“This is the End, Beautiful Friend…”
Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban Islamic State is an absolute catastrophe for women. A now phenomenally well-armed and militarily equipped catastrophe in possession of a billion-dollar U.S. war machine — sophisticated arsenals, computerized drones, ground to air high power armaments, remote incendiary devices, highly trained military and civilian captives/slaves — lacking only (with all hope) nuclear capability, whose main ideological target is the basic Human Rights of women and girls.
The Afghan government’s corruption was well known — resources seldom got to enlisted men in the homosocial, mafia-like, gangster culture of that nation. But the Taliban has still been able to literally walk in and seize a wealth of sophisticated armaments. More materiel and ballistics will eagerly be supplied by Russians, Iranians, Chinese and numerous international Islamic extremist terrorist cabals, among others. They’ve been handed the keys to a well-stocked kingdom.
“The decision space was either: keep a small U.S. counterterrorism presence along with 7,000 to 8,000 NATO troops and kind of hold down the fort and protect our counterterrorism interests, or go to zero and cede the country to the Taliban,” a former Trump official maintained. But that was a naive and stupid idea from the start; to the Taliban, foreign — especially Western — ideological influences, not to mention physical presences, are pollution. “The Taliban were never going to agree to let any U.S. forces stay in the country and if any U.S. official thought that was possible, I think they were a victim of wishful thinking.” (Sarah K. Burris, ‘Former Trump defense secretary swears he never really planned to go through with his own Afghanistan plan,’ Raw Story, August 18, 2021)
There was a middle option available, ignored by Biden, which was to withdraw U.S. forces gradually and keep special operations contractors, or at least some of the contractors, in the country. What really undermined the Afghans and destroyed any remaining morale was pulling all 16,000 contractors as well as all U.S. forces so abruptly. “It changed the ground under their feet drastically and overnight. And there’s a psychological element if you realize that your partner of the last 20 years has just abandoned you,” the official closed. The official acknowledged that the United States had few options for keeping the Taliban out of Kabul. “The decision space was either: keep a small U.S. counterterrorism presence along with 7,000 to 8,000 NATO troops and kind of hold down the fort and protect our counterterrorism interests, or go to zero and cede the country to the Taliban.” (Patrick Tucker, ‘Trump’s Pledge to Exit Afghanistan Was a Ruse, His Final SecDef Says,’ Defense One, August 18, 2021)
State Dept. Spokesman Ned Price, who defended the U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan, said the U.S. is doing what it can for Afghan women and others who are being targeted by the Taliban and its rapid advance, despite reports from the embassy in Kabul of targeted killings, rapes, and child abductions. (Andrea Mitchell Reports) The Taliban have now more or less taken Kabul and occupied the presidential palace. They’ve kept their fighters somewhat orderly inside the city despite outbreaks of violence, beatings, and targeted killings — of course there are still Americans in the city as the evacuation is still underway, and at present in excess of 6,000 American troops on the ground, to protect the process.
‘Video from the northeastern city of Jalalabad on Tuesday showed fighters violently shutting down the first street protests against the Taliban takeover. The New York Times reported that Taliban soldiers fired into the crowd, and subjected protesters and reporters to beatings, after a Taliban flag was torn from a building. Hundreds of protesters also marched in the southeastern city of Khost. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that women and children have been beaten as they attempted to pass through checkpoints set up by Taliban fighters after they seized Kabul. Photos posted on social media by Los Angeles Times reporter Marcus Yam showed women and children covered in blood, and Yam said he saw fighters using “gunfire, whips, sticks and sharp objects” to control the crowd.’ (Jamie Ross News Correspondent, Aug. 18, 2021, The Daily Beast)
The theme song to ‘Apocalypse Now,’ the 1979 American epic psychological war film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, has been playing in the back of my mind since this human catastrophe began to fall into ultimate chaos.
‘This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
‘Of everything that stands, the end No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes again
‘Can you picture what will be? So limitless and free Desperately in need
Of some stranger’s hand
‘In a desperate land….’ (The Doors, 1966)
