US leaves chaos, destruction in Afghanistan

 

The US completed the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan on Monday before the deadline, officially ending 20 years of the US-led invasion to Afghanistan and leaving the war-torn country with an uncertain future. 

Leaving nothing but chaos and destruction in the country, the US has met triple debacles on counter-terrorism, democratic reform and global governance and the military withdrawal should not be the end of responsibility but the beginning of reflection for the US, analysts said on Tuesday. 

After the massive but disorganized and humiliating withdrawal, a US military C-17 carried the last American troops out of Afghanistan on Monday, marking the formal end to the longest war in US history. A photo, which was provided by the US Central Command, showed US Army Maj. Gen. 

Chris Donahue, the very last American service member in Afghanistan, to board the C-17 cargo plane, and has gone viral. Although the expression of the US serviceman could not be seen clearly, his desolate image - as some netizens described it - showcased the US' debacle and the embarrassing way the US has left. 

While the completion of the withdrawal ending the US presence in Afghanistan, "the diplomatic mission to ensure additional US citizens and eligible Afghans who want to leave, continues," Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the US Central Command, announced during a news conference held by the Department of Defense on Monday. 

After 20 years of US and Western troops' occupation, Afghanistan has been returned to its people. Reuters reported that celebratory gunfire echoed across Kabul as Taliban fighters took control of the airport before dawn on Tuesday following the withdrawal of the last US troops. 

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted on Monday that "Tonight 12 midnight (Afghanistan time) the last American soldier left Afghanistan. Our country gained full independence." 

However, with the exit of US and Western troops, the war-torn country is now facing bigger uncertainties with increasing concerns over in which direction the Afghan Taliban will lead the country. And also a more important question needs to be answered: what the US has left to the country over the past 20 years. 

 Nothing but chaos, destruction 

The US has failed on fighting terrorism and promoting so-called "democratic reform" in Afghanistan, Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies in Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Zhu noted that for the past 20 years, the US has made Afghanistan an experimental base - to test weapons, counter-terrorism strategies and "American-style democracy." 

It entered Afghanistan to take revenge for the terror attacks it received, not to help build the country. "It gave less care to casualties of Afghan civilians in military operations and strikes; and it remains indifferent to Afghanistan being the leading grower of opium and it even made profit from it. 

A war-torn country with tons of problems - this is the huge negative legacy the US has left to the region and the world," said Zhu. 

In the 20 years since September 11, 2001, the US has spent more than $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan. That's $300 million dollars per day, every day, for two decades. There have been 2,500 US military deaths in Afghanistan. That pales next to the estimated 69,000 Afghan military police and 47,000 civilians killed, according to data from a Forbes report on August 16. 

Ironically, what happened at Kabul airport in the past few days was the epitome of the US' 20 years in Afghanistan - it claimed to fight terrorism, but ran away amid terrorist attacks. 

It came to plant so-called "democracy" and its value and social systems in Afghanistan, but the Afghan Taliban which the US drove away 20 years ago, return to power, Zhu noted. 

The US paid a heavy price in Afghanistan and if the US has made some achievements on social development in Afghanistan, the achievements were actually made by the efforts of the international community with the Afghan people, the expert said. 

Zhu Weilie, director of the Middle East Studies Institute of the Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times that US interference in Afghanistan and its failures on crisis management and governance reflects its failure in the field of traditional security. 

The US' occupation of Afghanistan has become the indelible stain on its history. The international community, especially US allies, has a better understanding on how unreliable, untrustworthy and incapable the US is in terms of handling global affairs, Zhu Weilie said.