The liberal president Joe Biden after pulling all the American troops from Afghanistan and killing the al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri gave a speech to celebrate successfully conducting counterterrorism.
He said, “After 20 years of war, the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists who seek to do us harm. And I made a promise to the American people that we’d continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond. We’ve done just that.”
However, the president forgot to consider how this pull-out must have affected the Afghan people, considering what the United States owes Afghanistan following two decades of occupation. One year after withdrawing the troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban has successfully ruined the economy and many Afghans’ lives. From poor governance to a lack of economic stability, a total disregard for fundamental human rights, and insecurity, the Afghans have experienced it all in less than a year.
As expected, the Taliban cannot rule a country effectively. The type of governance operated in Afghanistan by the Taliban has isolated this country, scaring off foreign aid and investors.
The only passable remarkable feature of the Taliban is their experience controlling insurgence. However, that is not enough to make a country stand firm for months. Even this has not been able to help the country eliminate all insurgencies. Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), the Islamic State’s Afghan branch, has wreaked havoc throughout Afghanistan, waging a guerrilla campaign of bombings, assassinations, and suicide attacks that the Taliban has been unable to combat. This group has also continuously targeted some Afghan minorities with bombs and attacks. It is only a matter of time before Afghanistan becomes a failed state where groups like al Qaeda and ISK will develop capabilities to launch attacks with impunity.
The Taliban also do not know about financial markets or tips for managing an economy. Due to this, the economy of the Afghans keeps depreciating daily, and if something is not done soon, the people of this country, who are about 40 million, will fall below the poverty line in a matter of months.
Extreme poverty, acute hunger, and economic crises have led the Afghans to make critical decisions. After selling off all their properties, many Afghan families have reportedly started trading their children and loved ones for peanuts because they need to survive.
Years of conflict, disasters, and an economy on the verge of collapse have plunged nearly all Afghans into poverty.
They need our continued support. pic.twitter.com/srG1qnRhrw
— IOM Slovakia (@IOMSlovakia) August 15, 2022
Beyond the economic and physical security crises, the concept of human rights under the Taliban regime practically does not exist, especially for women and girls. The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan released a report about killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and several other violations of fundamental rights by the Taliban.
Girls have been completely banned from attending secondary school, and women’s rights to access the workplace and participate in social life have been eliminated.
Asia-Pacific Director of @UNDP @kanniwignaraja tells me Afghan women told not to come into work or their jobs given to men by the Taliban has “resulted in a billion dollar loss to the economy. No country can grow or even prosper without women coming back to work” #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/x9MPugwJIf
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) August 15, 2022
Now, the Biden administration has left the country in the hands of the Taliban, forgetting that the United States occupation was a great contributor to making the country unstable in the first place.
Nothing to see here, just the US stealing money that belongs to the Afghan people, destroying their economy and starving millions of people *after* 20 years of war. https://t.co/FGhTm3czqN
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) August 15, 2022