I can’t remember whether it was about Iraq or Afghanistan (those ‘wars’ sort of ‘blend together’ into a fuzzy, grey, Blairite history) but some sage said “winning the war is easy, but you have to know how to win the peace”. And 20 years later, that’s where we stand. You can’t fight wars forever, there’s questions whether you should fight any in the first place, if just for ideological reasons (as opposed to defending you borders or people, which are allowed wars). So fighting wars in foreign lands is not exactly a vote-winner. Particularly in America, the greatest exponents of ‘wars over there’, where such a vast majority of their people are rather unworldly. Or consider that the world starts at Florida and ends at Canada. So they send their sons and daughters to die in lands they’ve never heard of and have no concept nor care for.

‘We’ invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to ‘rid the world of Al Quaeda’. Noble. And justifiable on many levels following 9/11 and other atrocities. The terrorist war was being fought on our streets and in New York City, so action was taken. And it was ‘easy’. We flew in, right behind the military might of the Unarted Staytes, and ousted the Taliban. Who were, it was believed, training Al Quaeda, as well as operating the harshest of strict, Islamic regimes on the poor people of their nation. Virtually overnight the Taliban ‘vanished’. Gone. Yaaaay, fly our flags, we’ve won. Headscarves came off, women could resume the education the Taibs denied them, radios could once again play music.

But the Taliban didn’t commit mass suicide. They didn’t ‘move to Cannes to retire’. They didn’t throw away their arms and become opium farmers. They’re clever. They took to the hills and stayed there for 20 years. They play the long game. Which is why within about 20 minutes of the withdrawal of US and British troops, Afghanistan was pretty much back under immediate and total Taliban rule. Seemingly unopposed by the government forces we’d spent 20 years training up to defend their nation from the Taliban.

The Taliban ‘formed’ from disparate groups of Mujahadeen fighters when Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1992. The Americans funded them, armed them and encouraged them to war with the Soviets. And in doing so, they created a monster. So as the Taliban strut round, like all deeply religious men, carrying anti-tank machine guns and hand-held rocket launchers, the country descends back to the dark ages. With any civilian who in any way acted for, acted with, helped, assisted, worked for or gave food to the ‘foreign invaders’, effectively receiving a death sentence.

America has frozen about 7 billion dollars of Afghan money. Oh, so that’s how you win the peace. Yet the Taliban don’t really appear short of funds. Probably because they’ve always been supported by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to some degree anyway.

What a fucking mess.

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx