle, ostensibly in support of those Sunni farmers, but ultimately for regional domination and control. ISIS lost its territory. Pro-Iran Iraq survived in shambles, and Shiite Syrian strongman, Bashar al-Assad, maintained his grip on his decimated people. Russia picked and supported the Shiite cabal. The United States lost, although to this day we pretend that Iraq is an ally.

 

While we focused on Iraq, slowly the Taliban came out of the shadows and began a systematic hit-and-run asynchronous war against the American forces in Afghanistan and the US-imposed government in Kabul. It was a slow war of attrition, filled with IEDs (improvised explosive devices), guerilla tactics, and AK-47s and RPG launchers. The Afghan government, wildly corrupt, never really ever consistently held much more than Kabul and the surrounding areas. Every other part of the nation was “in transition,” a constant give and take with the US and its allies and the Taliban. By then, the world knew from our Vietnam War experience that the American people had no appetite for a struggle that even the local Taliban knew would never end. Unless America replicated its Vietnam experience and just left. It was inevitable. Afghanistan brought such a war to the Soviet Union, which helped unravel that communist nation. America was the next loser-in-training.

 

Although a cornerstone of Donald Trump’s very limited populist platform, withdrawal from those never-ending wars, became virulently opposed by the Republicans in Congress evident in their partisan responses after President Biden’s announcement that we would bring all our troops in Afghanistan home by 9/11/21. Biden noted that we needed to refocus on our true and direct foes, particularly Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

 

Even as the few remaining US troops are engaged in training and support of local Afghan troops, their presence in the region is a political statement of support for the “democratically-elected” government in Kabul. The reality in the rest of the country is that the Taliban are in effective control: “The militants assert their authority through sporadic checkpoints along key roads. As Taliban members stop and question passing cars, Aamir Sahib Ajmal, the local head of the Taliban's intelligence service, tells us they're searching for people linked to the government… ‘We will arrest them, and take them prisoner,’ he says. ‘Then we hand them over to our courts and they decide what will happen next.’

“The Taliban believe victory is theirs. Sitting over a cup of green tea, Haji Hekmat [the Taliban's shadow mayor in Afghanistan's northern Balkh district] proclaims, ‘we have won the war and America has lost.’ The decision by US President Joe Biden to delay the withdrawal of remaining US forces to September, meaning they will remain in the country past the 1 May deadline agreed last year, has sparked a sharp reaction from the Taliban's political leadership. Nonetheless, momentum seems to be with the militants.

“‘We are ready for anything,’ says Haji Hekmat. ‘We are totally prepared for peace, and we are fully prepared for jihad.’ Sitting next to him, a military commander adds: ‘Jihad is an act of worship. Worship is something that, however much of it you do, you don't get tired.’” BBC.com, April 15th. Transparency International’s corruption index, where the bigger the number, the more corrupt the country, places Afghanistan 165th out of the 180 nations it tracks. It is exceptionally unlikely that the existing government can sustain or that the Taliban can be contained by treaty or the Kabul government’s access to its US-supplied military. No matter their pledges. No matter their statements to the contrary. And we know that reality. The BBC continues:

“For the past year, there has been an apparent contradiction in the Taliban's ‘jihad.’ They stopped attacks on international forces following the signing of an agreement with the US, but continued to fight with the Afghan government. Haji Hekmat, though, insists there is no contradiction. ‘We want an Islamic government ruled by the Sharia. We will continue our jihad until they accept our demands.’… On whether or not the Taliban would be willing to share power with other Afghan political factions, Haji Hekmat defers to the group's political leadership in Qatar. ‘Whatever they decide we will accept,’ he repeatedly says.

“The Taliban don't see themselves as a mere rebel group, but as a government-in-waiting. They refer to themselves as the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,’ the name they used when in power from 1996 until being overthrown in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks… Now, they have a sophisticated ‘shadow’ structure, with officials in charge of overseeing everyday services in the areas they control. Haji Hekmat, the Taliban mayor, takes us on a tour.

“We're shown a primary school, filled with young boys and girls scribbling in UN-donated textbooks. While in power in the 1990s, the Taliban banned female education, though they often deny that. Even now, there are reports that in other areas older girls are not allowed to attend classes. But here at least the Taliban say they're actively encouraging it… ‘As long as they wear hijab, it's important for them to study,’ says Mawlawi Salahuddin, in charge of the Taliban's local education commission. In secondary schools, he says, only female teachers are allowed, and the veil is mandatory. ‘If they follow the Sharia, there is no problem.’” Seriously? 

Whatever the result, expect religious extremism and a continuing perception in the decay of American power and influence in the world. But that just might a lesson we must learn in lieu of fighting a perpetual war that we can never win. Despite accounting for over 40% of the world’s military expenditures, we still have not learned how to fight and win an asynchronous war against powerful local incumbent force. Will we ever learn? Should we even try?

I’m Peter Dekom, and with only very minor and military exceptions, the United States has not won a real war since our victory in World War II three quarters of a century ago.