Afghan Lesson For Uncle Sam’s Running Dogs, by Finian Cunningham + Afghanistan: Who’s to Blame and What Next?

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Ireland
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation, August 15, 2021
August 17, 2021

Afghanistan is the most glaring proof of the American treachery. It’s a cautionary tale for others who incredibly still seem trusting in hitching their wagon to a U.S. alliance.

U.S. President Joe Biden said this week that he has “no regrets” about pulling American forces out of Afghanistan as the Taliban militants look set to over-run the entire Central Asian country. The lesson here is: anyone acting as a running dog for Washington does so at the peril of ultimate U.S. betrayal.

The U.S.-backed puppet regime in Kabul has done Washington’s bidding for nearly two decades. After 20 years of futile war at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives and trillions of dollars, Uncle Sam has decided to pack up, get out and leave the Afghans to their miserable fate. As the Taliban take over one provincial capital after another, the U.S. intelligence agencies are warning that the Kabul regime could fall within a month. And callously, Biden this week told the Afghans they have to do their own fighting.

Whatever happened to lofty American vows of “nation-building”? Or “fighting terrorism”, “defending democracy”, “protecting women’s rights”?

It’s a sordid story with much historical precedent illustrating how at the drop of a hat Uncle Sam is liable to hang erstwhile “allies” out to dry. As American elder statesman Henry Kissinger once noted, the U.S. doesn’t have permanent allies, it only has interests.

Some 46 years ago, the Fall of Saigon saw the United States scurry away from a corrupt puppet regime it had propped up in South Vietnam as the North Vietnamese communists finally routed the redundant American pawns.

A more recent example of callous betrayal by Washington was the throwing of Kurdish militants to the mercy of Turkey when the latter invaded northern Syria during the Trump presidency. Anyone who accepts American patronage must know that the small print in the contract always reads: to be dumped at any time of Uncle Sam’s choosing and convenience.

Afghanistan is the most glaring proof perhaps since the Fall of Saigon in 1975 of that American treachery.

It’s a cautionary tale for others who incredibly still seem trusting in hitching their wagon to a U.S. alliance.

Ukraine, run by a venal regime in Kiev, appears slavishly willing to place all its fate under Washington’s whim. Centuries of common history with Russia are being sacrificed by the regime in Kiev all for the gain of Washington’s military benevolence. A seven-year civil war bankrolled by $2 billion in American military aid has destroyed the peace and prosperity of Ukraine as well as damage neighborly relations with Russia. We can be sure that when the imperial planners in Washington realize that their use of Ukraine as a pawn against Russia has become futile, then the people of Ukraine will be dropped to sort out the chronic mess.

Likewise the American lackeys in the Baltic states. They act as running dogs for Washington to spoil relations between Russia and the European Union. For years, the Baltic countries have objected to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia, appealing instead for more expensive and environmentally dirty U.S. gas exports. Overnight, Washington has decided such a policy is untenable and not worth antagonizing Germany and the rest of the EU. And just like that, the Baltic lackeys are left out in the cold looking like fools.

They never seem to learn though. This week Lithuania did Uncle Sam’s bidding to provoke China by announcing it would recognize Taiwan. That move infuriated Beijing because it undercuts the international One China Policy of accepting Taiwan as under Beijing’s sovereignty. China recalled its envoy from Vilnius and it has threatened punitive economic measures. As the EU’s top trading partner, it is reckless and self-defeating to incur China’s wrath. Lithuania and the rest of the EU could potentially be hit with economic losses – all for the sake of following Washington’s geopolitical agenda of hostility towards China.

Currently, the biggest caution of U.S. treachery must surely go to the renegade Chinese island territory of Taiwan. Beijing has warned that Washington’s provocative arms sales are fomenting separatist factions on the island. China has declared the right to invade Taiwan militarily and take back control by force. Such a move could ignite a war between the United States and China since Washington has repeatedly vowed to “defend” Taiwan.

But as the Afghan debacle reminds us, the chances are that Washington will leave the Taiwanese to their fate in a military confrontation with mainland China. There would be Chinese blood spilled on both sides before Beijing asserts its authority.

Afghanistan demonstrates with brutal clarity that there is not an iota of principle in Washington’s foreign policy and its military interventions. The lives of ordinary U.S. citizens are as expendable as those of foreign people as long as Washington’s interests of serving its corporate profits are deemed to be met. When those interests stop then the lives lost are flushed down the toilet like a nasty turd.

