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Published: Aug 15, 2021 10:09 PM
The US is confronted with a historic defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban. America's longest war, which began in 2001, is ending in complete humiliation. The Taliban has captured the countryside, every major city and now Kabul has effectively fallen. This is Saigon in 1975 all over again, except the US withdrawal from Vietnam took place in 1972 and its puppet government managed to survive another three years. America's puppet government in Kabul has fallen only four months after the announcement in April that the US would withdraw. It tells us that the Kabul government, and the American occupation, had only a tiny sliver of popular support: The condition for the former's survival was America's troops and airforce. In contrast, the Taliban clearly enjoys considerable backing amongst the people.
The last two decades have been disastrous for the US. The election of George W. Bush in 2000 was supposed to mark, according to its neo-conservative doctrine, the beginning of a new American century and the continuation of the US' unipolar moment following the end of the Cold War. Instead, it led to the humiliating defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan followed in 2008 by the worst financial crisis since 1931. By the time of Bush's departure in 2008, unipolarity was effectively dead and America's reputation for military prowess had been undermined. America is now widely seen as a superpower in rapid decline, a pale shadow of what it once was. Its defeat in Afghanistan will have major implications across the world; It brings into question the competence of its political and military leadership, its willingness to engage in further military entanglements, and its reliability and commitment as an ally. If it can make such a huge miscalculation and suffer such a catastrophic defeat in Afghanistan, then who is going to trust its judgement in East Asia, or the South China Sea.
Military power has been fundamental to America's global role since 1945. It played a key role in undermining the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
America has long believed that overweening military strength was the primary factor in enabling it to get its way in the world. That is why its military expenditure has been far greater than that of any other country.
The first great setback to this philosophy was Vietnam. Now we have the examples of Iraq and Afghanistan. In each of these cases, America enjoyed a massive military advantage, but in the circumstances, it proved entirely inadequate. The key was to win over the people and military superiority could not win hearts and minds, the contrary in fact.
The US, of course, is not alone in having failed to conquer Afghanistan. Down the ages many foreign powers have tried, including Britain and the Soviet Union.
There has been speculation in the West that perhaps China might try its hand next. The chances of China being so stupid are zero. In fact, nothing better illustrates the fundamental difference between China and the US than their approach to Afghanistan.
The US sought to subdue the country overwhelmingly by force. It offered precious little else. There was no serious attempt to foster economic growth in a desperately poor country.
China's approach, in contrast, will be completely different. There will be no military involvement. The PLA will have no role. China, in the longer term, will attach the greatest importance to how it can assist in the economic development of the country, just as it has done in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia.
Development has been the calling card of China. It lies at the heart of the Belt and Road Initiative. The fact that China has been a developing country since 1949 gives it an understanding, and empathy with, the problems of the developing world. The US, as a rich society, has little comprehension of, or interest in, their problems.
China will have another overriding concern. While the US has spent 20 years waging a war in Afghanistan that has sown profound divisions and instability in a country and a region that is over 11,000 kilometres away, China's interest is the opposite. As a country that shares a border with Afghanistan, it will seek to bring stability to the country and to the wider region, not least because this also has implications for the situation in Xinjiang.
Above all, China understands that instability and war are the enemy of economic development.
The fundamental difference in the approach of China and the US has, of course, much deeper historical roots.
The credo of America ever since its birth has been expansion - across its own continent, the Pacific, and since 1945 across the whole world, with nearly 800 military bases in over 70 countries.
In contrast, China has no such history and has never regarded military power as paramount. While the US has pursued global expansion, China has prioritized its own stability and development.
The author was until recently a Senior Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University and a Senior Fellow at the China Institute, Fudan University. He is the author of When China Rules the World.
Follow him on Twitter @martjacques opinion@globaltimes.com.cnPosted by LIPs
19 comments:
Now the defeated loser US is trying to lay down conditions for the victorious winner Taliban, telling them to form a government according to the loser's dictate.
Where, in world history, has there been a loser dictating terms to the winner?
The US leadership has not only lost the 20-year war in Afghanistan, it has also lost its mind. What a thick-skin, shameless bunch of criminal gangsters masquerading as champion for human rights and democracy!
