Realities behind the US war on Afghanistan
By Lila Bahadur Rawal
Launched on 7 October 2001 by the United States of America the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan led to the overthrow of the Taliban regime in November of the same year. By the end of November 2001, only one major city, Kandahar, remained under Taliban control, but the Taliban were soon defeated.
To maintain security in Afghanistan, an ISAF military mission was deployed from representatives of 39 countries — both members of NATO and non-members of this military-political Alliance. During the entire period of the NATO contingent’s stay in Afghanistan, several major military operations were conducted.
At present, despite the defeat of the main Taliban forces, the military and political situation in the country remains unsettled and tends to complicate. The military contingent of the USA and the Great Britain officially ended operations in Afghanistan. As a result of the war in Afghanistan, according to various estimates, more than 2 million people have died over the past two decades, and the number of refugees has exceeded 5 million, who have found refuge in Pakistan, Iran and other neighboring countries. During the war, the country’s infrastructure was completely destroyed, making Afghanistan one of the poorest countries in the world.
Thus, the current conflict in Afghanistan has become more complex. First, there were several levels of confrontation: the conflict between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban was added to the conflict between the Taliban and ISIL, the moderate and radical Taliban, and the conflict between official Kabul, on the one hand, and the radical Taliban and ISIL, on the other. Second, a new serious threat that is deepening the conflict is ISIS, which seeks to attract radical Islamists. As a result, a number of countries in the region are reconsidering their previous negative attitude towards the Taliban, who have declared that it is unacceptable to spread their activities outside of Afghanistan, thereby diverting the threat from their activities in the eyes of their Afghan neighbors. Thus, in modern Afghanistan, there is a situation when “the state is not able to ensure the security and rights of its citizens, to fight against terrorist threats, despite the huge support from international partners”, as a result, at this stage, the world community is required to develop fundamentally new approaches.
In addition, the current conflict in modern-day Afghanistan has also given rise to speculation about unreliable information about the Russian Federation’s support for the activities of the “Taliban movement”. In some media, absolutely unsubstantiated arguments by US representatives about alleged Russian military assistance to the Taliban continue to circulate. American officials continue to repeat these accusations without bothering to provide at least minimal evidence.
Meanwhile, there is abundant evidence (and it is recognized in American political circles) that the Taliban are successfully and in sufficient numbers acquiring weapons in Afghanistan itself, including from shipments of weapons and equipment transferred to Kabul by Washington.
So, in one of the reports of the office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense, it is recognized that the Pentagon is not able to account for the provision of part of the military assistance to Afghanistan in the amount of $ 3 billion. The volume of weapons can be imagined. This does not exclude the possibility of misuse or theft of supplied ammunition, fuel and vehicles. For example, there are no inventory lists for tens of thousands of military vehicles. In 2016, the Pentagon report, in particular, stated the loss of about half of the 1.5 million small arms supplied to the security forces of Iraq and Afghanistan, including 978 thousand M4 and M16 assault rifles. According to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, in 2014, 43% of the weapons provided to the Afghan armed forces “probably fell into the hands of ISIL or the Taliban.” It is also alleged that the US military contributes to the income of extremists by paying tens of millions of dollars in compensation to the Taliban for the unhindered passage of their convoys through the territory they control.
To note, all this is not Russian propaganda, but information directly from official American sources.
In this regard, it once again reveals the futility of attempts by the American side to shift responsibility for the degradation of the situation in Afghanistan to the Russian Federation.
Login to add a comment