Life is precious and sacred. Many people believe in the sanctity of the human person with rights and dignity to be protected and preserved. This is not true for others who murder their perceived enemies. Those that declare war and invade other nations are also guilty of bringing death and destruction. There is no “good” war. In the end, after millions have died or are wounded, peace is negotiated and made, and life returns to normal. Then why fight the war in the first place and not negotiate a settlement of differences before violence is inflicted? That is because war is very profitable for weapons manufacturers. A prolonged, “endless” war is the best thing ever for the military-industrial complex.
This industry dominates and greatly influences the politics of the United States and its economy. It is what outgoing president, Dwight Eisenhower, warned about in 1961, calling it a danger to the nation. The armaments industry is today, immensely greater and more powerful. It needs, and perhaps promotes, continuous wars to sell more arms to prosper and grow.
It might be argued that there are some who back political candidates for election who seemingly support military interventions. This is the great wrong behind all wars: immense greed fuelled by lies, ambition and power. The American people are mostly duped into believing that their national security is always under threat and that a super strong military, always at war with real or imagined enemies, is necessary.
The 20-year unwinnable war in Afghanistan brought incredible suffering and death to millions of civilians and soldiers, and generated hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced people. The invasion was launched primarily to deprive Al Qaeda terrorists of a haven in Afghanistan, which was then controlled by the Taliban. When that was achieved, the occupation continued and was prolonged mostly for the benefit of the military-industrial complex and a few thousand corrupt Afghan politicians and their cronies.
The immorality of it is staggering. We do not live in a just or moral world. The disaster is still unfolding as thousands of people, under the terrorist threat of terrorist attacks [August 26] mobbed Kabul airport to escape the Taliban on US and UK planes.
The immorality of it is staggering. We do not live in a just or moral world. The disaster is still unfolding as thousands of people, under the terrorist threat of terrorist attacks [August 26] mobbed Kabul airport to escape the Taliban on US and UK planes.
According to research by Brown University, the number of innocent Afghanis killed by combatants or suicide bombers, is a shocking 47,245 men, women and children. Countless others were wounded, losing arms and legs, and they will suffer for the rest of their lives. In addition, 66,000 poorly motivated Afghan army and police were killed. The number of Taliban and other opposition fighters that were killed is 51,191. A total of 164,436 Afghan people died in this avoidable war.
In Afghanistan, up until April 2021, as many as 2,448 American military personnel were killed along with additional 3,846 contractors, civilians and mercenaries, and as many as 1,344 NATO personnel also died. The number of aid workers killed was 444. Seventy-nine journalists were also killed—a total of 8,161 needless deaths.
How could a mostly unpaid guerrilla band, armed mostly with AK-47s, RPG rocket launchers, home-made bombs and riding pickups and motorbikes with walkie-talkie radios, defeat the greatest, most powerful, best funded, sophisticated and well-paid army, air force and navy in the world?
According to the Brown University study, the US spent US$2.26 trillion [$17.6 trillion] in Afghanistan, or US$300 million a day [$2.33 million]. A much smaller force fought 29,950 US troops, along with 300,000 Afghan military and police, to a standstill, and the US under Donald Trump gave up and sued for peace.
The Taliban had a clear tactic to negotiate with government troops and police to persuade them not to kill fellow Afghans but save themselves and their families. They left them little choice: desert and join us, or die with their wives and children. Thousands of unpaid soldiers changed sides along with their US-supplied weapons.
Unshakeable belief
It seems that the Taliban had a few more things going for them than guns and bombs—religion for one. Defeated in 2001 and driven out of Afghanistan, they hid in the mountains and regrouped. Their deep radical Islamic faith—some may call it fanatical—kept them going.
Their unshakable belief that Allah was truly on their side and their hope of establishing in their native land a strict, even cruel, misogynist Islamic state, under Allah, was their unshakable dream. Besides, death in a Holy War would bring them their instant reward in paradise. That is what they fought for, not a paycheck.
Their harsh view of faith motivated them sharply and they became ferocious fighters, taking risks and making then a formidable enemy against a foreign invader on the battlefield with all the odds of weaponry and manpower against them. They had defeated the Russians and were convinced they could defeat the United States.
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Crucial for victory was their positive negotiations with local tribal leaders to win the hearts and minds of the local population. This they did by infiltrating their sleeper agents into villages and municipalities.
As their fighters drew near to a village or town or provincial capital and surrounded it, their sleepers had already prepared the way and emerged. They influenced local tribal leaders to support them without resistance by making deals and paying cash handouts. It worked.
They allowed poppy cultivation and heroin production and earned millions of dollars from it to finance their war. They captured border points and collected tax on everything imported or exported.
The Taliban had a clear tactic to negotiate with government troops and police to persuade them not to kill fellow Afghans but save themselves and their families. They left them little choice: desert and join us, or die with their wives and children. Thousands of unpaid soldiers changed sides along with their US-supplied weapons.
Many Afghan army commanders were corrupt and brutal to their troops so deserters didn’t need much encouragement to switch sides. Eighty-five billion US dollars [$662 billion] was spent training them to fight, according to Brown University.
A pre-negotiated surrender seems to explain how the Taliban quickly took provincial capitals and Kabul without firing a shot. The United States seems to have been caught by surprise, unless they had agreed to a secret surrender that came all too quickly for most.
Human and material cost
The human cost is immense as stated above. The financial cost to the United States is gigantic.
It is obliged to pay health and disability costs for almost four million veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars costing almost US$2 trillion [$15.5 trillion]—wars which already cost the US $2.6 trillion [$20.25 trillion] to wage and most of it borrowed with interest.
By 2050, interest is estimated to cost the American taxpayer US$6.5 trillion [$50.62 trillion]. The banks and lenders must be thrilled, they love lending to finance wars.
Where did most of the US$2 trillion in war costs go? You may ask. Where else but to the military-industrial complex and companies therein, and they are very happy about it. They love wars, too.
What was achieved by these wars? Nothing but human suffering, devastation and misery. Now, the Taliban are back with promises of a less harsh regime than 20 years ago.
But will they these promises? That remains to be seen.
Father Shay Cullen
www.preda.org
