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Tayo Oke
The United States and its Western military allies had been involved in a 20-year war with the Taliban in Afghanistan, during which time they trained, equipped and established a new National Army numbering more than 300,000 soldiers, who had also become embroiled in the same war alongside hundreds of thousands of NATO troops. The West went into Afghanistan in 2001, determined to avenge the “9/11” attack on New York. The US, the UK, Canada, Australia, France etc deployed the most sophisticated weaponry at their disposal, including state-of-the-art communication gadgets against a barely literate improvised Taliban army, numbering less than 100,000, with a haphazard command structure. Despite this glaring asymmetry of forces, the Taliban fought on, on the hills, and on the mountains, day and night; taking refuge inside caves, digging up trenches with their bare hands, suffering casualties after casualties, but never giving up.
In spite of this, and in an eyeball-to-eyeball with the Taliban on the battlefield, the better trained, better equipped Afghanistan army blinked first. The Taliban strolled into the capital, Kabul, last Sunday, August 15, 2021, without firing a shot. The Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani, having fled the Presidential Palace earlier in the day, to “prevent bloodshed”, offered no resistance. If you think this is something that happened in a country that is of no concern to us here, think again. The ramifications for Nigeria are enormous. Emboldened Boko Haram terrorists are rejoicing as you read.
Afghanistan is a country better known for its chequered and (quite frankly), bloody history. But, the truth is not as bad as has been portrayed lately. The British were there in the 19th century ostensibly to bring civil order to the mountainous enclave. They failed and left in a hurry. The Soviet Union then marched onto the territory with tanks and heavy-duty armoury in the 20th century, stayed for a decade, while attempting to convert the territory into a Soviet-type ‘Republic’. The Americans played the mischievous role of sponsoring anti-Soviet guerrilla movement; the bearded Mullahs (Mujahideens), and their foot soldiers, went into battle with the mighty Soviet army. The US not only provided funds for the insurgency attacks against the Soviet army, they also supplied them with modern weapons, anti-tank rockets and satellite equipment, which helped drag the Soviets into a quagmire. The US and other Western governments were delighted to see the Soviet army pulled out of Afghanistan with its tail behind its legs in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Afghanistan had suffered several invasions from foreign powers throughout the centuries, but prior to the British and Soviet attempts, the country had been at relative peace, minding its own business in the caves and on the hills. The British and the Soviets taught them violence. Consequently, after the Soviets were driven out, the Taliban became fidgety and braced themselves for another possible foreign invasion sooner or later. They embraced the al-Qaida terror group for ideological succour and Islamic solidarity, as leading scholars in the West had begun to use their influence to spread the idea of an impending “Clash of Civilisations”, that is, to say, a clash between Islamic and Western values as the next frontier in the continuing battle for universal supremacy.
A “Clash of Civilisations” backed up by Western military might is also an extremist agenda that was rapidly gaining ground in policymaking circles. Consequently, it was not totally surprising that the Taliban regime would allow its territory to be used as a safe haven for those avowedly pushing back against the ‘infidels’ (the US in particular), apparently bent on ‘obliterating’ Islam. This culminated in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre, New York, killing several thousand people.
The subsequent invasion of Afghanistan led by the US forces and NATO became inevitable. They rooted out al-Qaida and dislodged the Taliban regime within a couple of months. They then decided to embark upon nation-building; to finally remould Afghanistan along the lines of Western values: free press, multiparty democracy, free market, separation of state and religion, free love, etc. The US, alone, committed in excess of $2tn tax dollars as well as the blood of their young men and women to the cause. They embarked upon local recruits of soldiers for the new Afghan army. The objective was to prevent the Taliban from ever coming back to rule over the country again. The Afghan Parliament and a general election completed a job well done. It ushered in a new era of inclusion for women. Many now occupied positions of power for the first time in the nation’s history; a truly rude awakening for the Taliban. Women wielding authority, let alone power, is anathema in their (medieval) interpretation of Islam.
Meanwhile, back in the US, public opinion had swung decisively against the continued presence of their troops in Afghanistan. Several US administrations had tried in vain to withdraw from the country. The military (Pentagon)’s superior argument against ‘precipitous’ withdrawal always held sway. President Joe Biden finally decided to grab the bull by the horns earlier this year, and pulled out the US troops without further ado. Contrary to the impression of defeat, the US/NATO alliance in fact, won the battle in Afghanistan, but, lost the war. This is what prompts the question: How did a well-trained, well-equipped Afghan army (when it mattered most), simply laid down their sophisticated weapons, their uniforms, and fled in the face of an onslaught from the sandal-wearing, machete-wielding, bearded Taliban fighters clad in mufti? Well, it is often said, that, it is not the size of the dog, but the size of the fight in the dog that counts. But, that begs another question: why was there no fight inside the Afghan army’s dog? What is more, Afghanistan was led by the US-backed civilian government of President Ashraf Ghani, a PhD scholar and ‘technocrat’ with field experience cutting across Harvard-INSEAD, World Bank, DfID, OECD, and other lofty Western finance houses. The good Prof had even written an acclaimed book: “Fixing Failed States”, Oxford University Press, 2008, in which there is a blueprint on how to turn around his country and many others in a similar predicament.
The answer to the puzzle is as frightening as it is ominous for us here in Nigeria. Ghani had stated in the book he co-wrote: “Only sovereign states – by which we mean states that actually perform the functions that make them sovereign – will allow human progress to continue”. The Western-created state of Afghanistan on which administration he presided since 2014, was not seen as an authentic, legitimate state even by its own political leaders and the rank and file soldiers. It was rightly seen as the artificial construct that it was. In other words, it was not worth dying for. The military and civilian personnel it relied on to function supported it as long as it paid their wages.
Furthermore, the gulf between the corrupt Afghan military and political top brass and the poorly paid rank and file, told another story. Perhaps, most importantly, the rag-tag Taliban ‘army’ were fighting for a cause greater than the individual; an Islamic El-Dorado, a Utopia. For them, death is positively embraced as a rite of passage to paradise in the afterlife. On the contrary, for the Afghan army fighting to defend a nominal state, death is an avoidable waste of human life.
The comparison between Boko Haram (engaged in a lifelong Jihad) and the Nigerian Army (fighting for minimum wage) could not be any starker. The top brass in both the military and civil administration are feeding fat while the ‘recruits’ starve. So, when shove comes to push, would any soldier voluntarily lay down his life in defence of this nominal state?
email: drtayooke@gmail.com
