Taliban has completely occupied Afghanistan now. The Afghan Government has fallen. And former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country. According to some reports, he went to Tajikistan. Some reports claim that he fled to Uzbekistan. The other countries are trying to evacuate their citizens from Kabul, as soon as possible. On 15th August, Taliban entered Kabul. And it went inside the Presidential Palace. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany is in the long list of countries that have shut down their embassies in Afghanistan. The US embassy has also been completely evacuated. And the remaining people are trying to escape the country via the Kabul airport. Because Kabul is the capital of Afghanistan, and the Taliban has occupied it from all sides. The only place remaining for the people was the Kabul airport, if they wanted to leave the country. For this reason, some horrifying videos have come in from the Kabul airport. The US President Joe Biden had claimed that the Taliban has around 85,000 fighters. But the Afghan Army has 300,000 well equipped and highly trained soldiers and modern Air Force as well. So, the Afghan Army could easily defend itself. The US Intelligence experts had miscalculated that it would take the Taliban just few months to get control of the entire country. But in just a few weeks, very easily, Taliban has overthrown the Afghan Government backed by US and western powers. Perhaps the reason behind it is that there has been little to no resistance from the Afghan army. Afghanistan’s President stated in a Facebook post that he left Kabul because he didn’t want bloodshed. But in reality, Corruption, Poor leadership, Lack of training, and low morale were among the reasons why the Afghan Army showed no resistance. Afghan Army did not fight back against the Taliban. Last year, when former US President USA Donald Trump with support of Pakistan signed a peace deal with the Taliban. For the Afghan soldiers, it was a betrayal. They questioned how America could go and have talks with their enemies and sign a peace deal. And now, under Joe Biden, when the USA, is withdrawing the American army, it was even more demoralizing for the Afghan soldiers. They doubted their ability to fight without any military support. On the other hand, very strategically, the Taliban used propaganda and psychological operations against the Afghan army. Instead of declaring all-out war, they sent text messages to the Afghan soldiers, bombarded them saying that if they don’t fight them, they will not be killed and their family members would also be safe. They were threatened so much, that thousands of soldiers deserted the Afghan army. And they switched sides, especially when their leader himself isn’t very motivated himself. He isn’t confident of a win. And he has fled the country. But Taliban’s rule of the common people, especially for women is perhaps no less than hell in Afghanistan, especially if the Taliban enforces the same rules that they had enforced in 1996 and 2001. Some reports have already started to come in that girls are worried if they would be able to go to school. In previous Taliban government girls weren’t allowed to go to school. Girls couldn’t go out of their homes without being accompanied by a male relative. Though, Taliban claim that when they’ll form the new government in Afghanistan, they will give rights to women as well. That they’ll give the rights to go to school to women, work, and to go out of their homes alone. However, women will still have to wear hijab. That would still be compulsory. When the spokesperson of the Taliban was being interviewed by BBC News, he said that now burqa wouldn’t be compulsory for women, and only hijab will be okay. Taliban has even gone and said that media will be allowed to criticize anyone. But, unfortunately, for the Afghans, the situation is looking very bleak. We can only hope that what we expect of the Taliban the atrocities on the Afghans by Taliban, that we imagine, the Taliban refrains from them.