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Finian Cunningham, is a columnist at the Strategic Culture Foundation, Sputnik, and a Writer on Dandelion Salad. He can be reached at cunninghamfinian@gmail.com.

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Afghanistan: Who’s to Blame and What Next?

CODEPINK on Aug 16, 2021

With the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government and the Taliban set to return to a position of power they occupied 20 years ago, who is responsible for this colossal failure? Who should be held accountable and how? And what can we do to make sure that lessons are learned that will stop the US government from future invasions/occupations?

Army Colonel Ann Wright, former State Dept official Matthew Hoh, and Dr. Zaher Wahab join us in conversation.

Zaher Wahab was born and schooled in Afghanistan, received a BA in sociology from The American University of Beirut, an MA in comparative education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MA in anthropology, and a PhD in international development education from Stanford University. Dr. Wahab was the first person in his family’s history to attend the village school, a boarding school in Kabul, and receive scholarships to attend college in Lebanon and the US. Dr. Wahab served as senior advisor to the Minister of Higher Education in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2006. he has written and presented numerous papers at regional, national, and international forums on education, was profiled in the Stanford Magazine, Academe, The Portland Alliance, The Oregonian, The Lake Oswego Review and Lewis & Clark’s The Chronicle Magazine for his achievements and for his services in the U.S. and Afghanistan, and is a frequent speaker at educational, civic and media organizations.

Matthew Hoh has nearly 12 years of experience with America’s wars overseas with the US Marine Corps, Department of Defense, and State Department. He has been a senior fellow with the Center For International Policy since 2010. In 2009, Matthew resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war. His writings have appeared in publications such as the Defense News, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He has been a guest on hundreds of radio and television networks and is an active member of Veterans for Peace.

Ann Wright is a retired Army Colonel who was a diplomat in the State Department for 16 years, serving in the U.S. embassies of Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada and Nicaragua. She was on the team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in December 2001 and remained five months. On March 13, 2003, Wright sent a letter of resignation to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. Since that day, she has worked for peace, writing and speaking all over the world and has returned three times to Afghanistan. Wright is co-author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience and is active with CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, and other organizations.

Moderated by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection, and Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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U.S. Accountability for Afghanistan

CODEPINK
August 16, 2021

After 20 years of U.S. invasion and occupation, the U.S.-backed Afghan government has collapsed and the Taliban is returning to the position of power they occupied 20 years ago. Chaos, panic, desperation, and uncertainty reign. We call on the Biden administration to do the following:

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• Support UN efforts to create a humanitarian corridor and guarantee safe passage for humanitarian workers to help the large displaced population
• Expand qualification categories for Afghan refugees coming to the U.S. & reduce the paperwork required to qualify
• Cease all bombings and CIA paramilitary involvement
• After U.S. evacuations are complete, remove U.S. forces, except for a residual protective force at the US embassy for possible recognition of a new government.

In the days, weeks, and months to come, accountability will be vital. The U.S. must learn from this debacle by investigating, and holding people accountable, for 20 years of epic failure. The U.S. must cease its military interventions around the world and cut the runaway Pentagon budget. We must stop destabilizing the Middle East and Southwest Asia, including lifting sanctions on Iran, stopping weapons export to the regimes of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and the UAE, and pulling our troops out of Iraq and Syria.

We call on you today to act with responsibility to the Afghan people and tomorrow, with accountability for all the horror and destruction that U.S. militarism has and is continuing to cause.

Take Action!

From the archives:

Kabul has Fallen, by Kenn Orphan + U.S.-backed Afghan Government Surrenders to the Taliban

David Swanson: It’s Absolute Hypocrisy

Abby Martin: CIA Stories: Death Squads in Afghanistan

Biden Defends Ending a War He’s Not Fully Ending, by David Swanson

U.S. Empire’s Final Collapse Draws Nearer, by Rainer Shea

An Easy Test of Whether Democrats Are Faking It, by David Swanson + Abby Martin: US Retreats From Afghanistan: Truth Behind The Empire’s Defeat

Matthew Hoh: Trump’s New Afghanistan Strategy: Windfall for the Military-Industrial Complex​

Chris Hedges and Matthew Hoh: Afghanistan War Keeps Going Because the Money Keeps Flowing In