The Afghan lesson

In modern times, American wasn’t the first occupying war power trying to get Afghanistan to behave better. It began when the Soviet forces entered Afghanistan in December 1979. After losing 15,000 men, and their empire collapsed, they pulled out in May 1989. 

During that period, we worked with Pakistan to support the mujaheddin. When we invaded in 2001, we wanted to get revenge over 9/11, but George W. Bush should have thought a tiny bit before getting there, on account of what the Soviets had experienced. 

Not only that, he started the job and got distracted by the unnecessary Iraq invasion, and from there, Obama and Trump never had the gumption to pull out. Sure, the Russians had absolutely no incentive to help us after the support we give to the mujaheddin and were too happy to resupply weapons to the Taliban. 

Over 20 years, our military leaders kept on saying that it would get better, but it never did since they were simply clueless, as was our State Department about the way Afghans thought and acted. In simple terms we never understood their culture, their belief system and their behavior. 

The US military was woefully incompetent, which makes me fear about its ability to defend its own country, but that’s a whole different story. 

The bottom line is that America doesn’t and cannot seem to understand different cultures and when this becomes a glaring reality, we ought to concentrate on our own country, clean up our own mess and address our many problems. 

The role of America as world’s policeman is over and Biden was right in standing firm on his decision.