Mohammad Amjad Hossain :
Afghanistan was subjected to foreign domination until the Soviet Union was driven out of Afghanistan by 5 February, 1989. It is equally true that America and the United Kingdom trained the Taliban to drive out Russians from Afghanistan. Here Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden was one of the contributors to assist the US and Great Britain to recruit people for training.
On false pretext, the so- called superpower USA invaded Afghanistan on 9/11 of 2001. It means Afghanistan was subjected to intervention by foreign power wherein the people of Afghan were then subjected to suffer for no fault of theirs. I recalled the writing of John Pilger of The Mirror which was published on 1st November of 2001 which gave an interesting picture that Osama bin Laden agreed to face the International Tribunal to which was approved by Mullah Omar. But USA President Bush did not consent. The US and Britain insisted there was no alternative to bombing.
The United States of America now is in dire risk in Afghanistan following the announcement of withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by President Joseph R Biden. President Biden is facing criticism from former President George Bush who in fact invaded Afghanistan on the pretext of finding Osama bin Laden who was blamed for destroying the world trade center in New York city plus attacking the Pentagon and Washington DC. Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan as a guest of the Taliban government of Mullah Omar. It is interesting to note none of the nineteen hijackers blamed for destroying the world trade center in New York were from Afghanistan. Taliban in fact was the creation of the United States and United Kingdom in 1980 to fight the Russians in Afghanistan when Taliban took control of Kabul in 1996 neither the US nor UK said nothing.
Osama bin Laden was blamed by President Bush without any concrete proof. I recalled that next week after the destruction of the World Trade Centre a batch of relatives of Osama bin Laden were sent back to Saudi Arabia. Instead of capturing Osama bin Laden President Bush moved to attack Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, but representative of UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, a former Swedish diplomat, reportedly said that no weapon of mass destruction was found in Iraq but President Bush went ahead to attack Iraq along with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair.
Since President Joseph Biden decided to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan having fought 20 years, he is facing criticism from Republican lawmakers as well. In fact, Republican lawmakers are divided on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan as reported by Forbes. According to Forbes Minority leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell and Representative of the House Liz Chenny (daughter of former Vice-President Dik Chenny) argued that it would embolden the very jihadist who attacked our homeland while Republican Senator Ted Cruiz of Texas and Senator Cynthia Lummis of Republican pleased with the decision of withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan having fought 20 years while 2,448 US troops lost in the war, apart from more than 47245 Afghan civilian and 51,191 Taliban while $ 2 trillion has been spent ,apart from NATO lost 1,144 members, according to Linda Bilmes of Harvard University of Kennedy School.
The Biden administration is reported to have said that an agreement has been signed with the leader of Taliban to allow passengers safe passage to travel to their destination while G-7 agreed with agreement with Taliban authority to leave Afghanistan by 31st August while Prime Minister of UK Boris Johnson is reported to have asked Taliban must allow people to leave the country. At a press conference President Joseph Biden praised allies in the group of a nation, NATO and European Union for solidarity of approach over Afghanistan. According to Don Beyer, House Representative in the constituency of Virginia holds the opinion that military operation mounted by American forces has resulted in the evacuation of 80000 people which makes the largest airlift in history. As a result of war in Afghanistan, the United States is indebted as of 2020 two trillion dollars. US occupation of Afghanistan becomes a fiasco since the failure to capture of Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001 to President Donald Trump’s attempt to invite leader of Taliban at Camp David in 2019 plus Donald Trump also signed peace deal with Taliban in February in 2020. As reported by several news media Afghans have been horrified of the occupying of Afghanistan by Taliban.
Since a conflicting report is coming out from Afghanistan it’s better to wait and see before 31st August which is the deadline to leave Afghanistan. On 26 August a bomb exploded at Kabul airport which cost the lives of 13 US servicemen plus 60 Afghans and 140 wounded. As a citizen of America, I wish good luck to the people of Afghanistan who suffered unbearable loss during the 20 years.
(Mohammad Amjad Hossain, retired diplomat from Bangladesh and former President of NOVA Toastmaster International Club of America writes from Falls Church, Virginia).
