N°16-septembre 2021 The capture of Kabul by the Taliban ended a twenty-year war from 2001 to 2021 waged by the imperialist powers against the Afghan people under the aegis of NATO.
The defeat of the USA, the first economic and military power, sounds like a warning about their inability to militarily dominate "the world order". In their own way, the newspaper Les Echos underlines the significance of the event by publishing an article entitled: "The victory of the Taliban, a turning point in the world order" and the CDU candidate for the German chancellery adds: "it is NATO's biggest debacle since its inception".
The question asked by most observers is summed up by: How did we get there and so quickly after the withdrawal of US troops? It is indeed clear, that the Afghan regime set up by the USA, its army and its police financed and supervised by the USA, all this has melted in record time and practically without reaction. This shows the puppet and corrupt character of this regime from which President Ashraf Ghani fled, taking away part of the money stolen from the people and whose main leaders swear allegiance to the victors. And yet the United States did not skimp on the means to support this regime at arm's length by committing nearly 1,000 billion dollars in the operation.
In the USA, A. Blinken justifies the US intervention as a response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 adding: "Staying [in Afghanistan] is not in our interest". He unfolds the official thesis as expressed by J. Biden who said according to AFP on Monday: "an even longer war in Afghanistan would have benefited China and Russia", while his chief diplomat was talking with the two rivals of the United States, Russia and China who intend to maintain relations with the Taliban. Former President Trump calls for Biden's resignation for having betrayed in Afghanistan but he forgets to recall that the US withdrawal was unconditionally negotiated and signed with the Taliban as single interlocutor in February 2020 under his presidency in Doha. These negotiations were carried out in the presence of Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban military leader, imprisoned in Pakistan since 2010 and whom Washington released in 2018. This line of withdrawal had been a constant in American policy for several years and was taken up by Trump and then Biden. In a previous article, we showed the general meaning of this redeployment policy.
https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/monde/proche-et-moyen-orient/1410-afghanistan-retrait-us-et-de-l-otan-pour-une-nouvelle-disposition-de-leurs-forces
The reactions of the great powers directly or indirectly interested in the situation of Afghanistan are indicative of their position. Essentially those linked to NATO – and this is the case of France which had its share of participation in the war, are aligned with US positions. This is the case of Macron, whose speech on Monday evening can be summed up in two words: Islamist danger and fear of a refugees influx. These powers are working to withdraw their diplomatic and security personnel, while others such as Iran, Pakistan, Russia and China who have already spoken to the Taliban maintain their diplomatic representation and intend to cooperate with the future power in Afghanistan. China, "wishes friendly relations with Afghanistan" said Hua Chunying, spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy. China already has significant interests in Afghanistan where it obtained a 30-year contract for copper mining at the Mes Aynak site. For its part, Russia is strengthening its military bases in neighboring Tajikistan and Iran can but rejoice at the weakening of the USA in the region as for Pakistan, its hold on the Taliban movement gives it means of control over this strategic region.
The weakening of the American presence benefits China, according to the newspaper Les Echos; thus in its edition of August 16 it titles: “A turning point in the world order”, "for the benefit of China". This shows that the defeat of the USA and NATO does refer to the struggles within the imperialist system.
In these conflicts, and that of Afghanistan is no exception, what takes precedence are the interests of the imperialist powers for the control of the resources, the means of communication, the labor force and the territories. To hide these facts, they work to disguise them under the pretext of human rights. Thus for Afghanistan, the mainstream media are shedding crocodile tears over the unfortunate fate of the Afghans who will be subjected to the reactionary and obscurantist policy of the Taliban. Using this reality, they try to justify military interventions and they glorify the capitalist social and moral economic order. In this sense, lying is a propaganda tool like any other. Thus, the proponents of the imperialist order assure that the US defeat is a defeat of democracy and that there is nothing to be done against the obscurantist forces. By saying that, they want to erase the long democratic struggles of the Afghan people, struggles which resulted in the 1978 revolution against precisely these reactionary and obscurantist forces. This revolution initiated a significant advance in the social, economic, political and cultural order and in particular for the liberation of the poor peasantry from the lords of the land. It undertook mass education of the youth and the liberation of Afghan women. This was too much for imperialism. It had to bring down the progressive regime at all costs and put an end to the liberation of the Afghan people. From 1989, when the USSR at the request of the Afgan government intervened to support it, the same people who have now allowed the Taliban to return to power then organized, financed and ideologically supported the most reactionary forces to fight militarily the regime which with the support of the USSR was able to contain for a time the assaults of imperialism and its local allies. The imperialist countries orchestrated an international campaign falsely accusing the USSR of having invaded Afghanistan; their pressure, the internal difficulties of the regime and the decisions of the leadership of the USSR searching for an agreement with the USA accelerated its withdrawal from that country, leaving the way open to the forces of the counter-revolution. With progressive and revolutionary forces slaughtered, came the reign of bin Laden (who received over 3.5 billion- from Saudi Arabia and the US) and their allies who physically destroyed all Afghanistan’s activists capable of modernizing and democratizing the country. Back then there were tens of thousands of us supporting the Afghan revolution and we said so in a petition which only earned insults and sarcasm from many who today weep hypocritically over the plight of the Afghan people.
As for us, we have not changed. Of course we say that we must welcome and help Afghan refugees and we continue to denounce and fight imperialism, including that of France. Our support goes to all those in Afghanistan who accept neither the imperialist order, nor the obscurantist and reactionary forces that have just seized power there.