U.S. President Joe Biden has argued that the military under the Kabul administration is capable of dealing with the Taliban. Referring to the agreement signed with the militant group, Biden said, "Do I trust the Taliban? No. But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military."
Yet with the Taliban's capture of Kabul with little to no resistance, it was clear that this army was a paper tiger. The very rapid fall of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban seems to have taken Biden by surprise. "We were clear-eyed about the risks. We planned for every contingency," continued Biden. "The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated."
"There was nothing that I or anybody else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 Days," said General Mark Milley, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In reality, there was neither a proper administration nor a strong army as it was purported. There was a puppet administration ready to do whatever the U.S. said and an army that looked like a tiger on paper. The money flowing from the Washington to the Kabul administration evaporated before it trickled down to the lower floors. When the financial and military support of the U.S. was stopped, it was clear as daylight that the Kabul administration would not be able to last very long. In fact, this goes for several countries that owe their sovereignty to the military support of the United States.
If you recall, former U.S. President Trump said in a speech he made at a rally in 2018, referring to the Saudi dynasty in which he uttered the following: "We're protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us.."
These words fit perfectly with the developments in Afghanistan. The U.S. left a vacuum, not even two weeks later, neither the administration nor the army remained standing.
April showers bring May flowers. Back in 2019, The Washington Post published 2,000-page “Pentagon documents” pertaining to the Afghanistan war.
According to these documents, the authorities for 18 years hid the truth about the war in Afghanistan, painting a rosy picture even though they knew it was misleading, and concealed evidence that the war had become unwinnable. To recap, those responsible have tried to portray Afghanistan as a "Potemkin Village" of sorts: the Russians annexed Crimea in 1783. Czarina Catherine II had appointed her confidant, General Potemkin, as governor.
The complacent Potemkin had convinced the Empress that he had rebuilt Crimea and thus the Tsarina wanted to organize a trip to the region in order to show her European guests how much Crimea developed and flourished under Russian rule.
As soon as the cunning Potemkin heard of the Tsarina's trip by ship, he built fake villages from boards on the coast of Crimea. The Tsarina and her guests were quite amused as they waved from the ship to the fake villages that looked beautiful from afar.
Why did the American public so desperately wanted to believe that everything was going well in Afghanistan when the facts were so different from what was shown on paper? The lies weren't just about Afghanistan, of course. The then-U.S. President George W. Bush and the pro-Israeli neocons around him deceived the American people with the lie that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
The mainstream American media of the period also reveled in the dirty lies of the Neocons. Intellectuals who found the allegations questionable, on the other hand, were admonished and discredited.
Lies were told to the American people in the Vietnam War, as in Iraq and Afghanistan. So why are defeats portrayed as victories and failures as successes, why have the facts been covered up? Who benefits from these wars and their incessant continuation? It is said that the money spent by the U.S. on the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq has hit five to six trillion dollars. When the so-called “War on Terror” companies are taken into account, the figures are even much higher.
Trillions of dollars coming out of the pockets of average Americans flow into the coffers of the Military-Industrial Complex, which is fed by wars and chaos.
Of course, some of these dollars are divvied up with hawkish politicians, lobbies, media networks, so-called think tanks, local warlords, and the upper classes of puppet governments. Each plays their own role. They don't care about the loss and pain of millions of people. Imperialist fantasies such as “American exceptionalism,” “the indispensable nation” and “nation building” have all dissipated in a flash. That's what's going on.
