MESOPOTAMIA NEWS COMMENTARIES ON AFGHANISTAN / SETH FRANTZMAN & DIMTRI SHUFUTINSKY (ISRAEL)

Seth J. Frantzman   11. Juli 2021 – JERUSALEM POST

Question about the Afghan war.

For twenty years the US fought in Afghanistan. Now the US is leaving and the government is quickly losing ground to the Taliban. For many who supported the US involvement there and also in Iraq, there are a lot of concerns about what comes next. Opposition to the US withdrawal combines people who were critics of the Trump administration among the so-called “neo-cons” and also others. It appears those who most want to leave would be considered more the isolations Right and the Left, while centrists want to stay.

However the reality is that regardless of where you stand it’s worth asking some key questions.

How come after 19 years of the US working with the Afghan government, and a dozen other NATO allies, that the security forces are so weak?

Why was no attempt made over the years .to truly defeat the Taliban or cut off their arms supplies?

How much did the US know about Pakistan and other countries supporting the Taliban, who appear to have standardized weapons and uniforms…did the US actually engage in a 19 year war against a group being supported by other US “partners” whether Pakistan, Qatar or other states?

Critics say the US public is ill informed about the war and that the US suffers few if any casualties there. If that is true then why not withdraw and aid the Afghans from the air? In fact there appears to be no US air support or drone strikes on the Taliban, so in fact it appears the REAL story is that as part of US negotiations with the Taliban, brokered by Qatar (which likely supports the Taliban), the US stopped airstrikes anyway.

It looks like Turkey, an authoritarian regime that supports extremists, wants to swoop in to run Kabul airport, likely in a deal that will involve Pakistan-Qatar moving in and then the Taliban coming to control it. Did the US fight for 19 years to end up helping the extremists in Pakistan-Qatar-Turkey?

For those who always argue to stay, what is the point of staying to fight a half-war, not to want to win…just to be a kind of blocking tackle for Iran and Russia who want the US to stay but also work to undermine the US?

Where did the money go? Trillions was spent in Afghanistan, where did it go? It didn’t go to make the Afghan army strong. So did it all go to cousins and sons and daughters of those in various US administrations who run “lobbying” firms or various companies that get the contracts? Was the war just a way to transfer US tax dollars from the middle class to the super rich? And if so, then ending the war probably ends the largesse.

Dmitri Shufutinsky

The time has come to be honest that for advancement and stability on Afghanistan, the West should have supported a secular dictator akin to Kemal Ataturk, not a “democracy” that was weak, corrupt and had no chance of success.

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