{"id":140312,"date":"2021-04-28T08:24:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T08:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=135280"},"modified":"2021-04-28T08:24:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T08:24:15","slug":"americas-ruinous-pursuit-of-mission-impossible-in-afghanistan-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/04\/28\/americas-ruinous-pursuit-of-mission-impossible-in-afghanistan-3\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Ruinous Pursuit of Mission Impossible in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
On May 1st, the date Donald Trump signed onto<\/a> for the withdrawal of the remaining 3,500 American troops<\/a> from Afghanistan, the war there, already 19 years old, was still officially a teenager.\u00a0 Think of September 11, 2021 \u2014 the 20th anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks and the date Joe Biden has chosen for the same \u2014 as, in essence, the very moment when its teenage years will be over.<\/p>\n In all that time, Washington has been fighting what, in reality, should have been considered a fantasy war, a mission impossible in that country, however grim and bloody, based on fantasy expectations and fantasy calculations, few of which seem to have been stanched in Washington even so many years later. Not surprisingly, Biden\u2019s decision evoked the predictable reactions in that city. The military high command\u2019s never-ending urge<\/a> to stick with a failed war was complemented by the inside-the-Beltway Blob\u2019s doomsday scenarios and tired nostrums.<\/p>\n The latter began the day before the president even went public when, in a major opinion piece, the Washington Post<\/em>\u2019s editorial board distilled<\/a> the predictable platitudes to come: such a full-scale military exit, they claimed, would deprive Washington of all diplomatic influence and convince the Taliban that it could jettison its talks with President Ashraf Ghani\u2019s demoralized U.S.-backed government and fight its way to power. A Taliban triumph would, in turn, eviscerate democracy and civil society, leaving rights gained by women and minorities in these years in the dust, and so destroy everything the U.S. had fought for since October 2001.<\/p>\n By this September, of course, 775,000<\/a>-plus Americans soldiers will have served in Afghanistan (a few of them the children<\/a> of those who had served early in the war). More than a fifth<\/a> of them would endure at least three tours of duty there! Suffice it to say that most of the armchair generals who tend to adorn establishment think tanks haven\u2019t faced such hardships.<\/p>\n In 2010 and 2011, the Obama surge would deploy as many as 100,000<\/a> U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The Pentagon states<\/a> that, as of this month, 2,312 American soldiers have died there (80% killed in action) and 20,666 have been injured. Then there\u2019s the toll taken on vets of that never-ending war thanks to PTSD<\/a>, suicide<\/a>, and substance abuse<\/a>. Military families apart, however, much of the American public has been remarkably untouched by the war, since there\u2019s no longer a draft and Uncle Sam borrowed money, rather than raising taxes, to foot the $2.26 trillion<\/a> bill. As a result, the forever war dragged on<\/a>, consuming blood and treasure without any Vietnam War-style protests.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, most Americans know even less about the numbers of Afghan civilians killed and wounded<\/a> in these years. Since 2002, at least 47,000 non-combatants<\/a> have been killed<\/a> and another 43,000 injured<\/a>, whether by airstrikes, artillery fire, shootings, improvised explosive devices, or suicide and car bombings. A 2020 U.N. report<\/a> on civilian casualties in Afghanistan notes that 2019 was the sixth straight year in which 10,000 civilians were killed or wounded. And this carnage has occurred in one of the world\u2019s poorest countries, which ranks 187th<\/a> in per-capita income, where the death or incapacitation of an adult male (normally the primary breadwinner in a rural Afghan home) can tip already-poor families into destitution.<\/p>\n So how, then, can the calls to persevere make sense? Seek and you won\u2019t find a persuasive answer. Consider the most notable recent attempt to provide one, the Afghanistan Study Group report<\/a>, written by an ensemble of ex-officials, retired generals, and think-tank luminaries, not a few of them tied<\/a> to big weapons-producing companies. Released with significant fanfare in February, it offered no substantive proposals for attaining goals that have been sought for 19 years, including a stable democracy with fair elections, a free press, an unfettered civil society, and equal rights for all Afghans \u2014 all premised on a political settlement between the U.S.-backed government and the Taliban.<\/p>\n Still Standing After All These Years<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, consider Afghanistan\u2019s bedrock reality: the Taliban, which has battled the world\u2019s most fearsome military machine for two decades, remains standing, and continues to expand its control in rural areas. The U.S., its NATO allies, and the Afghanistan National Security and Defense Forces have indeed killed some 50,000 Taliban fighters over the years, including, in 2016, its foremost leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor. In 2019-2020 alone, several senior commanders, also members of the Taliban\u2019s shadow government, were killed, including<\/a> the \u201cgovernors\u201d of Badakshan, Farah, Logar, Samangan, and Wardak provinces. Yet the Taliban, whose roots lie among the Pashtun, the country\u2019s historically dominant ethnic group, have managed to replenish their ranks, procure new weapons and ammunition, and raise money, above all through taxes on opium poppy farming.<\/p>\n It helps that the Taliban continues to get covert support from Pakistan\u2019s military and intelligence service, which played a pivotal role in creating<\/a> the movement in the early 1990s after it was clear that the leaders of the Pakistan-backed Pashtun mujahedeen<\/em>(literally, those who wage jihad) proved unable to shoot their way into power because minority nationalities (mainly Uzbeks and Tajiks) resisted ferociously. Yet the Taliban has indigenous roots, too, and its success can\u2019t be attributed solely to intimidation and violence. Its political agenda and puritanical version of Islam appeal to many Afghans. Absent that, it would have perished long ago.<\/p>\n