Shame to US

 

America's ill planned hasty exit from Afghanistan has diminished her standing in the world as well as to her own countrymen. The utter intelligence failure is unforgettable as it was evident from the manner and speed that the Talibans captured Kabul after two decades. It questions its political wisdom , because the peace talks it arranged with Talibans at Doha has miserably failed. Mr Biden's handling of the crisis in Afghanistan resulted chaotic scenes in airport as thousands of Afghan nationals as well as the foreign nationals trying to flee Kabul following the hard-line Islamist group return to power.

I was watching BBC news last night. Even  America's closest ally in waging war against Saddam Hussain, the former British PM, Tony Blair strongly criticized your move in Afghanistan. 

President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and made his safe passage to UAE as the Talibans closed in to the capital, with four cars and a chopper loaded with money and the government crumbled like house of cards and American soldiers ran away from the battlefield. Withdrawing guns from Afghanistan was perhaps much easier than imposing strict gun control rule on its own soil. Deadly mass shootings are nothing new in USA. There were 19000 gun violence death in 2021only. This is Mr Biden's zero tolerance measure against gun violence. It seems US constitution allows civilians to be in possession of fire arms for personal security. 

I wonder how with only 75000  troops, 

Taliban could capture Afghanistan with about 300000 well equipped Afghan troops ! Impossible. It's either corruption of Ghani regime who allowed siphoning money allocated for training Afghan youths to his own elite group. The number of youths trained was much less than 300000. Or, there was dormant, but strong Taliban grip in the Afghan military, another instance of intelligence failure. It's of course my own surmise based on facts and figures as obtained from both print and electronic media.

By the way, what is the role of UN Security council ? There are four permanent members other than US. They are just acting like fence sitters enjoying the situation which is engendering instability in Afghanistan. 

Now that the Taliban has captured the country again, will the new regime provide gender justice or suppress women ruthlessly as they did in their earlier rule between 1996 through 2001 ? It won't be that easy.

There are streaks of silver lining. I feel delighted to see the Afghan women, cutting across their ethnic identity took to the streets of Kabul with heavy arms on their shoulder. This is indeed a very positive sign. At another remove Northern Alliance, has posed a tough fight against the Talibans and the territory around is still free from them.

Technologically the world has changed in two decades. Power of social media is immense. Revolt and resistance should come from within the society itself and that's exactly what's happening in Panjsheer, the seat of the Northern Alliance

Taliban should not forget that 2021 is not  1996. The world has moved forward, so have the Afghan women.