The Day the Last U.S. Soldier officially leaves Afghanistan.
By Ramona Wakil, Original German Article was published on 31.08.2021
US President Ronald Reagan with the Mujaheddin in the White House in 1983.
A broken land, so named and known all over the world
The southern Kandahār with the world's best pomegranates
A complicated war
The white and black mulberries are among the most unique fruits
A never-ending drama
The hot summer air in the mountains of Dasht-i-Navar; a volcanic group
The beauty of the land was as little appreciated as discovered
A new era began.
Neither king Zahir Shah nor the first president of Afghanistan Daud Khan succeeded.
Opening politically up to the West was a waste of time, because what followed was an emerging power play.
The famous Afghan singer Ahmad Zahir stated the following: His song Safar bih roshenahi (Journey without Light) criticized the communist Nur Muhammad Taraki, who later became the prime minister of Afghanistan and was assassinated by his friend and successor Hafizullah Amin.
What drama was going on in the internal political ranks. Khalq or Parcham; the never-ending clause.
1979: Invasion of the Soviet Union is officially called.
Before Christmas Eve 1979, however, not only the Soviets were meddling in Kabul.
U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski confirmed years later:
"In fact, it was on July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And on that same day, I wrote a note to the President explaining that, in my opinion, this aid would trigger the Soviet military intervention." [1]
The Soviets were just about to seize political supremacy in Central Asia.
But the political instrument of equipping fanatical bloodthirsty Holy warriors was born.
The CIA was henceforth busy and amused.
A new plan, a new enemy, CIA Operation Cyclone was underway.
Elitist communist visionaries in power in Kabul were chosen as the named enemy.
The new allies of the warlords and the Mujaheddin were from now on the USA, Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia.
1983: They were invited to the sovereign presidential palace in Washington, because that was where they traditionally met for tea with US President Ronald Reagan.
From then on, Swiss high-tech weapons also found their way to the "Holy warriors". [2]
The war began, "We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war." [3] was the goal of the USA, declared the US Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.
The Soviets and their ideology had hope with the government of Babrak Karmal and Mohammed Najibullah.
Bombs, air strikes on universities, heard in every house in the city of Kabul.
A bloodbath was the result, people fled by millions, people prayed, and people waited.
Fear, loss, a military inferior Afghan government observed it overwhelmed.
The militaries of the rich states were out of the Soviets league.
The Soviet leaders were accompanied by Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev, who finally put an end to the whole drama.
1992: The transfer of power from the communist government of Afghanistan to the Mujaheddin followed.
Years of fear, internal power struggles, influence of different states were from now on everyday life.
1996 was the year in which the era of the Taliban was ushered in for the first time.
The beginning of the end.
The NATO invasion in 2001 began. The revenge for the Saudi Osama Bin-Laden and 9/11 started in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Destroying the Taliban was the goal; the masterpiece of U.S President Bush’s "War on Terror" began.
The country was occupied; Americans, Germans, French and many more had sent their troops on the mission.
Into the country that never comes to rest, into the country that nevertheless knows how to confess.
The Taliban have won.
20 years later, the turning point?
August 2021 came at a good time: The Taliban are back in power.
Withdrawal of foreign NATO troops, because since August 31 in the year 2021 the occupiers have left.
The years of peace talks with Taliban leaders in the luxurious Qatar were forgotten.
How could this happen?
Some school wells for the good of democracy.
Lots of laundered US money as American whistleblower Julian Assange testifies. [4]
Deadly secret missions in impoverished provinces, so-called CIA Death Squads.
The new high-tech drones were used, directly from the US-military base Rammstein in Germany the order to kill children, women and civilians were made.
Along with all this, a thriving and upcoming opium export business.
A few days it took.
Some unresisting surrenders and the Taliban were again replaced with the Taliban after 20 years.
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had to catch his flight to Abu Dhabi.
Touché, Najibullah would say, transfers of power are unpopular among Afghan presidents.
Headlines upon headlines, the West in fear.
Syria, Iraq, Libya and now Afghanistan is on everyone's minds again.
Middle East experts, professors, exiled Afghans all were questioned by the Western Media.
What happened? Were they not forewarned? What now?
Findings like the trillion-dollar business around the Afghan mineral resources lithium and Co. are newly communicated but known to us for a long time.
For the Afghan people the story has its throwback.
We are back in 2001.
The Taliban are young, seem charming with their moderate promises, and the question
remains, who is supporting them?
What is driving them? Is it the money, the ideology or the selflessness?
Pakistan, the tolerance of the USA and the CIA or their ideology?
What remains are the women and girls excluded from society, deprived of their rights despite the West's notion of democracy.
Was the withdrawal to blame or the invasion of the NATO countries into the country at the Hindu Kush?
Were the elite in Kabul with the Soviets responsible for the misery at that time or the implementation of the West's idea of democracy?
Was arming extremists a glorious Western idea or are these the consequences of their foreign policy?
Reality.
What is clear to us Afghans, living in the West, would be the following: Victimized by geopolitics, power struggles since the Cold War, and the "War on Terror" for over 40 years, Afghan societies survived all of this physically, but not mentally. We in the West have been fortunate. We have been able to follow our dreams and live a fulfilled life. What is happening in our hometown is a commemoration. A commemoration of the progress, the thirst for knowledge and education of the youth and the desire for peace and confession.
A commemoration of what happens to a country and its people when they are exploited and occupied. Prospect of improvement? As soon as the intentions of the interfering states are not only based on their own political, economic and geopolitical interest, but for once on simple humanity. Doubtful? Indeed.
The world is no better than it was in 1945. Propaganda and manipulation techniques have not only existed since 1945. And the ordinary citizen of the world is too focused on his own well-being to care that a murderous war has been going on for years at the other end of the world.
That is why, we as a community can only draw attention to it and think about how we can help the ordinary people in Afghanistan. But hope for a better life has been given to them for over 40 years. Providing enlightenment, even if there will be a lot of headwind, and remembering the history, which political interest groups planned, executed and celebrated in which way, are among the tasks of the conscientious society groups.
In memory of all murdered, fallen and fighting people in Afghanistan.
Ramona Wakil
Sources:
[1] Autor: Vincent Jauvert, Oui, la CIA est entrée en Afghanistan avant les Russes… [http://thenation.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/la_nouvel_observateur_brzezinski.pdf,
[Last visited on 31.08.2021]
Afghanistan, Al Qaida und Osama bin Laden, Zbigniew Brzezinski, http://blauerbote.com/2018/10/08/zbigniew-brzezinski-afghanistan-al-qaida-und-osama-bin-laden/, [Last visited on 31.08.2021]
[2] Autor: Ulrich Schmid, Berlin, Die Schweizer Hightech-Kanone der afghanischen Islamisten,https://www.nzz.ch/international/die-oerlikon-kanone-schweizer-hightech-fuer-afghanische-mujahedin-ld.1600695?reduced=true, [Last visited on 31.08.2021]
[3] Autor: Vincent Jauvert, Oui, la CIA est entrée en Afghanistan avant les Russes… [http://thenation.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/la_nouvel_observateur_brzezinski.pdf,
[Last visited on 31.08.2021]
The Brzezinski Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur (1998), The University of Arizona, https://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/brzezinski_interview, [Last visited on 31.08.2021]
[4] „Ziel ist es, in Afghanistan Geld zu waschen“ – Assange-Video aus 2011 geht viral, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSLc54Slcsk, RT Deutsch, 19.08.2021,
[Last visited on 31.08.2021]
Kommentar schreiben