Nake M. Kamrany, PhD, JD
University of Southern California
The innocent inhabitants of 36,000 villages in Afghanistan have sustained carnage over the last 16 years culminating in the longest U.S. war in its history. It started in 2003 when President W. Bush was seeking to identify the enemy nation state which launched the 9/11 attach upon N.Y.s’ trade center towers , and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. committing the loss of lives of approximately 3000 innocent individuals and untold property damages in billions of dollars. President Bush could not find an enemy state to retaliate , instead he identified the Taliban , a governing Pashtun tribe as the culprit for having provided housing in Jilal Abad, Afghanistan to an Arab refugee, Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda who was responsible for the 9/11 attack in the United States. The attack was exclusively emerged, designed and implemented by an Arab cult. All 19 pilots were Arabs and Arab diplomats ostensibly financed pilot training of Arab pilots in California.
President Bush identified the Taliban as the enemy and ordered bombing Afghanistan in September of 2003 and caused the downfall of the Taliban. Its leader Mullah Omar took refuge in Pakistan until his death in 2013. The Taliban denied having any information of Bin Laden’s secret and private agenda. Surprisingly the U.S. and western intelligence services failed to discover the Arab scheme although it’s plotting and preparation was in process for a couple of years. In fact, Bin Laden organization was created in Peshawar Pakistan not in Afghanistan. And Al Qaeda activities were organized internationally with its center in Peshawar, Pakistan and operations in the Middle East, Germany and the United States.
The Taliban steadfastly denied having been accessory before, during or after the tragedy of 9/11. Nevertheless for 8 years of Bush administration, the United States incessant bombing of villages in Afghanistan sustained,
President Barrack Obama determined that the occupation of Afghanistan by U.S. forces was justified, he called the Afghanistan war the right war and initially increased the number of U.S, forces but after sustaining casualties reduced the number of U.S. forces to approximately 8000. He turned over the Taliban fighting to the U.S. appointed Afghan government forces by employing 320,000 Afghan soldiers on U.S. payroll. President Obama prolonged the Afghanistan war for 8 additional years with attendant loss of blood and wealth and a stalemate war – no victory and no defeat by either party.
During the 2016 presidential election, Afghanistan war was a forgotten war and the subject did not enter the campaign although the United States had sustained the loss of lives of approximately 2,500 U.S. soldiers and approximately 30 500 soldiers who sustained injuries. The monetary cost of the war for the U.S. has been in billions of dollars. The villagers of Afghanistan sustained incessant bombing over the last 16 years including loss of lives, animals, and livelihoods whose cost is indeterminate as the Taliban do not announce cost. Despite of NATO and U.S. participation over the last 16 years, the Taliban has gained more control of the land area and population of Afghanistan.
The real tragedy and suffering of villagers in Afghanistan is the fact that they are the target of assault by three parties inside the country. (1) The Taliban explode bombs in soft targets - restaurants, tea houses, hospital - causing death to many civilians. Last week Pakistani mercenaries exploded a bomb in a major hospital in Kabul’s – Wazir Akbar Khan hospital- causing more than 50 patient’s death and over 100 injured. (2) The U.S. bombed a hospital last fall which was set up by the French group, “medicine without borders” in Kunduz causing destruction of the hospital and death to many patients and medical doctors. (3) The government of Afghanistan lost 4000+ Afghan soldiers in the fighting against the Taliban last year. All three parties have affected the death of innocent Afghans for 16 years, the longest war in the history of humanity...
The case of Afghanistan war is reminiscent of the tragedy of holocaust, as the world is quiet about it. The duration of the war is unprecedented. The damages sustained in blood and wealth is heavy for a poor economy. The time span of the war and the engagement of the most powerful nations - American and European powers beating upon a village economy is astounding. Where is the voice moral authority, humanity and the voice of reason and justice? Why nearly everyone is quiet about the suffering of the people of Afghanistan? What happened to the notion of equity? It is perplexing that all advanced nations of the world – the European and American leaders - have colluded against one of the poorest nation on earth.
President Donald Trump inherited an inconclusive war there was no victory and no defeat. It remains to be seen what policy decision he will adopt. He had said that he will get out of third world wars. He could save blood and wealth by ending this war.