Headline, August 27 2021/ ''' '' THE STORIES - TELLING TAP '' '''

''' '' THE STORIES -

 TELLING TAP '' '''

NOT SO LONG AGO - JOURNALIST AZMAT KHAN WROTE ON TWITTER : ''Many young people in rural battlefields have never experienced life without a war, without U.S. bombings, Taliban attacks, night raids by Afghan forces, kidnappings.''

HARD as it is to understand, ''some youth feel they have a shot at future now.''

This great newspaper : THE WASHINGTON POST did an excellent expose of the deception and lies that lay at the heart of America's ill-fated Afghanistan Project, by publishing the Afghanistan Papers in November 2019, as there was a yawning chasm between what was publicly stated and what was privately believed.

HEAD MASTER LENIN HAD A STERLING POINT : '' THERE ARE DECADES WHEN NOTHING HAPPENS; and there are weeks when decades happen! '' Just too damn true, for all its very great worth.

AUGUST 15 - THE US PROPPED KABUL REGIME COLLAPSED - with its head fleeing with around $169 million cash stashed in his luggage, and the ignominious panicky exit started all around with the surprisingly swift but subdued return of the Afghan Taliban back to power after 20 years.

President Carter's National Security Adviser Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski claimed in his memoir - Power and Principle, that Carter had signed had signed a directive on July 3, 1979, to start funding the dissident Afghan Mujahideen with an initial funding of $695,000 which would be distributed by the  CIA via Pakistan. This was six months before the Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.

During an interview with French newspaper Le Nouvelle Observatur published in its issue of January 15 - 21,1998, Dr. Brzezinski was asked whether he had regrets funding a struggle that that spawned religious extremism, destabilising parts of the of both the Muslim and the Western worlds. He answered without batting an eyelid :

''What is more important in world history?  The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet Empire? Some agitated Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and end of the Cold War?''

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Afghanistan debacle has evoked memories of Cambodia and Vietnam 1975 or Iran 1979, where the departing American ambassador announced somewhat bitterly : ''Till yesterday we were ruling this country!''.

Afghanistan is much more than an intelligence failure or an error of policy judgment. It has turned out as the nemesis of the US policy of ''regime change'' in the Third World, which the US attempted 72 times during the Cold War, 1945-89.

Over 75 years ago, when the US emerged as the victor of WWII, it was heralded as the harbinger of  ''American Century'. This view was reinforced when the Afghan War against the Soviet Union sparked the collapse of the USSR and the collapse of Communism in Western Europe, symbolized by the demolition of the Berlin Wall.

The sole superpower's President, George HW Bush, triumphantly proclaimed in 1991 : '' What we say goes! ''

That was 30 years ago. Today the image, clout and confidence of the sole superpower lies buried in the debris of the destruction of war in Afghanistan, which has lived up to its reputation as ''the graveyard of empires'', devouring the American superpower, as it did earlier with Britain and Soviet Union - the superpowers of 19th and 20th centuries.

In The Washington Post, Condelezza Rice wrote, ''Twenty years was not enough to complete a journey from the seventh-century rule of the Taliban and a 30 year-civil war to a stable government, ''We - and they needed more time.''

The argument for ''patience'' or ''more time'' assumes that the American presence in Afghanistan was doing more good than harm. For some Afghans, particularly in the capital, this was undoubtedly true.

But for America to remain in Afghanistan, Biden would have to renege on Trump's deal with the Taliban. More American troops would be required, and fighting, including American airstrikes, would almost certainly ramp up .That would mean more suffering, and more death, for many Afghan civilians.

Maybe American violence in Afghanistan could be justified if it were improving the average Afghan's life. But often we seem to have made people's lives harder. The most recent report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction paints a damning picture.

''U.S. officials often empowered power brokers, who preyed on the population or diverted U.S. assistance away from its intended recipients to enrich and empower themselves and their allies. Lack of knowledge at the local level meant projects intended to mitigate conflict often exacerbated it, and even inadvertently funded insurgents.''

There was never a decent way to leave the country, which is why we fought a futile war for 20 years. But there also wasn't a decent way to stay. Biden didn't lose the war he ended.

In his book, Lawless World, Philippe Sands reveals the content of a telephone conversation between President Bush and PM Tony Blair on January 30, 2003, just a few weeks before the launch of the war on Iraq on March 20.

In that conversation, Bush tells Blair that he ''wanted to go beyond Iraq in dealing with WMD, mentioning in particular Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. At a time when Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were supposedly US allies.

And in 2005, the US in another example of double dealing with Pakistan, violating its own laws as well as IAEA rules, went ahead to sign a major civil nuclear deal with India, with a view to roping in Indian against China, backed later by massive armaments and sophisticated technology to India, to the detriment of Pakistan.

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on The American Century, continues. The World Students Society thanks authors Mushahid Hussain, Chairman of the Pakistan Senate's Defence Committee AND Michelle Goldberg for her opinion.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all  prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - for every subject in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The ecosystem 2011: 

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless