After Afghanistan, US now eyes the Far East - EDITORIAL

In February 2020, the US and the Taliban signed a deal for the safe withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan within a period of 14 months. The government of Afghanistan nor America’s NATO partners played no role in the signing of the agreement.

In its essence, the agreement was only for the safe passage for the occupying forces out of Afghanistan. Then US Secretary of State was witness to the signing of the agreement.  The agreement was in fact, an article of surrender. 

It did not mention acceptance/negotiating with the regime in Kabul, protection of women’s rights or protection of the ‘democratic reforms’ implemented during the time of the US and NATO occupation forces in the country. It makes no mention of concerns over the continuation of education programmes for girls in that country either. The focus was only on getting American forces safely out of Afghanistan.

Today America and its fellow-occupying forces are struggling to get their forces, civilian employees and Afghan employees out of that country with deadlines string them in the face.
Thousands of Afghans who had even thinnest connections with the occupation forces are in desperate fear of their lives, have besieged the airport and are begging the US and their allies to get them out of Afghanistan.

The media – whether it be print, visual or audio - are all filled with stories of desperate Afghan families struggling to get out of that country. A number of people have been crushed to death in stampedes to get into the airport which is now controlled by US marines. The media informs us of stories of people desperate to get out of the country clinging to out-going flights, only to fall to their deaths. One among those desperate persons was a youth footballer who represented Afghanistan internationally.
These are the chaotic and heart-rending scenes stories coming out of the country also known as the ‘Graveyard of Invaders’. 

What is worse however is that this not the first time the US has had to withdraw in haste from a country it was occupying, leaving behind chaos, despair and ruination. Statistics reveal nearly 3,500 members of the international coalition forces have died in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
The figures for Afghan civilians, militants and government forces are more difficult to quantify. In a February 2019 report, the UN said that more than 32,000 civilians had died. The Watson Institute at Brown University says 58,000 security personnel and 42,000 opposition combatants have been killed.

Earlier in 1955, US troops entered Vietnam to fight the North Vietnamese. In 1975 - in scenes similar to those recently enacted in Kabul - the US abandoned its allies and fled. During that war over 58,000 Americans died. The ‘Encyclopedia Britannica reveals as many as two million civilians on both sides died and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The US military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. 

However, it seems the Americans never learn their lessons of experience. The US is still struggling to get its citizens out of Afghanistan.The NATO countries are fighting against time to withdraw their forces and take their citizens and Afghan workers out of that country (Afghanistan).
While it is still trying to get out of its Afghan imbroglio, US Vice President Kamala Harris is touring East Asia. She is warning the countries in that region against Chinese expansionism and promising to maintain the ‘freedom of movement in the South China Sea’!

O tempora! O mores! Before the dust has even had a chance to settle on its 20-year fiasco in Afghanistan after causing the deaths of millions of civilians in Afghanistan and Vietnam, the US is now asking Asians to join them once again in a new adventure in the South China Sea.
Perhaps the Americans have forgotten the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima where they sacrificed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilian lives as guinea pigs  to live-test the effects of their then newly acquired nuclear weapons.

Asians, whether they be from South Asia, the Near East, Middle East or Far East are not dumb. It is only the arrogance of the Americans, which makes them believe Asians, Africans and Latin Americans are gullible and are at the beck and call of the ‘mighty’ American and will not let them tear the South China sea into a ‘sea of blood’.
Our own advice to the US is, go back to your home country, lick your wounds and let us be.