Autopsy of an Unwinnable War

Afghanistan, the heart of Asia, has long been subject to foreign invasions for centuries. Referred to as the 'Graveyard of Empires', Afghanistan has been invaded by a host of world powers and ruling nations, such as the Maurya Empire, Alexander, the Great, the Rashidun Caliphate, the Timurid Empire, the Mughals, Persians, Sikhs and the British colonists. However, all such invaders ended up as a failure as they couldn't prolong their hold on the Afghan land.

A short while ago, the history repeated itself when the then Soviet Union, the world's second largest military force, invaded the Afghan land with all its might and main. The 9-year war between the Soviet forces and the Mujahedeen wreaked havoc across the Af-Pak region, claiming over two million lives and displacement of millions of people. Leaving the Afghan land in ruins, Soviet Union met the destined disaster in 1989 when it was defeated by the U.S.-backed Mujahedeen and rebels at long last and the ignominious defeat ushered in the breakup of the Soviet Union within a couple of years.

Inking a landmark peace deal by the former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev bid farewell to their blood-ridden rule in Afghanistan. Consequently, the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower, which overtly and covertly provided an all-inclusive assistance to Mujahedeen to help them fight against the Soviet invasion to the point of its fated surrender. Doing so, however, the U.S. could not foresee the fact that the same fate was also reserved for them to get them bogged down in the war-torn Afghanistan.

Late 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Washington triggered a two decade-long war in Afghanistan. Having ended up with many of its objectives unfulfilled, the Afghan war bright them fatalities of hundreds of military personnel, countless injuries and a loss of billions of dollars. "The moment Osama Bin Laden was killed, I said that he must be laughing in his watery grave considering how much money we have wasted in Afghanistan," says Jeffrey Eggers, a retired Navy SEAL and a White House staffer who had served both Bush and Obama. Inter alia, some ten years ago, it became crystal clear that Washington was going to bear the brunt of a decisive defeat in Afghanistan in a prolonged warfare dubbed as the "Unwinnable War" by numerous U.S officials in interviews, which were published in The Washington Post under the heading of "The Afghanistan Papers."

Taken as a whole, one must look into the factors that are behind the America's humiliating defeat, despite the most powerful army well-equipped with lethal weaponry.

1) Inhuman acts perpetrated against the civilian population resulted in revolt against the invaders.
2) A sizable reduction in money paid to tribal chieftains to buy their loyalty.
3) An ingrained hostility to outsiders.
4) The steep mountainous terrain of the region.
5) The undying spirit of jihad among the Afghan people.
6) Neighbouring countries and regional stakeholders safeguarding their own interest with a total disregard to the ultimate consequence of such an act on their part.

Post-U.S. exit, China, with its overambitious BRI mission, is all set to enter the war-torn Afghanistan to fill a vacuum left by the United States. If China succeeds in furthering its influence over there, its rivals will enter the fray to save their interests, which will lead to another civil war in the Afghan land. Hence, Afghanistan's neighbouring countries must devise a constructive strategy to help establish lasting peace in Afghanistan. This could only be done by finding a political remedy to this malady. Negotiating and cutting a peace deal with the Taliban is key, because they are now war-weary and a young Taliban leadership is poised to make a new beginning. Last but not least, China must learn from the history or else it will have to pay like its predecessors.