{"id":11012,"date":"2021-07-10T06:36:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T06:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=11012"},"modified":"2021-07-10T06:36:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T06:36:21","slug":"afghan-war-a-story-of-reasons-to-believe-and-the-historic-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/afghan-war-a-story-of-reasons-to-believe-and-the-historic-defeat\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan War: A Story of \u201cReasons to Believe\u201d and the Historic Defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Agha Iqrar Haroon<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

On July 9, 2021, in Congress Standing Committee, the US President Joe Biden categorically said that the US-allied forces did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build and it is up to the Afghan people to decide their future and how they want to run their country.<\/h3>\n

Alas, the US shared this secret with the US taxpayers after ruining over 2.65 trillion USD and killing over 160,000 innocent civilians. The US military men causalities are not very high in the Afghan War as compared to 58,000 in the Vietnam war. Less than 2,500 US soldiers gave their lives for this war without clear goals. If the goal was dismantling Al Qaeda so it was achieved years ago. If Al Qaeda is still present, then why are the United States and its allied forces leaving Afghanistan? After dismantling Al Qaeda, the US-allied forces stayed long to ensure \u201cwomen empowerment\u201d, installation of the democratic system, providing better health conditions, achieving high literacy rate, ensuring gender equality, and placing a system where human rights are protected. Were these targets achieved?<\/h3>\n

President Biden is not ready to send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome. Will other nations of the US-allied forces ask their leaders why did their leaders send their children to a senseless war? The ISAF has a long list of countries and they are also answerable to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan that why did they play havoc with their future for 20 long years when their countries and their leaders had no idea in what kind of war they had thrown their children into? The diction of \u201cCollateral Damage\u201d killed only civilians and would anybody audit the impact of this phenomenon and would avoid using this diction again in the future?<\/h3>\n

President Biden judged that it was not in the national interest of the United States of America to continue fighting this war indefinitely. Should the US Congress not call all three presidents (Bush, Obama, and Trump) so ask them why did they continue a war that was not in the national interest of the United States? and why the US interests were a top priority and global and regional interests were not counted for? Pakistan is the most wounded country due to this Operation Enduring Freedom that cost the lives of over 70,000 innocent civilians and Pakistan\u2019s economy went to drain due to the war in its neighborhood.<\/h3>\n

President Biden stated that the Afghan leaders have to come together to decide the future of the country; meanwhile, the US will continue to provide civilian and humanitarian assistance including speaking for the rights of women and girls. No doubt this is a sane approach but the point had been a bone of contention between the US-Taliban peace talks for years because the Taliban are (were) of the view that let Afghans live alone and let them decide what kind of social and political systems they wish in their own country.<\/h3>\n

President Biden also mentioned the following points during his presentation to the US Congress Standing Committee and these points are also important to remember. I am reproducing his viewpoint hereunder so researchers have an idea of what kind of justifications came from the United States while leaving Afghanistan after 20 years of war. He said:<\/h3>\n