Taliban: A Frankenstein for US
TALIBAN has turned into a Frankenstein that is threatening the existence (then Mujahideen) of those who established them for their vested interests.
The Taliban — a politico-religious group — emerged after the invasion of the (former) Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
USA and its allies, to achieve their vested interests, installed them in Afghanistan resulting not only in the withdrawal and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union and Communist regime in Afghanistan, but also the disruption in civil order of the state.
By 1994, Taliban became a force to control social order of the state with popular support and consensus of almost all the internal stakeholders until after 9/11.
On September 11th, 2001, a series of the deadliest ever attacks were launched on American soil allegedly by extremist group Al-Qaeda which triggered Washington to combat terrorism.
Al-Qaeda, an allied group of Taliban, proved Frankenstein — an unmanageable creature; killed approx. 2, 750 people in New York City, 184 at Pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania.
Washington soon launched “war on terror” against these terrorist entities to combat future attacks on its soil. US toppled Taliban regime in Afghanistan on the pretext that they provide sanctuary to Al-Qaeda.
Once the objective was achieved, and Al-Qaeda and Taliban were eliminated, Washington preempted to secure itself and its allies from resurgence of any terrorist entity and any further catastrophe by installing a US-backed competent regime. However, Washington failed to achieve this objective.
According to some analysts, the doom of Washington in Afghanistan was not preordained, the seeds of its subsequent failure were planted in 2002 after its initial success in eliminating Al-Qaeda and Taliban from Afghanistan’s soil.
The Bush Administration failed to recognize the geostrategic obstacle of landlocked Afghanistan in its so-called anti-terrorist and reconstruction mission, dragged Pakistan in this quagmire called it as its “most allied ally” and used it as a scapegoat which cased devastating ripple effect on socio-political and economic order of Pakistan.
Moreover, the population of Afghanistan is considerably larger than the number of troops deployed there.
The population in Afghanistan was 21.6 million and around 8,000 troops were deployed by the end of 2002.
The troops-to-population ratio, vividly indicates relatively smaller deployment of troops, was a crucial factor which determined Washington’s failure in its mission.
It clearly indicates that Bush Administration never intended for US troops to assume peacekeeping or nation building responsibilities, rather it intended to fulfil its vested interests and make Afghanistan “graveyard of empires” again which is reiterated in the statement issued by the current US President Joe Biden, ‘our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building’.
Desire of achieving its vested interests proved fatal for Washington, and eventually led Washington to meet huge budgetary and human loss. According to Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, the USA has spent $2.26 trillion on the war on terror.
The post 9/11 military invasions and wars resulted in the death of at least 801,000 people due to direct war, including armed forces, civilians, journalists and humanitarian workers.
These figures do not include deaths caused by ripple effects like diseases, malnutrition, damaged infrastructure, environmental degradation and other indirect consequences of the war. Approximately, 7,000 US soldiers have died in these wars.
More than 37million people have been displaced by the post 9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and the Philippines.
Budgetary cost of post 9/11 conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan Syria, and elsewhere is about $6.4 trillion.
Washington also faced ripple effects on its economy, including interest rates increased and job loss.
Not just human and budgetary loss, these wars have significantly contributed to climate catastrophe, the Defence Department is one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters.
This analysis of cost of war-projects concludes that the US-led wars not only proved Frankenstein for itself, but they have also caused huge losses to the world at large. The world will continue to pay human and budgetary cost of these wars for decades.
Historically, Washington has embarked on military interventions on the pretext of combating something fatal to the world such as genocide, military aggression, nuclear proliferation and in case of Afghanistan, threats of terrorism.
However, it is evident that after achieving its vested interests, Washington has left the states amidst civil conflict and chaos which gave rise to frustration among innocent citizens, who were deprived of peace and prosperity which eventually resulted in emergence of terrorist and extremist groups.
These extremist groups, that are the by-product of Washington’s flawed policies and miscalculations, have now became deadliest monster and threatening the very states which created them.
Taliban are also the by-product of Washington’s flawed policy which have now become Frankenstein for USA and its NATO allies and eventually led them to escape from Afghanistan, leaving the future and peace of the region uncertain.
—The writer is a faculty member, Bahria University, Karachi.
