Why the West Must Re-Engage in Afghanistan
01/04/25
Embedded Files
US SOLDIER DIRECTS AFGHANI TRAFFIC, IMAGE: LANCE CPL. JOSEPH M. PATERSON
On August 30th 2021, the final American soldier, Major General T. Donahue, hurriedly departed Afghanistan under the cover of night. As the celebrating Taliban wildly fired bursts of gunfire into the dark sky, the West left behind a country once imbued with hope to the same theocratic government that had been forced out in 2001. The chaotic withdrawal from Kabul is regularly referred to by the current US President as the “greatest embarrassment in our country’s history”; however, I believe it is essential to recalibrate our collective understanding of the events that unfolded. Instead, I would rather say the truth, that this should be viewed as one of the greatest sadnesses in recent history, and fundamentally the greatest tragedy for so many Afghans. The promise of freedom was snuffed out at such a cost to so many.
This is not to say that intervention is correct, or even ethical for that matter, however attempting to explain where the West went wrong in Afghanistan and what the costs of these errors were is essential when looking forward. Fundamentally, it is imperative that the West re-engages with its responsibilities to the people of Afghanistan.
Many strategic errors were made in Afghanistan that ultimately relegated the Western coalition to certain defeat. On the battlefield, the coalition’s repeated accidental targeting of civilians caused lasting mistrust and resentment, while excessive firepower devastated communities, often made up of subsistence farms. This callous attitude was demonstrated in strikes following the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing, which claimed the lives of thirteen US service men and women, when an entire family was killed by a drone strike that misidentified their car for that of ISIS-K members. In a country where white Toyota Corollas are by far “the most ubiquitous car”, according to Slobodan Lekic of military newspaper Stars and Stripes, this strike, which killed six children, can only be interpreted as careless at best and spiteful at worst.
This attitude was highlighted in the BBC documentary Escape from Kabul Airport, where it was revealed that the US military had allowed Afghan militias to shoot and run over civilians as they attempted to regain control of the airfield. Attempting ‘to win hearts and minds’ became practically impossible in this context, and by the time of the withdrawal, a majority of Afghans were reportedly hopeful that this would bring lasting peace back to their lands, as outlined in Laurie Bristow’s Kabul: Final Call, The Inside Story of Withdrawl from Afghanistan August 2021. Fundamentally, it is very difficult to convince anyone to support your agenda of improved women’s rights and democracy while you continue to bomb their houses and kill their neighbours.
US AND AFGHAN SOLDIERS NEAR NAEBAN, AFGHANISTAN, IMAGE: SGT. RUSSELL GILCHREST
Away from the battlefield, in the decision-making epicentres of Washington, London and Paris, the approach to so-called “state-building” in Afghanistan quickly unravelled. Jeremy Bowen of The New Statesmen declares in his online diary that “the reasons for the invasion were legitimate... It is what happened next where it went wrong”. Bowen argues that in the years following the invasion, the Taliban were willing to seek peace, but the West refused, instead digging their heels deeper and deeper, and by the time they realised their mistake, it was deemed too costly and embarrassing to reverse. Events such as the ‘Surge’ (increased American troop deployment in Afghanistan beginning under Obama in 2009) that should have resulted in real progress being made were undermined as a result of poor leadership decisions and political pressure back home. In the case of the ‘Surge’, President Obama announced the end date for the troop surge before the first reinforcements had even landed in the country. Therefore, as so often became the favoured tactic of the insurgents, the Taliban would simply hide away, knowing that time was on their side. From the late 2010s onwards, this theme became abundantly clear: time was not on the West’s side. In one of the oldest countries in the world, it now seems naive, and possibly arrogant, that the Western coalition felt they could completely change such a country while only giving themselves a mere twenty-year timeframe in which to do so. After all, it is not for nothing that Afghanistan came to be dubbed as “the graveyard of empires” by Greg Beyer of The Collector.
Equally, there were many successes during the seventeen-year existence of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The Fall of Kandahar, in December 2001, heralded the end of Taliban control, bringing an end to years of abuse and corruption during which massacres, human trafficking and genocides had become commonplace. Western intervention was, however, doomed to fail. The involvement of some fifty-one countries in ISAF, the International Security Assistance Forces, gave the impression of a unified front despite this rarely being the case. Trillions of dollars were spent in Afghanistan on schools, roads, hospitals, and prisons, but it is dubious now how much access Afghans have to these. Other achievements include millions of women and girls being given access to an education, something they have now tragically lost. Seven elections were held. However, the extent to which they were ‘free’ varied greatly. The 2001 Bonn Conference elected Hamid Kharzi to run the next government of Afghanistan in somewhat dubious circumstances, although later elections, such as the 2014 Presidential elections, were predominantly successful. The 2014 elections represent the first, and so far only, time a peaceful transition of power has been achieved in Afghanistan. It may seem pointless to highlight these achievements, but while not perfect, they show a future path for how the West should effectively engage with the new Taliban-run Afghanistan.
US SOLDIER SHAKES HANDS WITH AFGHAN CHILD, IMAGE: SGT. SEAN P. CASEY
Since the withdrawal in 2021, there has been some local fighting between the Taliban, ISIS-K and the Northern Alliance, although generally speaking, a state of peace has been preserved across the country. Nevertheless, the Taliban government has yet to receive formal recognition from any country, despite reports that both China and Russia have contributed considerable funds to keep the new leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and his government afloat. Most humanitarian aid ended abruptly, leaving more than half of the country’s roughly forty million people with an acute food shortage. In November 2021, the Human Rights Watch reported that there was widespread famine and the country was desperately in need of renewed support. Adding to this crisis, in 2023, the governments of Pakistan and Iran ordered all Afghan refugees to leave, creating what the Tailbam dubbed an “inhuman[e]” situation for Afghans.
The most alarming trend is the slide by the Taliban to renege on many of their 2021 promises, especially on the rights of women. Since then, women have been banned from education, banned from talking to other women, and have been forced to wear the niqab, or full veil. Further, human rights abuses have been widely reported across the country, especially in the country’s prisons, and public executions and mutilations have returned, a stark reminder of the regime's brutality.
It may seem perverse to argue that, given this backdrop, the West must re-engage with its responsibilities to the people of Afghanistan. The country has seen a rapid deterioration in living conditions, with millions of Afghans facing poverty, displacement, and a lack of access to basic healthcare and education. The international community’s initial withdrawal from Afghanistan was seen by many as a failure to honor commitments made during two decades of military and humanitarian intervention. While many argue that the West’s focus should shift elsewhere, Afghanistan’s crisis continues to have far-reaching implications for regional and global security. A destabilised Afghanistan serves as a breeding ground for extremism and terrorism, which could spill across borders and impact neighboring countries.
Furthermore, the rise of drug trafficking and organised crime remains a pressing issue, with economic repercussions far beyond the region. Re-engaging with Afghanistan is not about military intervention but rather a return to responsible diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and support for sustainable development, which, sadly, following recent cuts to USAID and the UK foreign aid budget, seems more and more unlikely. Therefore, the West must leverage its economic influence to hold the Taliban accountable, using tariffs not to punish the people of Afghanistan as they are now, but rather address the needs of the Afghan people through aid, investment and pressure upon the Taliban-led government. Ignoring Afghanistan's plight now risks exacerbating a humanitarian crisis and perpetuating the cycle of instability, making it a necessity for the global community to act and to do so quickly.
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