Xinhua News Agency, Kabul, August 30 (International Observation) The U.S. withdrawal of troops has left a mess, and the Afghan people have suffered greatly
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zou Xuemian
On August 30, 2021, the 20-year war in Afghanistan ended with the hasty withdrawal of American troops as the last American transport plane took off from Kabul International Airport. This “longest war in American history” brought huge disaster to Afghanistan.
After the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the United States continued to scourge the suffering country, not only imposing economic sanctions on it, but also freezing billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, bringing the Afghan economy to the brink of collapse.
Now, a year following the U.S. withdrawal, Afghanistan still faces a severe economic and humanitarian crisis. The United States is undoubtedly the culprit.
devastated
Former US President George W. Bush, who launched the Afghan war, once said that helping the Afghan people build “a free society” is in the US strategic interest. However, instead of achieving the “freedom” it portrayed, the US invasion brought poverty and death to Afghanistan.
According to statistics, in the 20 years since the US invaded Afghanistan, it has claimed the lives of 174,000 Afghans, including more than 30,000 civilians. Nearly one-third of Afghans have become refugees, and more than half of Afghans are facing extreme hunger.
The long-term war has continuously destroyed Afghanistan’s infrastructure, resulting in difficult economic development and hardship for the people of Afghanistan. “Before the Americans came, we didn’t have electricity, and we still don’t have electricity. Before the poor had no houses to live in, they still don’t.” Nasir Ahmed Amiri, a resident of Kabul, told reporters that the Americans are in the interests of their own hegemony expansion. The need to come to Afghanistan, and the Afghans suffered from it.
The United States invaded Afghanistan in the name of “anti-terrorism”, but “the more the counter-terrorism is, the more terrorism is.” In the past 20 years, the United States has defined terrorist organizations according to its own needs, and selectively countered terrorism in order to achieve its own geopolitical goals. This has led to an increase in the number of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan from single digits 20 years ago to more than 20 today, which not only causes the Afghan people to suffer, but also endangers the security of neighboring countries.
Abzal Haparwa Zazai, a professor at Kabul University in Afghanistan, said, “The United States can add or remove any organization from the list of terrorist organizations as long as its own interests require it.” into a difficult predicament.
make matters worse
The United States smashed a country and ruined the future of a generation. In the end, it not only walked away, but also took the life-saving money that the Afghan people depended on for its own survival. The United States imposed sanctions on Afghanistan and froze the huge overseas assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, resulting in a shortage of foreign exchange in Afghanistan, rising prices, deteriorating economic conditions, and worsening people’s lives.
Due to poverty, some 3 million Afghan children are forced to drop out of school to support their families. According to a report released by the United Nations in May this year, nearly 20 million Afghans face severe famine.
Problems such as brain drain and shortage of foreign exchange caused by US sanctions have made Afghanistan lack the “hematopoietic capacity” for its own development, and the lack of development has led to a continued economic depression. Abdul Nasir Rishtia, chairman of the Afghanistan Iron and Steel Industry Association, told Xinhua News Agency that large and small steel mills in Afghanistan are facing a shortage of technical talents. Due to US sanctions, many technical talents cannot come to Afghanistan for development. Businesses can’t afford to hire them either.
On June 22 this year, a strong earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people, injuring nearly 2,000, and destroying tens of thousands of houses. In the face of such a serious disaster, the United States still does not lift sanctions, creating obstacles to the international community’s assistance to Afghanistan, making post-disaster reconstruction work facing many difficulties.
Arash Achizada, co-founder of the American non-governmental organization “Afghans for a Better Future”, wrote in an article that the United States seized the US dollar assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, imposed severe sanctions on Afghanistan, and suddenly stopped its aid to Afghanistan. A severe humanitarian disaster has left more than half of Afghanistan on the brink of famine.
“In the past 20 years, the United States has not brought any development to Afghanistan, and now it has imposed sanctions on us when Afghanistan is at its most difficult.” Najibullah Jami, a scholar at Kabul University in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the US sanctions It is the main reason why Afghanistan is currently in a humanitarian crisis.
irresponsible
With the changes in the international situation, the Ukrainian crisis has now become the focus of attention of Western countries such as the United States, while Afghanistan is quietly being forgotten. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, previously said that when the eyes of the world are on Ukraine, the international community should not forget the dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. But the reality today is that foreign investment in Afghanistan has dried up, and financial assistance from the international community has dropped significantly.
An article published on the website of the French weekly “Viewpoint” pointed out that Western countries have turned their attention away from Afghanistan. Achizada criticized the United States, which bears unshirkable responsibility for the suffering of Afghans, and now “seems eager to pretend that Afghanistan no longer exists.”
Not only that, Afghanistan is also affected by the spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis and faces soaring food prices. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said the Ukraine crisis will continue to put pressure on food and fuel prices in Afghanistan.
Analysts pointed out that more than 20 years ago, the United States launched a war once morest Afghanistan for its own selfish interests. Now, the United States is engaged in so-called “great power competition” for its own selfish interests. Afghanistan, affected by the spillover effects of the crisis, is placed in a “forgotten corner”. Such an approach nakedly reflects the hegemonic nature of the United States.
As written in the Afghan-themed novel “The Hills Sing Back,” in Afghanistan, “there are a thousand tragedies in every square mile.” The U.S. military left a year ago, but they left the mess to Afghanistan, and the tragedy they created on this land is far from over. (Participating reporters: Deng Xianlai, He Jing, Shu Chang)
Editor: Shu Mengqing