Martin Jacques has been very kind and mild in his description of the evil American Empire. He used terms like expansion, military power, military engagement, American century instead of invasion and occupation by force of another country by an evil Empire behaving like a big international gangster.
What right have the Americans got to walk into another country, putting an occupying army and installing a new leader chosen by the Americans in the name of fighting terrorism? The words used by Jacques and western media are similar, that the invasion, occupation and war in another country is acceptable, normal, a decent behaviour of a big power.
There was no condemnation of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the killing of innocent Afghan tribesmen and people using the pretext of 911 and terrorism. How the hell could the Talibans be involved and capable of executing a 911 in America? They did not have the means to do so. But this fabricated logic was never questioned and taken for granted as the American truth or another white lie.
What had happened in Afghanistan and in many Middle East countries is pure simple military invasion and occupation by an imperial foreign military force to control the land. Period.
Just added a pic to LIPS' article. Who are the real terrorists?
You can imagine the kind of words used by the white men and white media if China were to send an occupying army into anther country.
Where got such kind and sweet words without a single word of condemnation and harshness, no wrong committed, no crimes committed, no crimes against humanity.
Yours truly is not pro-US
He thinks it is a paranoid superpower prone to violence whether of the arms kind or the economic sort. But he does not go for the present snigger about the US being humiliated in Afghanistan, definitely not when the plight of women are concerned.
Neither does he go for a biased view of history in which the US has its ass repeatedly kicked, starting from the Chinese civil war and then Vietnam. In most places including Singapore our parents were not "collectivised", sent to "re-education" camps, shot for being stubborn or having other belief or what sort of race or family they come from, starved by the state, brainwashed into thinking everything else is evil. History is not only about great events like the US retreating from places like Afghanistan. It is also about what did not happened.
The USA will still interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan. Remember their 'Rule of Law'? They are going to start supporting a rebel front to create unrest in Afghanistan, claiming they are fighting for democracy and human rights when it comes to giving a reason for interference. It always has been the direction they will steer, whenever they want to change a regime.
Supporting a rebel front is far cheaper than stationing a base in Afghanistan. This will also put paid and disabled the opposition voices calling for withdrawal all these years The USA can now fight a war behind the scene, using the rebel faction as cannon doffer, with no human risk and just pulling the strings and selling their weapons.
Political or reeducation camps were aplenty in Malaya, then called New Villages, fenced up and guarded by soldiers. No need in Singapore because there was no resistance to colonial rule.
US humiliation in Vietnam and Afghanistan are deserving. They were an invading force, killing the people of the respective countries. They were not invited there, no reason to be there.
In Vietnam, they faked an attack on American warship by a little Viet boat to justify an invasion of Vietnam.
In Afghanistan they alleged that the Taliban supported Al Qaeda and that gave them a right to go into the country to kill the Taliban, calling them terrorists.
Just how many people the Americans have killed and wounded and made homeless in those 1 countries since 1980?
Not a single drop of tears were shed for them. But when one American terrorist is killed, they poured out all their tears and grief for the American terrorist killed in action.
If all the colonised and occupied countries were like Singapore, happily being occupied or colonised, there would be peace all over the world, no need to fight resistance armies or guerillas.
Today's Singapore went a step further by inviting foreigners into their country and telling the foreigners the country belongs to the foreigners, share share. There are now more foreigners than original Singaporeans occupying and sharing the little island.
If you really wish to understand Taleban, this video is a must-see. It is thirty minutes long, take your time to chew on the excellent explanation. The author explains carefully how Pakistan is at the centre of this Terrorist game, benefittng during the period when Usa supported Taleban Mujahideen fighters, and again after USA switched sides and invaded and waged the now infamous 20yr war. It must be noted that Taleban are Pashtuns which form 42% of Afghanistan,the other major race is Tajik,27%. Taliban takeover is an internal affair in Afghanistan, there are at least 42% of people who are happy and eager to get rid of the Americans who bombed the Pashtuns for the last 20 years. None of the 911 terrorists were Taleban.
https://youtu.be/ngW5YDwSkss
Thank you, RB. That picture sure is effective. Save at least a thousand sentences. Great job.
USA is a country of murderers.
