Less than a month from the twentieth anniversary of the toppling of the Twin Towers, the Taliban has taken over Kabul and most other Afghanistan cities, coming the same day as the US withdrew its final government personnel in the country. Now, the U.S. is trying to evacuate citizens and any affiliated with the military out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible. Striking videos show tens of Afghans clinging onto landing gear on the huge military planes flying out of Kabul, showing the extreme desperation a lot of people there are feeling. Kabul is in disarray, as the Taliban has completely taken over the government, as shown in the image below, and now has access to the military bases and equipment left over by the U.S. military. Taliban leadership in the Afghanistan presidential palace In Trump's final year as president, he signed an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. troops by August 2021, and now that Biden has almost fulfilled it, as very few citizens or military personal are still on the ground in Afghanistan, and it is very likely they will all be gone in just a few days. As for the millions of Afghans who are currently having their entire society dismantled and remade into one much closer to Islamic principals, the U.S. and other countries are stepping in to offer expedited visas and asylum applications, but it seems like the amount of help cannot keep up with the desperation. Thousands of Afghans worked with foreign military's as interpreters and guides, which puts a large target on their back from the Taliban, and there have already been reports of lists of interpreter names being used by the Taliban who want to eradicate western influence on their state. Women especially are in danger in the new climate, despite the Taliban's vows to maintain some women's rights from external countries. Over the next few weeks, it is expected that the rest of the world will respond en masse to the Taliban. The Supposed Leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada The west and specifically America set its sights on Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979, which ended with the Soviets withdrawing in 1987, and the Taliban began its rise to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Then the U.S. invaded after 9/11, after the Taliban had become Afghanistan's government, and quickly replaced it, but stayed in the country until now. Many reasons have been given for the War in Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history, from imperialism, the pursuit of precious resources like oil, weapons of mass destruction, to just being an offensive on Islamic terrorism. It is a convoluted web of deception and half-truths, but the web seems to be ending now. In the coming months, many articles and books will be published on America's role in Afghanistan and how vital or harmful it was for us to stay there: what I want to wonder about is what this withdrawal means for the future of American foreign policy? U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan
Currently, many countries are experiencing the draw of isolationism, the belief that countries should focus on their people before foreigners and dis-invest in the rest of the world, similar to how Japan was before World War II. Trump ran his campaign saying he would put America first, which echoed in his promises, like building a wall on the Mexican border, removing American dependency on China, and stopping the U.S.'s presence in Afghanistan. Now, Biden has yet to backtrack on any of those and show a different strategy for foreign affairs. Trump's trade war with China is still in effect and we are leaving Afghanistan, two developments unexpectedly allowed by a liberal president. But despite Biden's unwillingness to change course, I think the U.S.'s pursuit of globalism and interventionism are at no risk of being quelled. With the largest economy and military in the world, bringing us any further out of the world's affairs would leave a void for the next world superpower to fill and hurt all of the people who pay for U.S. interventionism. I think that, because the companies that generate so much of our economy and GDP are the ones most globalized and the largest in the world, almost surpassing the bounds of U.S. regulation and becoming global entities, it is in our government's interest to want to keep those companies American-centered. The behemoths that are governments and corporations exist in a power structure where neither has majority control, and each wants more, but companies do not need to worry about their citizens, and for that reason, it seems to be, while we are a capitalist country, in the U.S.'s interest to keep big business centered here, where its people can enjoy the benefits. I'll be interested to see if America stays as liberal as it has been in the last forty years in the rest of the 21st century. Also, Afghanistan has an estimated trillion-dollar amount of minerals under its control- resources that are key for U.S. businesses. sources: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/16/world/meanwhile-in-america-august-17-intl/index.html https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/8/15/in-pictures-taliban-fighters-enter-afghan-presidential-palace https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11451718 https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/18/business/afghanistan-lithium-rare-earths-mining/index.html
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May 2022
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