America's failures in Afghanistan

By Tom McGregor

BEIJING:  The Biden administration blundered with their understanding on the strength of the Taliban and its potential to seize control of the country after US President Joe Biden announced last April that US troops would withdraw from the country by September 11th.

Even when Taliban insurgents had begun to seize larger swathes of territories, the Biden administration ignored the apparent warning signs and Biden claimed at a press conference last July that the Taliban would never enter the capital city Kabul.

Not only was his forecast wrong but Biden insisted US intelligence officials along with the White House National Security Council offered the exact assessment. I can verify as such since I had conversation with a Washington Beltway insider at the time and it was obvious the American experts were not concentrating on this matter.

The Washington foreign policy establishment was more focused on blaming China over Coronavirus and the distraction caused them to overlook to dangers in Afghanistan.

Taliban is seen inside Kandahar city, southern Afghanistan, August 13, 2021. /Xinhua

The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) failed to warn Washington about Afghanistan. Here is a case when arrogance is blinding. Washington never took a closer look, since they saw themselves as all-powerful and all-knowing.

Washington implied childish logic when assessing the situation. They argued they had trained and provided weapons to over 300,000 Afghanistan troops to face off against 75,000 Taliban forces.

But they ignored endemic corruption in the government, they never asked if Afghan soldiers had the will and resolve to fight against the Taliban and when it became obvious the Taliban was winning they did not take emergency measures to evacuate and to abscond with their weapons and equipment until it was too late.

Accordingly, Afghan troops surrendered without a fight, the Taliban to seize their weapons stores while the evacuation of US citizens in the country remains mired in chaos. So it's silly to agree with American experts as they argue Afghanistan will be a disaster for China.

The world has witnessed US weakness on the world stage in full display. China will not follow this path of failure. Beijing has proposed to sign up the new Afghanistan into the Belt & Road Initiative.

As reported by the Global Times: "Over past decades, unsatisfying development of economy and standard of living has contributed to the continuing instability in the country. Afghanistan's economy is shaped by fragility and aid dependence," described the World Bank. Its GDP ranked 112 in 2020 across the world, with employment concentrated in low-productivity agriculture.

Economic reconstruction and better integration to the regional economic development are crucial for the country to improve people's livelihood and pursue stability in the long run; and it will ultimately benefit the overall peace and development of the whole region. In this sense, China together with Afghanistan's other neighboring states could join hands to facilitate the economic reconstruction based on each one's advantages."

China is playing it smart by supporting the reconstruction of Afghanistan's economy. The peaceful measures will forge a spirit of peace and goodwill among the Afghan citizens and the country can start top look ahead in the hopes of a brighter future.

During a meeting with Taliban's political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in north China's Tianjin Municipality in July this year, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the Afghan Taliban to make a clean break with all terrorist organizations, including the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and resolutely fight against them.

Beijing also called for solidarity among all parties and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, urging them to follow the principle of "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned" in advancing the peace and reconciliation process, and build an extensive and inclusive political arrangement.

(The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com. )