The insidious and treacherous actions of USA in Afghanistan is making the Pro-US DPP leadership of Taiwan shivering in their pants and skirts.
US-puppet Tsai Ing-wen couldn't sleep the last three nights, calling for one meeting after another and making urgent calls to Joker Biden side-kicks in the wee hours of the night, trying to confirm whether the US would come to her rescue or will only give excuse to abandon Taiwan when China attacks.
If Taliban can capture Afghanistan in 10 days, without air and naval supports and heavy artillery, China can easily take back Taiwan with air and naval supports, missiles, long-range artillery and tanks in 5 days. Quite easily done.
Yesterday, Saigon, Today Kabul, Tomorrow, Taipei
The pathetic scenes at the Kabul international airport of thousands of people fleeing after the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan have shocked countless people and grabed global attention. Many leaders are calling the evacuation of US diplomats another "Saigon Moment".
There are numerous discussions emerging online over "Who's next" amid the US disgraceful failure in its commitment to a staunch ally.
For decades, the US has been using its foreign policy as a geopolitical game. The situation in Afghanistan has began to worry the pro-US secessionists in Taiwan. This is not the first time the US has abandoned its allies, which are being used as mere chess pieces in its geopolitical game.
The Taliban took over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan without resistance, on Sunday morning, as the country's US-puppet President Ashraf Ghani fled to Tajikistan for onwards transfer to a third country.
Many were shocked at the speed with which the Taliban took control as the US-puppet government collapsed and disintegrated without a fight. The Afghan government military forces simply succumbed and surrendered.
Political experts and world leaders compared the scenes in Kabul of US diplomats hastily being taken to safety by helicopters to the chaotic US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, when US Marines burned sensitive documents on the roof of the US embassy in Saigon, while people were trying to scramble into the military helicopter at the same time.
The Taliban's stunningly swift advances across Afghanistan have sparked global alarm, reviving doubts about the credibility of US promises and drawing harsh criticism even from some of its closest allies.
"Yesterday's Saigon, today's Kabul, and tomorrow's Taipei?" read some online posts by internet users on in Taiwan, implying that the so-called alliance that Taiwan has forged with the US is nothing but an empty promise that will eventually "leave the Taiwanese people high and dry, suffering alone."
Local Taiwanese news sites said that the swift and humiliating end in Afghanistan has "shocked" US allies and partners, who are now wary of putting the safety of Taiwan in the hands of the unreliable US, which may pull the same tricks played in Kabul.
The US's hasty and messy withdrawal from Afghanistan has far-reaching ramifications and consequences in the world. Its global image, reputation and credibility have already begun to be impacted.
The US's capacity and capability to maintain the global balance is now being questioned. Its obssessive confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific and South China Sea is becoming a child's nightmare.
They should say, "The day before yesterday, Vietnam, yesterday, Taiwan, today, Afghanistan, and tomorrow Taiwan again."
Taiwan had been abandoned by the US, once before, in 1979.
LIPS.
Many of the generals would walk across to China's side. They know that there is no fight if China decides to unite Taiwan by force. They too would not want to see unnecessarily killing of Chinese by Chinese. The future of Taiwan as an independent state is futile.
Sinkies sent medical team to join Slave Master USA. And also military observers on holiday switched off job. But now shit bricks.
The USA still trying to talk terms with the Taliban and setting conditions. How could they be serious, talking about caring for the welfare of women and children said to be victims of mistreatment now coming under the Taliban rule. They are not in a position of strength right now and still thinks they can call the shots. Just like the Brits still caught in their pre historic moment of glory.
Has the USA ever thought of children suffering the effect of their sanctions on countries like Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela among others. Shedding crocodile tears is their favourite template to demonise countries and using democracy and human rights is their favourite excuse to destabilise regimes. Do they think of the consequences or welfare of the kids through their destabilisation of regimes?
Hypocrites, just plain vile hypocrites!
The shameless American devils still pretending to be angels.
Not to worry, the Covid19 is raging across the whole of USA, droughts, fire etc will destroy them when no one else can do the job.
Tsai Ing Wen and her traitors must start to prepare their escape plan like the ex Afghan President. Get all the cash and passports ready when the day comes....any day China could launch a military takeover and all the generals would put on China's military uniforms and surround the government house.
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