AFGHANISTAN: THE FOREVER FAILURE?

The USA has been conducting a war against every individual, group and nation that refuses to bow down to its demand to dictate how they should think, associate, speak and govern. The allies of the USA, the UK and others in Europe and elsewhere have acted as prostitute powers willing to support its dictates.

Whatever the USA touches in its most violent mode turns inevitably into a disaster, most times for the populations it touches, once in a while there is catastrophic blowback. In Vietnam and Afghanistan, both cases transpired. The casualties are not only to be found in terms of those who lost their lives on both sides, though these are the most tragic casualties of all. Further casualties have been brought about by continual hubris and callous disregard for both history and the social, political and military challenges involved. The various categories of casualty within these factors will cause a devastating ripple effect over the decades to come.

The safe-at-home, armchair generals, of the political and neoconservative elites were so fixated on their ‘Forever War’ that all possible negative consequences of their precipitate actions were almost totally disregarded. Not only were they disregarded, but a terminally deep ignorance was also displayed, along with a chronic delusion that convinced them their murderous activities would be universally applauded and welcomed in the nations targeted. In short, they looked forward to a state of continual warfare where the USA could endlessly flex its military muscles.

The corporations within the USA’s Military Industrial Complex to whom the neoconservatives and their political puppets in Washington identified with on a Siamese twin basis, were naturally delighted, rubbing their hands in glee at the prospects of endlessly rising profits. So too the other vampirical industries such as Cheney’s Halliburton. War was and remains so very good for business.

How are these forever wars looking now in the aftermath of the USA and its minions fleeing from Afghanistan? How soon will the figures and figureheads behind such wars contemplate another? Clearly not soon at all. Right now in the financial and budgeting departments of Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and BA Systems among others, certain individuals will be preparing reports on the likely hit they are likely now to take.

The humiliation of the scrambled U.S. retreat from Vietnam on the 30th of April 1975 provides an almost mirror image of the underestimation of the Taliban and overestimation of the Afghan army in recent weeks:

‘Chaos, unrest, and panic broke out as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. Martial law was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, U.S. and foreign nationals from various parts of the city and from the U.S. embassy compound. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin's belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached. Frequent Wind was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It began on 29 April, in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited space. Frequent Wind continued around the clock, as People’s Army of Vietnam tanks breached defences near Saigon. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds.

On 30 April 1975, People’s Army of Vietnam troops entered the city of Saigon and quickly overcame all resistance, capturing key buildings and installations. A tank from the 304th Division crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace at 11:30 am local time and the Viet Cong flag was raised above it. President Dương Văn Minh, who had succeeded Huong two days earlier, surrendered to Colonel Bùi Tín.’

Wikipedia

At the time of the total defeat of the USA and its ignominious retreat in Vietnam, there seemed extremely little chance that any such debacle would be repeated. However, only 26 years later the 20-year war upon Afghanistan would be mounted.

How long will the political and neoconservative elites of the USA lick their wounds this time? Already their counterparts within the UK are making the kind of belligerent noises that signal a continuing lust for war. Will the voices of their brothers and sisters in spirit in the USA begin to chime in, seeking a renewed opportunity to sound the war drums?

Never say never they say. Forever is a long time. The indomitable desire within western elites to demonstrate their “superiority” and “exceptional” status is surely only temporarily diminished. Using familiar tactics of deception such as the ‘human rights’ issue and other bleeding heart concepts manipulated for their use such as ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’, more “justifications” for bullying, blood-letting and the breaking of international law will be found before too many years pass.

Meanwhile, we will certainly see war conducted using other means. Sanction regimes will be ramped up, financial penalties, banning of foreign companies and an entire range of propaganda slanders will be used as weapons. The true motives of bolstering western economic power and its attendant geopolitical influence will remain unmentioned. Instead, the emotional buttons underlying propaganda will be harped on to an even greater degree than already seen. The spooks, both within western governmental agencies and across a plethora of non-governmental agencies, will be tasked with weaponizing every possible issue.

For now, the USA and its bloodthirsty allies will retreat into their dens and contemplate their navels, working out how to run their murderous campaigns better next time. Think tanks will examine the remaining targets for regime change using somewhat altered algorithms, scenarios and paradigms. The Pacific rather than the plains and deserts of Central and South Asia or even the terrains of the Middle East will be scrutinized.

Afghanistan will retreat to become a virtual irrelevancy… that is until China and Russia prove it to be otherwise. Until then the retrenchment will continue and another theatre of war will be given major emphasis, that theatre being the location of the main event, the escalating war of the USA and the rest of the West against China. This will become almost the sole front for the continuing forever war.

Failure is not an option for the USA or its allies. The goal of achieving full spectrum dominance worldwide is undiminished. Only the pathway to that goal has altered due to the loss of the Afghan War, its route has shifted and it has been determined that the speed of travel and engine power in travelling that route MUST be enhanced.

The failure of the USA and its allies in Afghanistan does not, therefore, signify an end to their determination to fulfil the goal of unipolar hegemony. The failure will not by any means be seen as a full stop forever, but rather as a comma, an interim moment to pause for breath and recharge batteries for the fight ahead.

The end game war it was clear was coming and that has been a somewhat phoney war till now, and which will now enter its most dangerous phase, the West’s war against China.