Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 14th, by wire (International Observation) The U.S. smashed its own feet in Afghanistan
Xinhua News Agency reporter
As of the 13th, the Taliban in Afghanistan have announced that they have captured 18 of the country’s 34 capital cities. On the same day, CNN reported that the US Embassy in Afghanistan has ordered its staff to destroy sensitive materials, flags, logos and other items. At the same time, the United States will send 3,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to ensure the safe evacuation of American diplomats and others. The United States is in an embarrassing situation, even its hard-core ally Britain’s Secretary of Defense Wallace can’t stand it. He bluntly said that the US decision to withdraw troops was a “wrong”.
Analysts pointed out that the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan proved that the United States was wrong to use force to solve the problem, and now the United States is trying to end the war in an extremely irresponsible way, and it has thrown stones at itself. His feet brought a more serious chaos.
Embarrassed
The US Department of Defense stated on the 13th that the Taliban in Afghanistan are trying to isolate Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and that the US is “deeply worried” about the security situation in Afghanistan. Pentagon spokesman Kirby said at a press conference that day that some of the additional US troops have arrived in Kabul, and most of them will be in place before the end of the weekend. The U.S. Transportation Command and the Central Command are formulating an air transportation plan for the evacuation of personnel.
The British government announced on the 12th that it will send about 600 soldiers to Afghanistan to help protect and evacuate British citizens. The British “Guardian” website stated: “The sudden emergency deployment of troops to assist in the evacuation of their own personnel will emphasize to the Afghans that the Western governments believe that Kabul is likely to fall and the situation is already very urgent.”
The drastic changes in the situation in Afghanistan caused dissatisfaction within the United States, and the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw troops was severely criticized by the Republican Party. The Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, McConnell, said in a statement that Afghanistan is heading for a “large-scale disaster.” Global emergency”. He believes that President Biden should strengthen military support for the Afghan army, instead of rushing to complete the withdrawal.
The British Secretary of Defense Wallace also stated on the 13th that since the then U.S. President Trump reached a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan last year, he believed that this was a “mistake” that would lead to a comeback of Al-Qaida and the international community may Bear the consequences for this.
The American “Wall Street Journal” published an editorial entitled “Afghanistan Collapse” on the 12th, saying that Trump recently issued a statement on the issue of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, eager to dispense with his own responsibilities. Trump said: “I personally had discussions with senior Taliban leaders when they knew what they were doing now would be unacceptable. This should have been a completely different and far successful withdrawal. The Taliban know this better than anyone.”
But the editorial pointed out that Trump said otherwise this spring, when he praised the withdrawal and took credit for himself. “The two presidents of the United States are determined to take the political credit of withdrawing troops back to the country as their own.”
Take the blame
Analysts believe that although the US government has been trying to throw off the pot and claim that the security of Afghanistan should be safeguarded by the Afghans, this cannot conceal the unshirkable responsibility of the US for the current chaotic situation in Afghanistan.
Weida Mehran, a military expert at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, said that the withdrawal of the US military, especially the overnight withdrawal from Bagram Air Force Base, caused a heavy blow to the morale of the Afghan security forces.
George Lefevre, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations and Strategy, said that according to relevant UN reports, air strikes launched by the coalition forces headed by the United States in support of the Afghan security forces have caused a large number of civilian casualties in recent years, which has caused the Afghan security forces. Lost popular support in many places. This is also an important reason why the Taliban’s recent offensive is difficult to stop.
In addition, the US “Washington Post” also disclosed a report authored by the US Congress, which included the assessment of the security situation in Afghanistan by the US and its allied military personnel, indicating that some of the problems that have been exposed today have actually planted the root causes. .
The report pointed out that in the first few years after the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon led by then US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was unwilling to fund the Afghan government to build a powerful army. Later, when the Taliban regrouped and launched a counterattack, the U.S.-led coalition hurriedly formed a large-scale Afghan security force, including the army, police, and militia, with a total number of more than 350,000 during the peak period, but the U.S. was providing training and funding for it. The long-term “cut corners” has led to its lack of combat effectiveness. Due to the structural weaknesses in the Afghan security forces that the United States and its allies helped to establish, the United States suddenly decided to speed up its withdrawal this year, which resulted in a rapid collapse.
Robert Manning, a senior researcher at the American Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategic and Security Studies, wrote on the Capitol Hill Journal website that many major failures in US foreign policy can be attributed to the failure to recognize what is the United States. What cannot be changed is the result of arrogance and ignorance of the limitations of American power. “This has brought a series of costly and unexpected consequences. Examples in this regard include the departure of the mission in Afghanistan, which turned the rapid success of the overthrow of the Taliban government into a 20-year nation-building effort, as well as attempts to build a nation in Iraq. The high cost of imposing democracy by force fails.” (Participating reporters: Liu Pinran, Zhang Dailei, Xu Feng)
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