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AUSTRALIAN NEWS - JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF ARE PUSSIES TO HAVE ABANDONED AFGAHANISTAN; ISIS [read: U S I S ] WAS STARTED BY THE JCS IN SUPPLYING "ISIS" WITH MILITARY ARMAMENT ABANDONED IN MOSUL
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Published 3 years ago
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/09/1014785735/the-u-s-almost-out-of-afghanistan-what-happens-there-next

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/world/asia/afghanistan-rapid-military-collapse.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taliban-s-sweep-across-afghanistan-lays-bare-tragic-u-s-n1276806

Taliban's sweep across Afghanistan lays bare tragic U.S. failures
Analysis: Afghans were promised the U.S. would not abandon their dreams of democracy. But after 20 years and the the loss of thousands of lives, the U.S. lost interest.

By F. Brinley Bruton

Panic rang in my friend’s voice as she spoke over the telephone from Kabul this week.

“Can you help us?” she asked. “I don’t know what we should do and where we should go.”

Fear has spread like wildfire across Afghanistan as the Taliban captured major cities like Herat and Kandahar. On Thursday the United States announced it is evacuating staff members from its embassy in Kabul.

My friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she did not want the Taliban to target her, is worried about a lot of things — that violence will engulf Kabul, or that she’ll be forced out of her job because she is a woman.

But those aren’t her biggest fears.

“I am worried they will force me to get married,” she said, repeating reports the militants strenuously deny. “We are all worried.”

I met this proud professional woman some 15 years ago when I landed a job as a mentor and trainer at the U.S.-funded Pajhwok Afghan News, one of the country’s leading news organizations. At the time, I was part of an international army of aid workers who marched into the war-ravaged nation after the U.S.-led toppling of the Taliban.

A wall of cash funded everything from what U.S. officials called “democracy and governance” programs to a circus school for Afghan children in Kabul.

Of the $144.98 billion the U.S. has spent for reconstruction and related activities in Afghanistan since 2002, some $36.29 billion went to governance and development, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar), the office that has documented billions in waste and corruption since lawmakers created it in 2008. The United States Agency for International Development spent $71 million on the Afghan media alone, for example.

When he declared the U.S. “war on terror” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President George W. Bush also indicated that humanitarian aid was key to winning the struggle.

"Ultimately, one of the best weapons, one of the truest weapons that we have against terrorism is to show the world the true strength of character and kindness of the American people. Americans are united in this fight against terrorism,” he said. “We're also united in our concern for the innocent people of Afghanistan."

The “kindness” has curdled.

While aid has indeed helped many Afghans, it has also enriched security forces and government officials, according to Sigar.

And bolstered in part by the vast corruption and inefficiency of the Afghan government, the austere and harsh Taliban has made steady gains for years, setting up shadow governments around the country and signing up fighters. (The Afghan government and others will point to Pakistani support for the Taliban as a principal reason the militants have been successful.)

With rising Taliban violence, voter participation has fallen over the years, and raised the question: Was the desire for Western-style democracy and personal freedom ultimately not as widespread as Americans had hoped?

Millions of Afghans like my friend have tried to resist, but despite the Taliban’s harsh treatment of civilians and profoundly undemocratic outlook, the movement ultimately found more support than idealists had realized.

People like my friend hear reports of what happens after an area falls to the militants: Women are forced out of jobs or to flee, government workers are rounded up, and civilians who had been employed with foreign forces are killed.

Journalists, intellectuals, activists and prominent women — those who may have believed that Afghanistan could in even some small way model a Western democracy — are in mortal danger. For months, an assassination campaign has targeted prominent figures seen as liberal or Western.
‘This is abandonment’

While a solid majority in the U.S. once supported the decision to invade Afghanistan in 2001, the war has since become unpopular with Americans, who tend to feel the conflict is just not worth the cost in lives and money.
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