 And that the Afghans can get true Independence and Freedom. On the other hand, if we talk about America, it is quite humiliating on several counts. A photo of US withdrawal from Vietnam and Afghanistan was quite viral on social media recently. An American helicopter can be seen on the side of the American embassy. This photo is actually similar to a 45-year-old photo. That was taken in Saigon, South Vietnam. A helicopter on the side of the American embassy was carrying out evacuations. In the Vietnam war too, America had to face much embarrassment. Several people are terming this Afghanistan situation as Joe Biden’s Saigon moment. US Secretary of State has rejected this comparison and said that the US mission in Afghanistan was actually successful. That the USA had gone to Afghanistan to take action against the people behind the 9/11 attack. But if it was so, the question arises when Osama bin Laden was already killed in 2011, why did the USA stay in Afghanistan even after that? Why didn’t they pull out of Afghanistan after that? A 2019 study had estimated that after the 9/11 attack, America has spent $6.4 trillion on Middle East wars. And more than 800,000 people have been killed, as a result of direct fighting. So much money. All of it is the money from American taxpayers and looted from poor countries. Where is it being used? Why are trillions of dollars needed to fight these wars? It is very interesting to know, friends. The ethical concerns about wars and such the human rights concern are undeniable. But if we put them aside for a while and look at things from the perspective of a hyper-nationalist person one who considers going to these wars is benefiting his country and increasing the security of the country. So, let’s take the example of the US-Iraq war. The oil industry in Iraq before the 2003 US invasion, was nationalized. Meaning that the Iraqis had control over their oil industry. They got the profits from it. But when the US invaded Iraq and looted the oil from Iraq, it was privatised. In the hands of companies like Exxon Mobil, BP Shell, Halliburton. Halliburton was headed by Dick Cheney. When he stepped down from this position, he became the Vice President of the US. Even after becoming the Vice-President of the US, he continued to hold a significant share in this company. Suddenly, claims started cropping up that Iraq had nuclear weapons of mass destruction. And in his public statements, Dick Cheney said that the US should go on a war against Iraq. And after this, you can guess that this Halliburton company was not only given oil contracts in Iraq, but many major military contracts were also given. Which led to huge profits for this company. Not only this, if we talk about the Exxon Mobil company, around 2003, this company reported the largest ever quarterly profits in history at $7 billion. You might wonder friends why I’m talking about Iraq in a video on Afghanistan. The reason being, friends, that similar stories are floating around in Afghanistan as well. The biggest defence contractor in Afghanistan is a construction giant company called Fluor. After 2015, the US Defence Department spent $3.8 billion to give defence contracts to this company. Overall, what I’m saying, friends is that often some giant companies earn profits in millions and billions whenever there is a war. Profit out of War. This is also known as the Military-Industrial Complex. This is often the money of the taxpayers that is paid to the army and military. And then the military awards contracts to giant companies that earn profits from it. And often these giant companies bribe and lobby politicians that they should be awarded the defence contracts and that the war should continue. For example, in 2018, Fluor had spent $5.3 million. For lobbying the Congress. In this sense, for the last 20 years, the common people of Afghanistan have suffered. Their money was wasted. And they were the ones to go as American soldiers to lose their lives. They died in the Afghanistan War. If we look at this situation from a geopolitical perspective, friends, China and Russia are two countries that have not evacuated their embassies in Kabul. It means that directly or indirectly, China and Russia are in the favor of Taliban. In fact, China has even said that they are ready to form friendly relations with the new Taliban government. The reason behind it is very obvious. China is thinking about its economy. It is thinking of its One Belt One Road initiative. It is a great contrast to the other western countries. Accepting Taliban government by China, Russia, Iran & Pakistan will be a game changer, era of new regional developments. India is in shock & will become puppet in the hands of USA as Hobson’s choice. This situation is a dilemma for India as well. Indian proxy war against its neighbours especially Pakistan seems failing. The people of Afghanistan that are victims of tyranny under corrupt rulers must be given a chance to elect their true representatives. No country like USA and India be allowed to use Afghanistan soil for their vested interests and then leave mess to clear by others. After peace and stability in Afghanistan, India must be pressurised by China, Russia, Iran and western powers to stop bloodshed in Held Kashmir and give freedom to Kashmiris; the only way forward  to real regional peace, stability & development. India must acquaint itself with the rapidly changing situation across the globe. India must not oppose Pakistan participating on debate on current situation in Afghanistan in UNSC. Pakistan rightly supported the freedom and rights of people of Afghanistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan complained earlier this week that the United States saw his country as useful only for clearing the “mess” it was leaving behind in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan is just considered only to be useful in the context of somehow settling this mess which has been left behind after 20 years of trying to find a military solution when there was not one,”. In recent statements, US officials and lawmakers have pressed Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to broker a peace deal between Taliban insurgents and the Afghan government. They wanted Pakistan to prevent a Taliban takeover of Kabul. Pakistan urged all stakeholders i  the neighbouring countries to reach a political settlement, respect rule of law, protect human rights and ensure that Afgha  soil is not used by any terrorist organisation or group against any country. Truly speaking all regional states excluding India want to witness Afghanistan developing and no more suffering of tyranny for the Afghan people.

aijaz sandhu