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Trump takes advantage of the situation to criticize the current president.
Written by Lucas Leiroz, research fellow in international law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
The US defeat in Afghanistan is already having an effect on the American domestic scenario. Taking advantage of the collective dissatisfaction generated by the tragic way in which Washington ended its presence in Kabul, former President Donald Trump has severely criticized the Biden administration, saying that this week’s events will ”go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history”. Indeed, it is possible that a wave of rejection of Biden will grow from now on in American society, in parallel with an increase in the political strength of the Republicans.
During his four years in power, Donald Trump was characterized by an isolationist stance, prioritizing strategic nationalism over an attempt at world domination. His posture was harshly criticized by Biden, who came to power with the promise of regaining American hegemonic status. But the situation was completely reversed and the Democrat, facing the practically irreparable reality of the American decline, accelerated the process of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, ending the longest war in American history. Now, it is Trump who criticizes the decision and calls it a shameful defeat, with a speech very similar to the one used against him by the Democrats some months ago.
In a post on his social media account, Trump said that “it’s time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for allowing what happened in Afghanistan”. Not only the former president, but also former secretary of state Mike Pompeo spoke on the case: “If I were still the Secretary of State with a Commander in Chief like President Trump, the Taliban would have understood that there Qasem Soleimani learned that lesson, and the Taliban would have learned it as well”.
It must be remembered that it was not Biden but Trump himself who initiated the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Republican was the one who took the initiative to sign a peace agreement with the Taliban and start the process of ending the war, after long negotiations in Doha – in which the Afghan government was ignored. However, this is not the central point of Trump and Pompeo’s criticisms. Apparently, for the Trump team, Biden would have been “right” to organize the withdrawal of troops – their mistake would have been to do it as it happened, culminating in an American defeat.
In fact, the words of Trump and Pompeo do not match reality: the very negotiation with the Taliban was the American defeat. Like many other countries, the US considers the Taliban to be a terrorist organization, which means that it is a group that cannot be negotiated with, there should only be coercion and the constant search for total extinction. That posture has not officially changed, but Washington has made an effort to negotiate with the group and sign a peace agreement. The objective of the 20 years of American occupation of Afghanistan was precisely to eliminate the Taliban, which not only was impossible, but Washington also had to negotiate with the terrorists its own withdrawal. This act itself had already been the American defeat – the takeover of Kabul was only a consequence of this.
In this sense, the words of Trump and Pompeo seem vain, but we must consider the effects that such a situation can have on American society. The American people is not a people accustomed to international humiliations like the ones being witnessed this week. Certainly, the departure of troops is the right thing to do (considering that Washington spent billions of dollars in 20 years of war, without having achieved its objective).
However it is unlikely that the people understand the episode in Kabul from a strategic point of view. It is possible that the defeat in Afghanistan will start a crisis of acceptability against Biden, who will come to be seen as responsible for a historic defeat. Although this defeat started with Trump, it was with Biden that it definitely came to light – and in the worst possible way. So, Trump is acting strategically as a political opponent and using this episode as a tool to incite popular discontent against Biden.
The unrest is unlikely to end anytime soon, and protests are likely to break out in the US in the coming months. The American people wanted the troops to leave, as this war did not bring any benefit to the country, but they did not want to see their compatriots fleeing Kabul amid the Taliban’s takeover of the city. Republicans will insist on a provocation strategy from now on, claiming they could avoid it, but that’s not true.
With Trump or Biden, Washington has failed in its goal of liquidating the Taliban and making Afghanistan a democracy. And once again, the impossibility of a unipolar world project became clear to the entire international society. Trump is likely to change his usual speech and start promising to regain global hegemonic status (as Biden had promised in the elections), but, in fact, he and all American politicians know that this has become virtually impossible.
It’s been a long time since US internal politics have been revealed to be a reality show circus. Who cares if it’s orange ape man or the demented pedo “in power”? They are both imperialists. The only difference is that Trump talks more and is thus more annoying. Trump said he “wanted” to pull out troops even earlier (May 1st) so idk wtf is he talking about.
But seeing the US absolutely humiliated like this is very nice.
