N°14-01/06/2021 In his April 14 speech, Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.
This withdrawal of the 2,500 Americans still present in the country will be carried out concertedly with that of the 9,600 troops from the NATO countries participating in the occupation of Afghanistan. The withdrawal follows the 2020 Doha deal between representatives of the Taliban and US authorities. It planned the withdrawal as early as May 2020 in exchange for a Taliban pledge not to threaten US interests.
The official reason for the US military engagement was the fight against terrorism after the September 11, 2001, attack on the Twin Towers in New York. It should be noted that in 2010-11, there were up to 100,000 American troops in the country. The toll of the US intervention is tens of thousands of Afghan dead and a war-torn country. Commentators trace the US and NATO intervention and occupation back to 2001 with the struggle against al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. This assertion masks the reality of interventions that go back much further with a paroxysmal situation between 1979 and 1989.
Let us recall that in the 19th century, Afghanistan was a concerted artificial creation between the English and Russian imperialisms of a buffer state between their colonial conquests. In 1978, progressive forces overthrew the Afghan monarchy and paved the way for the country's economic, social and cultural modernization. This was too much for the warlords and their Pakistani and Western allies who organized a counter-offensive, facilitated by General Zia's military coup in Pakistan. The USA, European Union, Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia organized, armed and financed the Islamist counter-revolution. The US and Saudi Arabia are estimated to have spent more than $ 3.3 billion on these operations. O. Bin Laden is a creation of the American and Saudi Arabian services. This country is his rear base with the blessing and support of Pakistan’s rulers. The Soviet intervention from 1979 to 1989, within the framework of agreements between Afghanistan and the USSR and at the request of the Afghan government was the pretext for an acceleration of the imperialist aid to the counter revolution. The Soviet withdrawal, the contradictions within the regime will precipitate the rise to power of the counter revolutionaries. Their victory marks a return to an obscurantist policy and an alignment with the regional imperialist powers namely Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, also staunch allies of the United States. The US and NATO withdrawal leaves the field open to the Talibans, as the corrupt collaborationist regime that dominates half of the country is weak. This does not worry the US and its allies too much. Afghanistan is bled dry and hardly a serious threat, even a terrorist one, as it is under the control of the large Pakistani neighbor.
Therefore, the choice of the United States, which suffered a military and diplomatic defeat there, is rather to rearrange its forces in the perspective of the confrontation that it considers as most important against China. Let us recall that Biden began his mandate with a show of force in the China Sea with military exercises.
The terrible ordeal that the Afghan people have suffered is a lesson we must learn. There is nothing good to be expected from imperialism. We must fight it by bringing together anti-imperialist and revolutionary forces.