‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.’ One of the most famous and often repeated quote ostensibly attributed to writer and philosopher George Santayana, holds true once again as the world witnesses a giant leap in the wrong direction with the terrorist group Taliban finally taking over Kabul, the capital city, and henceforth the entire Afghanistan.
It isn’t that such an event was not anticipated or has come as a surprise to anyone following even the slightest of international news. In fact, even the biggest of day dreamer would have believed that it was not a matter of chance but only a matter of time when Kabul, the last fort of the legitimate Afghan government falls to the clutches of Taliban.
Now that it has ultimately fallen and Taliban is both de-facto and de jure ruler of Afghanistan, intending to turn the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Islamic Emir of Afghanistan, the world must hang its head in shame for turning the wheel of time and modernity backwards and allowing the most brutal and inhuman group of thugs and religious fundamentalists to capture power and become the ultimate deciders of the fate of millions of Afghans.
As the western World, especially the United States shamelessly surrenders to Taliban in the hope that their people and resources will be ‘protected’ and only the innocent Afghans and to some extent Indians will be the ultimate sufferers, a noteworthy yet critical quote comes to my mind about the protracted appeasement of Taliban by the west.
Criticising the response of then British Government towards Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill had said, ‘An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.’When Hitler came to power in Germany through illegitimate means, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did all he could to appease him. The world paid the heavy price for his appeasement policies in the form of Second World War and history is a testimony to it. It may do the same now, all thanks to the US.
Appeasement, Yet again!
Appeasement is considered as a policy of one-sided concessions to an aggressor state, often at the expense of third parties, with nothing offered in return except promises of better behaviour in the future.The world has tried to appease Taliban by giving them all concessions and legitimacy, largely bypassing the legitimate Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani. It was allowed to open office in Doha, Qatar and all negotiations with it were undertaken without seeking anything from it.
Taliban openly flouted the deal it signed with the US in February 2020 in Doha by carrying on with attacks on Afghan forces secretly harbouring international terrorists, yet the US continued to take off its soldiers and did not put enough pressure of it to adhere to the agreement. President Ghani kept appealing to the US to put pressure on Taliban for a peaceful and legitimate transfer of power, but his appeal fell on the deaf ears of US administration. The catastrophic results are now for all to see. President Ghani has fled the country and Afghanistan is moving towards a great humanitarian crisis.
What is comical is the ranting and rumbling of former US President Donald Trump over the completion of process of withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan by his successor, Joe Biden. Agreed, Biden has his own share of blame and questions to be answered for this haste in withdrawing troops and leaving a mess behind, but he cannot be solely held responsible for what is happening in Afghanistan, or to better explain, what is being made to happen in Afghanistan. Remember, it was the ‘strong’, ‘decisive’ and ‘a follower of America First’ Trump himself who had resolved to end ‘US’s forever war’ by bringing ‘every US troop back home’.
For gaining the support of Americans (for the US Presidential elections of 2020), who were tired of US’s incalculable expenditure of man, money and material in Afghanistan, Trump devised his faulty Afghan policy which gave a new life and legitimacy to Taliban at the stroke of the hat.
That no concrete resolutions and commitments were sough from Taliban while signing the deal with them and that Ghani’s government was largely kept out of the loop most of the time, made Taliban more and more confident about their plan for the future. The Americans are saved from a second tenure of Trump but the world is going to pay the price for his adventurism for seeking the second term.
Youth, women, media-persons and all those involved in following ‘un-islamic’ profession like musicians, dancers, social activists, and minorities will be the worst victims of this new regime, as is largely anticipated. There are no guarantees that Taliban wont allow Islamic terrorist who conspire against the Western countries and its allies. Its statements of of not letting Afghanistan turning into a safe haven for international terrorist groups once again holds almost no credibility considering that fact that it now believes it has China and Russia (and covertly Pakistan) to back any and all of its misdeeds and deceits!
Yet the world has decided to look the other way. The barbaric age, which had ceased to exist in Afghanistan perhaps long back, is now back with a vengeance. The world has to embrace this new reality, unfortunately! The crocodile has been fed, yet again.
(Pavan Chaurasia is a PhD candidate at the School of International Studies (SIS), JNU)