The domestic rejection of Biden was never because of the US defeat in Afghanistan. SMH.
Insightful political commentary from right wing journo a la Rio of all places, probably cheering on impending military coup or state collapse from run-away Delta infections.
When the dust settles this is going to boost Biden’s popularity as someone who did what needed to be done, when he said he was going to do it.
But, always nice to hear predictions about the American political/social climate…from Rio.
The writer states: “…….considering that Washington spent billions of dollars in 20 years of war, without having achieved its objective”.
Wrong. The objective was never to destroy the Taliban (who had nothing to do with 911) – the objective was to get into Afghanistan and occupy the land to prevent other nations from doing so.
The objective and historical precedent was always to block the Afghanistan land bridge – the most strategic part of the “Heartland” to other powers (most importantly Iran and China, and Russia and India).
The fact that NATO have kept Afghanistan off limits to Russia, Iran, and China in any meaningful form for 20 years – and have also profited greatly from the sale of 90% of the Worlds opium supply whilst doing so – shows that the mission was successful.
Russia is not the broken nation it was 20 years ago, and China is no longer the 3rd rate military power it was 20 years ago. Both are now “peer adversaries” to not just the US to but to NATO combined.
Iran has also developed a sophisticated ballistic missile capability (as demonstrated against the US in january last year) and has approached “break out” capability of its nuclear program – in addition to extending its political influence throughout the middle east.
It may be that the US (and UK) could no longer hold the ground so far from home and was simply muscled out by a China/Russia/Iran backed Taliban.
Whatever the reason for the US and Uk retreat, many CIA, MI6, and Mossad have become rich milionaire drug lords on the back of the US and UK tax payers paying for the devevelopment and protection of the poppy fields. So for the spook millionaires at least, the mission was a success (and was for the Pentagon for some time too as China could not properly link up with Iran over land, and Russia could not properly link up with India over land).
However, the question is why the operation was ended so quickly, especially when the poppy fields were still growing and the cash still flowing.
Maybe this is why ?
https://www.rt.com/russia/532308-kadyrov-us-control-taliban/
Interesting analysis. And yes the real reason why US abandoned the puppet Afghan Goverment is still a mystery. Time will tell, maybe US strategy planners just want to retreat and consolidate in their natural backyard (South America), instead of projecting itself afar, overseas. China in the Pacific could be another reason to.
Putin’s pet Muslim speaks. Why the different narrative ?
https://www.rt.com/russia/532308-kadyrov-us-control-taliban/
Silly troll.
US has the ‘pet Muslims’ – called Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain.
And this drivel passes as “analysis” on SF now? There never was a goal of “making Afghanistan a democracy”–neither Karzai nor Ghani was installed as the result of a democratic vote, which frankly the US regime doesn’t exactly prioritize at home either.
If the US were a serious country, it’d now lock up all their celebrity generals, CIA spooks, and contractors who profited from the heroin trade, and confiscate their dirty money. At the same time and with equal urgency, it’d clean out the media apparatus that covered for those rascals throughout the past two decades.
It goes without saying that the opposite will happen: perception management is needed more than ever when the reality is this uncomfortable. The Afghan defeat cannot be forgotten right away, so the next best thing is–well to do what they always do, to channel the discontent into toothless squabbling of the two Officially Allowed Parties, between the clueless show-wrestling MC Trump and the hapless Alzheimer patient Biden. Already, the great&good are mumbling “We must learn from this in order to do better in our future interventions, ensuring that nothing will change–by design.
Seems pretty obvious.
” The new face of Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers owes his freedom to the U.S.
In 2001, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, tried to arrange the group’s surrender to the new U.S.-backed Afghan government. It was rejected. He spent most of the past decade under arrest in Pakistan.
He returns to power 20 years later after the U.S. lobbied for his release when the Trump administration launched talks with the Taliban. ”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-taliban-leader-emerges-hunted-jailed-and-now-free-11629154710
Taliban back then said to yanquis, let’s work it out but the yanquis were like, nah man. We are going to destroy Afghanistan and put up a new puppet. 20 years later here we are.