Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 16th, by wire (International Observation) Afghanistan’s Taliban’s quick victory over the U.S. policy was criticized for a fiasco
Xinhua News Agency reporter Shi Xiantao
Afghan President Ghani announced on the 15th that he has left Afghanistan in order to avoid bloodshed. On the same day, Mohamed Naim, spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan, announced that Taliban fighters had entered and controlled the capital, Kabul, and the war in Afghanistan had ended.
Analysts said that from the current situation, the change of power in Afghanistan is a foregone conclusion. The irresponsible withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the inadequacy of the Afghan government’s own capabilities and the political strategies adopted by the Taliban are important reasons for the Taliban’s rapid victory in Afghanistan. The “changing sky” in Afghanistan in a blink of an eye not only put the United States in a very embarrassed situation regarding the evacuation of personnel, but also aroused severe criticism of the Biden administration’s troop withdrawal policy by American public opinion.
The overall situation is set
According to media reports such as the “Voice of Asia” news agency in Tajikistan, Ghani has traveled to Tajikistan accompanied by some Afghan officials, and will travel to other countries afterwards, but it is not yet clear about his next itinerary. This news has not yet been confirmed by the Algerian Presidential Palace.
The Taliban leader in charge of political affairs, Abdul Ghani Baradar, said on the evening of the 15th that the recent victory of the Taliban has exceeded expectations. The next step for the Taliban is to ensure safety and bring well-being to the people.
Former Afghan President Karzai said on social media on the 15th that Afghanistan has established a “coordination committee” to prepare for the peaceful transition of power and is responsible for maintaining security, law and order.
U.S. President Biden announced in April this year that the U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan will begin to withdraw on May 1 and will withdraw completely before September 11. On July 8, Biden stated that the US military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31. As the U.S. forces accelerate their withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban’s offensive has become more swift, and they have continued to occupy major cities and towns.
Why quick win
Analysts believe that there are many reasons why the Taliban were able to seize power quickly.
The first is the failure of the US policy in Afghanistan. From the early July withdrawing the U.S. forces from Bagram Air Force Base overnight without notifying the Afghan government, to Biden’s statement on August 10 that the Afghan government forces must fight for themselves and the country, it is clear that the U.S. is eager to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. , Will no longer invest military resources to resist the Taliban.
On the one hand, this dispels the Taliban’s scruples about US military intervention, and can concentrate its efforts on the Afghan government forces; on the other hand, it also makes the Afghan government and military feel that they have lost their backing and their will to resist. In addition, the Algerian government has overly relied on US air firepower, intelligence reconnaissance, and logistics support in previous operations. Therefore, it has lost its normal combat capability after losing these support from the US military.
The second is that the Taliban have adopted the correct political strategy. Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Afghanistan Research Center of Lanzhou University, pointed out that the Taliban refused to negotiate with the Afghan government alone while negotiating with the United States, accusing the Afghan government of being a “puppet fostered by the United States,” and defining itself as a “national force against foreign enemies.” The Taliban also announced the “amnesty” policy to dispel the fear of government forces and officials towards the Taliban and greatly reduce resistance.
For example, Ismail Khan, the local armed leader known as the “Lion of Herat”, once supported the United States in combating the Taliban regime in 2001, but the Taliban recently persuaded him to surrender and successfully won the third largest city in Afghanistan, Herat. This move also caused many other local armed forces to surrender. For the Afghan civilians who served as translators for the US military, the Taliban also publicly stated that they would not harm them.
The third is that the Afghan government itself has many problems. Zhu Yongbiao said that the constant struggle between different political forces in the Afghan government has led the Taliban to take the opportunity to expand their power.
At the same time, because the Afghan government has serious corruption problems and long-term dependence on foreign military support, the coalition forces headed by the U.S. military frequently bombed and killed civilians in their military operations in Afghanistan. The Afghan government is dissatisfied.
The U.S. is criticized
High-ranking officials of the US government have repeatedly vowed to declare that the Afghan government will not be defeated because the Afghan government forces have a clear advantage in equipment and numbers compared with the Taliban. Therefore, after the Taliban won at an alarming speed, the Biden administration faced the most serious public opinion pressure in the United States since it came to power.
In the past 20 years, the United States has invested more than 88 billion U.S. dollars to support the Afghan government forces. However, the latter was defeated under the offensive of the poorly equipped Taliban. Many government forces even surrendered without a fight. Even the capital Kabul did not experience fierce fighting. It was controlled by the Taliban.
American experts generally severely criticized the Biden administration’s withdrawal policy. Morgan Kaplan, a researcher at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace in the United States, said that regardless of whether the outside world agrees with the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, they have to admit that the withdrawal is undoubtedly disastrous at the implementation level.
Richard Haas, president of the American Institute of Foreign Affairs, said that the United States and its allies originally maintained a certain balance of power in Afghanistan. Although this is not a peace or military victory, it is far better than the current hasty retreat strategy and humanitarian disaster. Major intelligence and policy errors by the US government have led to the current situation.
Former US Secretary of Defense Esper said that both Biden and former President Trump have a goal, which is to end the long-term presence of the US military in Afghanistan, but neither of them has achieved the goal in the right way. They all demanded that the U.S. forces withdraw quickly, instead of using military presence as a bargaining chip to urge the Taliban to comply with the Doha agreement reached last year, thus accelerating the collapse of the Afghan government.
John Chipman, director of the British Institute for International Strategic Studies, also pointed out that the US military and NATO coalition forces only highlighted the “exit” in the “exit strategy” and ignored the “strategy”.
James Cunningham, who was the US ambassador to Afghanistan during the Obama administration, said that the Biden administration could have chosen to withdraw its troops conditionally, but it made the wrong choice. This damages the security of the United States, its allies, and the region, as well as the credibility of the United States.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said in an interview with New Zealand media on the 16th that Afghanistan was the biggest failure of Western policy, and that the 20-year efforts of Western allies led by the United States vanished overnight. (Participating reporter: Liu Pinran)
【Error correction】
【Editor in charge: Cheng Lan】
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