New Delhi: The pictures coming from Afghanistan show one of the worst humanitarian crises the world has witnessed in this century. The Afghans are flooding the Kabul airport attempting to leave the country, while their leader, former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, fled has fled the country as the Taliban took over. The US’s 20-year campaign in the country ended in the most humiliating manner.
Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Monday (August 16) discussed the plight of innocent Afghans as the Taliban rose to power again and the cruel betrayal of the US that abandoned the people to a horrific fate.
As the Taliban captured Kabul, thousands of people rushed to the airport to save their lives. Visuals show people clinging to an American Air Force plane as it took off to save themselves from the Taliban. Shortly after the plane took off, two people fell down from it and died.
The Taliban have overrun the capital. They have reached the Parliament of Afghanistan. This is the same Parliament that was built by India.
Ashraf Ghani, who has fled the country is likely to seek refuge in America. According to reports from Afghanistan, Ghani carried with himself four cars and loads of money.
When the US entered Afghanistan, people hoped Afghanistan would be liberated from the tyranny of the Taliban. But what is happening today is the exact opposite of it.
The origin of the Taliban can be traced back to the 1990s, when the Soviet Union, which controlled the Communist government in Afghanistan since 1979, began to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. There were only three countries in the world that recognised the Taliban government, namely Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. That is why Pakistan is so happy with the return of the Taliban.
On September 11, 2001, when the terrorist organization Al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center of America, its chief Osama bin Laden operated from Afghanistan. That is the reason, why America turned against the Taliban, to whom it earlier used to support with both money and weapons to counter the Russians. The US started a war against the Taliban which lasted 20 years.
But history repeated itself once again and America, like the Soviet Union, had to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan without achieving anything.
America is being criticised for the present situation in Afghanistan as it conveniently pulled its soldiers back and left the people there to die.
This is not the first time the US has done something like this. In the Korean War of 1950, when the Soviet Union and China supported the Communist forces of North Korea, America had announced the support of South Korea against it. America sent its army against Communist forces and this war lasted for about 3 years. In this, over 36,000 US soldiers were killed. America had spent about 400 Billion Dollars i.e. 29 lakh crores rupees, but it did not achieve anything from this war.
America repeated the same mistake in Vietnam. It sent troops to Vietnam in 1965 to get Vietnam out of the civil war and to overthrow the Communist forces there. America fought the war in Vietnam for almost eight years in which about 60,000 of its soldiers were killed. It spent twice as much on this war as on the Korean War. This expenditure was about 850 Billion Dollars i.e. 64 lakh crores rupees. Even after wasting its thousands of soldiers and millions of crores of rupees, America did not get anything from the Vietnam war.
The way America has airlifted its citizens in Kabul today is a stark reminder of the way it airlifted its intelligence agency CIA officers in Saigon back then.
The American army was stationed in Afghanistan for 20 years and during this time it spent 910 Billion Dollars i.e. 68 lakh crore rupees. But despite this, it failed miserably.
A pattern clearly emerges from all this. America starts a war by interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, but it never manages to take it to a meaningful conclusion. Instead, as soon as they realise they have nothing left to gain, they leave the country. This is exactly what is happening in Afghanistan right now.
