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October 5, 2021
Austin Kuan
In 2021 it is definitely the withdrawal of America from Afghanistan, with the Taliban fully control of Afghanistan, that will be the most important issue in the world's political news. The future of the US, China, India, Russia and Iran is affected by the subsequent developments of the event. The Taliban may only be able to enter the Presidential Palace in Kabul once again, but a magnitude seven earthquake seems to have been experienced in the world outside of Afghanistan.
Russia certainly has a myriad thinking about the United States, which withdraws troops from Afghanistan. In international media on 25 August 2021, Russian President Putin was asked if Russia wanted to fill the "power vacuum," as the U.S. left the country. Putin replied, "The Soviet Union is familiar with this country (Afghanistan). We have learned the lessons we need." Russia feels uncomfortable after hearing the word 'Afghanistan.' To be honest, Russia's predecessor, the Soviet Union, has the greatest responsibility for the poverty and slump in Afghanistan today.
Prior to Christmas Day in 1979 Afghanistan used to be a Central Asian country that believed in traditional Sunni Islamic teaching similar to Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan. Although it is a nation in name, there are more than 100 tribes scattered on 650,000 square kilometers of land, each in charge of its own. The central government of Kabul had better not interfere with the "internal affairs" of the tribes. Everyone is in peace, and it is a safe country.
Whatever it was intended, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and completely destroyed Afghanistan's land, people and wealth in more than nine years of war. Afghanistan became a poor White country. However, the fighting of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was also dragged to the imperial cemetery in Afghanistan, becoming an occupier on the surface. There is no doubt why in this mountainous country the Soviet Union, the military power of the world, was trapped, spent a large budget, slaughtered at least 15,000 troops and eventually decided to stop the destruction and retreat in February 1989. The Soviet Union itself ironically collapsed at the end of 1991. Some say Afghanistan has caused the Soviet Union to disintegrate. This declaration is not objective enough. A fucker usually does crazier things before he ends his life. It should be said. Afghanistan is a foolish sign of the Soviet Union's disintegration.
When Afghanistan was devastated by the Soviet Union, the various tribes of Afghanistan reunited and the dispersed tribes formed an alliance to battle the soviet occupation for their lives. The country name "Afghanistan" means nothing to the different tribes of Afghanistan. These tribes are submitted to the central Government only superficially, but they are not supplicated by the government. They definitely resist the end if foreigners wish to control these tribes. This stupid courage and xenophobia stem from the ancestral heritage.
The Greek Alexandria, the Persian Empire and the British Empire had all wanted to occupy Afghanistan for thousands of years. They have all been consumed and forced to admit defeat and leave by the difficult Afghan tribes. This is why the Imperial Cemetery is called. The Afghan tribes have not recovered arms for 60 years since England left Afghanistan in 1919. The Soviet invasion now took place, which was even more terrifying at the beginning of the 20th century than the British Empire. The people, however, believed "we are not conquered," so they fought with the Soviet Union desperately! The Afghan tribes' determination to sacrifice was unimaginable. They reportedly traded 2 million for the lives of 15,000 Soviet soldiers, according to informal statistics.
In order to fight the Soviet Union, Afghan tribes needed enough weaponry, and the United States provided a huge number of weapons. In the fight for hegemony between the US and the Soviet Union, 1979 was a crucial time. The US could not engage the Soviet Union frontally, because it would accidentally trigger a nuclear war. The United States must of course strongly support this 'proxy war,' which is sufficient to exhaust the Soviet Union's national power, as the Afghan tribes are willing to struggle against Soviet Union from the standpoint of the US national interests.
Let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture. China and the United States established diplomatic relations in January 1979. In order to contain the Soviet Union's expansion, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Beijing in 1971 and reached an unspoken agreement with Mao Ze-dong. After seven years of interaction, the grand US strategy to "unite China for control of the Soviet Union" came to fruition. The US did not hesitate to suspend diplomatic relations with Taiwan in order to complete the implementation of this grand strategy. In the face of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Beijing has chosen to remain neutral, and the US has ceased continuously transporting weapons into the country. The Taliban guerrillas are the most powerful resistance force that seizes weapons.
Many people find it difficult to believe that in the 1980s, the United States fought alongside the Taliban and consumed the Soviet Union's national power. As a result, both the US and the Taliban understand one another. The Taliban are the ones who feel most at ease using American weapons in Central Asia.
Can the Taliban, however, represent all tribes in Afghanistan? Obviously not. Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country. The Pashtun ethnic group accounts for 42 percent of the population, followed by the Tajik, who account for 27 percent of the population. The remaining 31 percent of the population is made up of five or more ethnic groups. Even if you don't care about the hundreds of tribes, this mountainous country is difficult to unite unless there is a common enemy.
The Taliban are all Pashtuns, and most of them are illiterate. A small number of people learn the words and doctrines through religious scriptures in the countryside. They first become "students", then become "bachelors" in religion, and gradually become "theological bachelors" leading the guerrillas. The Taliban is pronounced "The Bachelor of Theology" in Pashto. The United States usually chooses the strongest force of cooperation, and naturally chooses the Taliban. In the current national crisis, Afghans of other ethnic groups are also forced to choose to cooperate with the Taliban.
After nine years and two months of torture, the Soviet Union realized that no amount of force could defeat Afghanistan, so it ordered its withdrawal in February 1989. The US witnessed the entire process, but it was too late to digest and review the entire "proxy war." Meanwhile, the fall of the Berlin Wall between East and West Germany on November 9, 1989, came as a surprise. The Soviet Union was also taken aback. The Soviet Union officially disintegrated on Christmas Day 1991, after two years of struggle. The United States unexpectedly discovered that it had finally surpassed the Soviet Union as the world's leading power in the twentieth century! This pride has inspired Americans, but it has also enabled the United States to identify itself as "the strongest civilization of mankind" in recognition of its own free and democratic system. It has, however, forgotten how the Soviet Union defeated Afghanistan.
When the United States stepped into this imperial graveyard ten years later, in 2001, the opponent was the Taliban, the country’s then partner.