Aijaz Ali Mangi.
Engineer, Writer and Traveller,
It’s time for America to contemplate her priorities, with Biden in power, there are some changes and adjustments in foreign policy. Exist from Afghanistan is the latest one. Pumping trillions of dollars in the name of change and social development brought visibly nothing for both Afghanistan and America in particular, for the world in general. Taliban regime was ousted two decades ago in the name of “war on terror”, losing thousands of lives, bringing chaos and trauma to tens of thousands of families, wasting millions of dollars, providing many countries a legitimate reason to crack down on dissident groups in the name of terrorism, what comes in the end?- The Taliban.
History is littered with doomed flawed policies on part of America, have look at the military occupations of Haiti (1915-34), the Dominican Republic (1916-24), Cuba (1906-09), and Nicaragua (1912-33). Iraq is another example. These are all non-winning wars waged every time in different names. After the fiasco of Vietnam, many political pundits were assuming that the white house will rethink its policies to put aside the imperial hubris and reschedule its priorities. The foreign policy tools will be Diplomacy, trade and engagement, multilateralism, and peace, not war or sanctions. but there is consistency in wars and sanctions.
The classic example of sanctions is Cuba. Most observers will agree that the embargo is ineffective. Every country goes against the sanctions when it comes to annual voting in the UN. Almost every country wants to lift curbs against Cuba except America and Israel, but no president of America wants to be responsible to lift the sanctions. Cubans are rallying sanctions against America and brings Beijing and Moscow closer to them and farther away from Washington.
Sanctions in Iran are also not working. When it comes to the nuclear deals, the IAEA chief flies from Vienna to Tehran to hold negotiations, whether it is ElBaradei or Rafael Grossi. Everyone engages in talks to pursue Iran as sanctions are not working. Iran is doing all in its capacity to enrich the uranium, to provide support to its ideological aligned groups and governments, to expand influence. A sophisticated cyberattack incident on the Bushehr plant did not stop Iran to cut short fissile material. Neither military occupations, nor sanctions and so-called fifth-generation war tactics are working. Despite that, it is imperial pompous and shows that compels America to go for uncalled wars and sanctions.
President Bush was in Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida on 9/11, when he got the news of attacks. He was busy with students in the classroom when some security guy informed him about the attack on towers. His face impressions were grim, the international media remained focused on his face during the classroom and during his first press conference in the school. Many doubt, this was all planned. The war on terror was declared in Afghanistan. Taliban were dismantled. Thousands were killed. Osama bin Laden was killed. Everything was shattered for the Taliban, bombings, drone attacks, tanks, and high-tech military equipment were used to destroy them. Taliban emerged victoriously and swept across Afghanistan in days. There is the big question, how did this happen and who did let it happen.
The two decades of long war brought, what in the end. The disgraceful exit and entry of the Taliban. Who loses in the end. The peoples of both countries.