Farooq Tariq - The US occupation took only human lives: Taliban victory is not a sign of peace // The leader of the anti-Taliban resistance speaks out

By Dilip -

The Taliban’s victory is bad news for the progressives around the world. The victory is not a sign of peace but a message of perpetual civil war. The establishment of another religious fanatic state in South Asia will promote religious sectarianism throughout the region… Soviet forces stay lasted 10 years and failed. For 20 years, the US and NATO forces remained in Afghanistan, their trained army dispersed without a fight. The reason is clear: the Afghan people and soldiers had no ideological basis to fight.

It is now evident that the US imperialism has lost all its human and financial investment in Afghanistan... What has been spent in Afghanistan in the name of development, ‘democracy’ and training of the armed forces for the last 20 years was unprecedented in the history of the world. According to the Cost of War Project, the United States poured $ 2226 billion into Afghanistan. This money could have provided basic education and health care all over the world. According to a 2020 report by the US Department of Defense, the United States spent $ 815.7 billion on war expenses. Pakistan’s total foreign debt is currently $ 116 billion, it is 7 times more than Pakistan’s total foreign debt. Despite doing so much, the Americans hasty pull out from Afghanistan and the collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s government implies that all the US investment is now being handed over to the Taliban, without a single bullet fired.

The casualties in this war can be estimated from the fact that by April 2021, 47,235 civilians, 72 journalists and 444 aid workers had been killed in this war. 66,000 Afghan soldiers also fell victim to this war. The United States lost 2,442 troops and 20,666 were wounded. In addition, 3,800 private security personnel were killed. Soldiers from 40 countries were taking part in NATO’s Afghan forces. Of these, 1,144 soldiers were killed….

Many headlines over the past day have trumpeted the notion that the Afghan War is over. Yes, it's true the American troops are gone, but the country's decades long civil war continues. In fact, the war is entering a new phase in which the Taliban control almost all the country, but resistance to them is beginning to form. That resistance is led by Ahmad Massoud, 32, a graduate of Sandhurst, the British equivalent of West Point, who is the son of the legendary Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. The elder Massoud was instrumental in forcing the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989 and he led the resistance to the Taliban the last time that they controlled much of Afghanistan, before the 9/11 attacks…

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/01/opinions/leader-anti-taliban-resistance-speaks-bergen/index.html


Thom Hartmann: Myths and lies about Afghanistan's role in 9/11 live on, Bush and Cheney escape justice / Karen Greenberg: The Endless Shadow of the War on Terror


The Bush administration made a catastrophic mistake in Afghanistan in 2001 / Afghanistan: The End of the Occupation


In pictures: Afghans mark Independence Day as challenges to Taliban rule rise


The last Jews in Afghanistan argued so much the Taliban kicked them out of prison and stole their Torah


Chris Hedges: The Collective Suicide Machine


Book review: AFGHANISTAN: ‘A SHOCKING INDICTMENT’


The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan: Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paris, 15-21 January 1998


Vanessa Thorpe: MI 6, the coup in Iran that changed the Middle East, and the cover-up


Victor Jara murder: ex-military officers sentenced in Chile for 1973 death


Andrew Bacevich: High Crimes and Misdemeanors of the Fading American Century


Mohammed Hanif: The rest of the world has had it with US presidents, Trump or otherwise


Donald Trump's gift to America: Realizing we've never been a liberal democracy. By PAUL ROSENBERG


Zack Stanton: Violent Christian Extremism in the USA


Conversation with Lawrence Lifschultz: The American reporter who investigated the assassination of Mujibur Rahman


"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever" - George Orwell’s Final Warning


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