Opinion

Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan

August 16, 2021
Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan

Jameel Altheyabi



The US administration has made the worst strategic mistake in its handling of the Afghan crisis.

The American experts said the US exit could be sequel to the Vietnam humiliation, while British experts likened it to a disaster similar to what happened in the Suez War in the middle of the last century.

Washington had not expected that the government of its ally Afghan President Ashraf Ghani would collapse in Kabul at such a humiliating speed. The American security experts believed that the Taliban would not be able to enter Kabul for at least until after one month.

However, developments have accelerated to an extent that it culminated in opening the door to a new global security crisis.

It is as if a memory has returned. Let us recall the scenes related to the ambivalent positions of President Barack Obama that ended in giving concession to Iran over Iraq and Syria.

This was for no other reason than to claim that it is necessary to withdraw from the never-ending wars. Today, it can be said that the administration of US President Joe Biden took the weapon to hit its foot with a bullet!

Here is Afghanistan again in the grip of the Taliban because of the frivolity of the US withdrawal, which means a threat to the security of the entire world, through the Taliban’s support for movements and groups of extremism and terrorism.

Who can forget that the Taliban used to host Al-Qaeda, and its former leader Osama Bin Laden, and later his successor Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and is still allying with it and hosting its elements?

Under the leadership of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda elements were trained inside Afghanistan in planning and carrying out the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Who can forget that the Taliban was able to pave the way for its ally Al-Qaeda, after its fall, a safe haven in Iran? And here is the news that hundreds of Arab fighters have gone from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan to support the Taliban.

Apart from the fear that Afghanistan will plunge into a violent civil war; there is also another fear growing that Afghanistan will return as a stronghold of extremism and terrorism and a haven for “jihadist” movements as it was in the past.

These are grave dangers that the United States and the world will not be able to ignore, no matter whatsoever. What is happening in Afghanistan, which is slipped again into the control of the Taliban, poses a serious challenge to the entire world.

The United States withdrew from Afghanistan only to open the door for its enemies and opponents to fill the void, with all that this implies of influence, domination, and a threat to the region and the world.

If we consider the situation with a simple arithmetic, we will find that the forces that will replace the United States in Afghanistan are Russia, China, Pakistan, and of course Iran, which, despite its old differences with the Taliban, deals with it with the logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

It is a reference to the Taliban’s historical enmity with the United States and the West in general.

The British newspaper Sunday Telegraph recently revealed that the terrorist Iranian Revolutionary Guard had smuggled Taliban fighters’ weapons through the Iranian territory so as to enable the Taliban to seize Herat province on its border with Afghanistan.

As for Russia and China, they are driven by the desire to exploit the vast mineral resources of Afghanistan. As for Pakistan, it is looking for the “strategic depth” along its long border with Afghanistan.

This strategic depth would block the way for India to reach any alliance with Afghanistan. The rivalry and historical enmity between India and Pakistan are known, for reasons that are long to explain.

It is certain that the world is entering a dark tunnel and an insecure future with the return of Afghanistan as a gathering point for terrorist groups, and all this is because of the American betrayal...

And the most important issue today is how will the world deal with the Taliban... Are the upcoming days going to be full of new developments!


August 16, 2021
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