Asian Tribune 27 August 2021

Issue 288 (8) Asian Tribune August 27, 2021
Editorial
Stranded in Kabul
IT was at the fag end of a press
conference by US President Joe
Biden that the White House’s narrative
about the unexpected collapse of
the Afghan army having caught the
Americans unawares came apart. In
the process, the US may have put at
risk the lives of over 10,000 of its citizens
and loyal Afghans, besides nationals
of other countries, including India.
Replying to a question on whether
the US will be able to get all its citizens
out of Afghanistan, Biden said,
‘We’ve been in constant contact with
the Taliban leadership on the ground.’
It was then that an unscripted question
rang out: ‘Why do you continue to
trust the Taliban, Mr President?’ Biden
turned his back to the podium and did
not reply.
The US had sounded the death
knell for the democratically elected Afghan
government after the Doha talks
with the Taliban. The Kabul dispensation,
on life support from the West, was
made to look further emasculated by
the Americans biting the ISI bait of an
engagement with the Taliban. For all
the satellites in the sky and watchers
on the ground, including militias run by
the CIA, the Americans seemed to
have no inkling of the collapse of the
will of the Afghan army or the setting
up of well-oiled supply lines from Pakistan
that sustained the Taliban advance.
There are conspiracy theories
about how the Americans had actually
willed a Taliban takeover, which is why
the Afghan army folded up the way it
did. The truth may never be revealed.
But what is known is that US Secretary
of State Antony Blinken had to
thank, at the last count, a dozen countries,
including bête noire China, for
the safe transit of Americans and other
foreign nationals. Meanwhile, the
Taliban are dismantling abandoned
US military equipment and transporting
it to Pakistan, undoubtedly for onward
transmission to China. The US
has not just hurt itself by accepting the
assurances from the Taliban and the
ISI; it has ruined the results of assiduous
developmental work by countries
such as India, besides leaving their
citizens in Afghanistan in peril.
Yash Sharma
Editorial Team
Prof . Harjinder Walia,
Ph.D (Journalism)
Former Head of Journalism
Punjabi Universty Patiala. (Punjab) India
Patron
Yash Sharma,
M.Sc (Hons), DMM
Publisher & Editor in Chief
780-200-0246
Sat Paul Kaushal
Associate Editor, Calgary
403 903 8500
Raghbir Bilaspuri
Bureau Chief ( Punjabi)
Sunny Sharma
Bureau Chief (English)
Atul Seth, CPA,CGA
Financial & Management Consultant
Tejinder Singh Bhateja
Advisor(Marketing)
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