A Long Goodbye

Leaving Afghanistan heralds an end to one of the longest military conflicts that the United States have been involved in. At first glance, it seems like the right move; after twenty years of fighting, American soldiers will head home and the country will become free from foreign intervention in its internal affairs. Yet again this is a hasty conclusion. The much-tormented country desperately needs stability in order to foster its economy and cater for its people. The American exodus shatters this prospect.

Being situated in the middle of Asia, in a priviledged position of the Silk Road, the Emirate of Afghanistan flourised thanks to trade and economic transactions and became one of the most culturally and socially advanced kingdoms of the region, at its height in the early 18th century. When the British solidified their grip on India, some one hundred years later, Afghanistan found itself in a very sensitive position, as it suddenly became a buffer zone between two large and antagonistic empires; the British Raj and Imperial Russia.

Eventually, at the height of the so-called Anglo-Russian 'Great Game', Afghanistan had to choose sides. In order to secure that the country will not collaborate with the Qajar dynasty of Iran against the Sikh rule in the Punjab area, which was under British influence and was thought as the gates of British India, the East India Company sent an envoy to Kabul in order to secure an alliance. Emir Dost Mohammad refused, thus provoking a British intervention, in 1839. The war was a pyrrhic victory for the Afghans, after three long years of fighting.

The British took their revenge in 1880, when they won another war against Afghanistan, aiming at outruling the possiblilty of it becoming a Russian satellite state. Thus, the country became a protectorate and the country's ruler, Ayub Khan, was deposed. Afghanistan remained under British protection until after the First World War. In 1919, a short war was fought between the British and Pashtun militias. Fearing that the newly installed socialist regime in Russia will eventually seek to spread communism into the Raj, maybe through Afghanistan (as Lenin initially plotted to try and blend the Soviets' ideology with Islam in order to provoke a large-scale revolution in the Middle East), the British granted full sovereignty to the Afghans, with a new and independent kingdom being recognised in 1926.

The country then experienced half a century of Western influence and prosperity, with international trade flourishing once more. Afghanistan, like Iran, had the luck to be lead by strongmen who valued ties with the West and wanted to outrule both traditionalism (who was thought as being medieval) and communism (conceived as a form of treason against the state). In the 1970s, both regimes were challenged, but for different reasons: in Iran (then still called Persia), the Shah's rule gave its place to an extremist islamic theocracy; in Afghanistan, king Haji Mohammed Zahir Shah yielded his place to chaos.

In 1973, the king's cousin, Mohammed Daoud Khan conspired with the armed forces and deposed the monarch. After renouncing his royal titles, Daoud Khan became the country's first president, aiming at a transition to democracy. He was a progressive, open-minded and cunning man, with an initial pro-Soviet appetite. Despite the latter though, the president followed the path of India in declaring his country being non-alligned. In a meeting with then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, in 1977, Daoud Khan expressed his concern that the Russians manipulated tribes in Afghanistan in their favour. He was right. His refusal to explicitly bow to Soviet interests costed him both his office and his life. The president was shot dead in a communist coup in 1978, which began the ten year intervention of the Soviet Union in the country, ending in a shameful retreat in 1989.

The country, which was meanwhile run by the communists, found itself in complete lack of essentials. After the fall of the Soviet Union the regime collapsed, amidst a severe economic crisis that lead millions to food insecurity. From 1992 onward the country experienced a bitter civil war, in which many factions were involved; most prominently the communist guerillas and the extremist Islamists. In 1994, a fraction of those, mostly concentrated in the city of Kandahar, formed a political and military organisation, the Taliban. Two years later, the Taliban had conquered almost the whole of the country and had imposed a brutal tyranny over its people.

More specifically, under the Taliban, except from the consumption of pork and alcohol, watching television, listening to specific music genres, pet-keeping, indulging in painting or photography were forbidden. Girls couldn't go to school and women must be escorted outside of the house by a male relative; kite-flying was out of order. Moreover, movie theatres closed and were converted to mosques and the celebration of the New Year was banned. Men were obliged to have a beard and wear a turban when in public. Gambling and drugs were obviously prohibited and opium cultivation was almost nullified. Naturally, any kind of opposition was severely prosecuted; communists would be shot, thieves would have their hands or legs cut off. Under Taliban rule, the country became a terrorist hub, with many jihadist groups being allowed to conduct their activity from the territory of Afghanistan. One such attack, famously remembered as the Nine Eleven, served as a turning point. America, under president George W. Bush decided to intervene in Afganistan, toppling the Taliban regime in 2001. Three years later, the Americans let for a constitution to be installed in the ravaged land, which then became a somewhat proper democracy.

Until today, more than 70,000 military officers have died during the War in Afghanistan; more than two trillion dollars have been spent. The country, which struggles to make edges meet and hold together its fragmented territory and disillusioned people, has seen since the mid-2010s a resurgent Taliban threatening to return to power. The Taliban today control some 60 per cent of Afghanistan's territory and vow to revive their oppresive and inhumane regime. Without the support of the United States, the government of Ashraf Ghani, the country's president, will eventually fall apart, similarly to the communist regime after the collapse of the USSR. The presence of the Americans in Afghanistan is not only about geopolitics, economic interests etc.; it is about human rights as well. Should they let Afghanistan slip into an Iran-style theocracy, the United States will have inflicted a major defeat upon themselves. Not only a defeat in terms of force or tactics, but a defeat of principle. Instead of helping off Afghanistan in order to become a normal country after four decades of death and destruction, the Americans will be leaving the country at the edge of collapse, in the hands of the most brutal and ferocious regime since the Khmer Rouge.

American infighting has cost democracy to Vietnam and Iran, countries that have for years been governed in a totalitarian way. The United States are not only a global military superpower, but also a steward of the liberal world order. If they fail to protect Afghanistan and the endless effort made in order to restore peace and stability there, from the Taliban (who will may end up governing a country in which, according to sources, only 15-20% favour them), then this will be a strategic defeat for the whole concept of liberal democracy and its implementation worldwide; a major setback for the rights of women, minorities -- humans in general. And if Afghanistan is to fall so easy, with the U.S. failing to express their solidarity to an ally, then no one can guarantee the fate of other fragile democracies (eg. Taiwan) or liberty-craving people (eg. Cuba). The need for America to help Afghanistan, even without troops on the ground, is inevitable and the danger is serious. The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave must once more prove what it stands for.