Another Graveyard

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. However, the Americans cannot be described as mere fools, given their proven track record of deceitful international politics and unilateral military intrusions across the world. Despite being materially mediocre and numerically nowhere, Afghanistan, referred to as the time-tested ‘Graveyard of the Empires,’ has always been an international case study for defying invading forces. Yet, on the basis of the U.S.’s all-weather right of self-defence, George W. Bush junior, the then U.S. President, took no time to declare ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ against Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. The disastrous decision was made in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the American mainland on September 11, 2001, commonly referred to as 9/11. As things unfolded, Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, was ruthlessly bombarded by the U.S., and the Allied and NATO forces.

In the so-called War on Terror, the Afghan nation was summarily destroyed in the hunt of a single person, Osama bin Laden, who was the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. Having ushered in an aweful lot of recurring bloodshed on Afghan soil, the rest is now history. Thanks to the jingoistic and brute militarism of the United States, the period is marked by Daisy-Cutters, a parade of armed drones, Black Hawks and B-52 bombers plus the Mother of all Bombs.

The U.S.-led 20-year war took over 47,600 civilian lives with more than double that number injured. Though the total number of civilian casualties was way higher than the officially reported figures, the relentless bloodbath was conveniently justified by American diplomats and media as merely collateral damage. No more and no less. Bearing the brunt of decades-long U.S. belligerence, Pakistan, Afghanistan’s immediate neighbour, emerged as another victim of unremitting war crimes, losing around 83,000 military and civilian lives, as well as over US$126 billion in damages to employment, business and infrastructure. Interestingly, all such destruction took place against a country that was a non-NATO ally. The War on Terror, for both Afghanistan and Pakistan, proved to be much more disastrous than the 9/11 episode.

Despite the formidable human and material destruction, the United States presented an arrogant and carefree attitude all through the era. In fact, it was not just a brazen display of acute diffidence, but sheer bestiality and a vicious mindset that characterises the global powers. Then the Taliban took back Kabul in August 2021, twenty years later, making a mockery of America’s advanced military might and blowing away all its military muscle. Having fled Afghan land, lock, stock and barrel, the United States can never run away from Divine wrath. Every dog has its day. How could the Americans, along with their war cronies from the West, be an exception? The countdown has begun.

Syed Jawaid Iqbal
President & Editor in Chief