America in denial

 

A few days ago Ben Wallace, the UK Defence Minister, said Afghanistan was “heading towards civil war” as he deployed 600 soldiers to assist in the evacuation of foreign nationals and officials. Days later and the Afghan National army has melted away into the civilian population and the whole Afghan government including its president has disappeared into neighbouring countries leaving the Taliban to take effective control of Afghanistan.

“This is manifestly not Saigon,” the US secretary of state Antony Blinken told the media. “We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11, and that mission has been successful.”

Back in July when Biden announced US withdrawal he was directly asked about a comparison with American retreat from Vietnam he answered, "None whatsoever. Zero. What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy — six, if I’m not mistaken. The Taliban is not the South — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable."

How wrong the Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America was.

This is exactly a repeat of the fall of Saigon, even if the images might differ. 

America, the greatest superpower in the World, has suffered a humiliating defeat and the Afghani puppet government, it and its allies spent over $1trillion propping up, no longer exists.

What happens next is all a matter of speculation.

 We cannot be at all confident that the Taliban will not re-impose its fundamentalist Islamic terror upon the populace once again. 

We can be sure, though, that some of the other Great Powers will fill the vacuum of America's absence to offer the Taliban investment and aid in return for access to its vast mineral ore wealth and vital trade routes.

For ourselves in the World Socialist Movement, we will mourn all the lost lives, the pain of all the crippled, and offer our sympathy and solidarity to all those presently suffering the squalor and disease within Afghanistan and the misery of the millions who uprooted their families and fled to often unwelcoming foreign lands for sanctuary. 

America's present political, military and diplomatic  "embarrassment" is of no concern to us. They will go on and repeat their invasions and occupations elsewhere. 

Capitalism has no remorse. History will be re-written.