Shadows of warrior descendants

When it comes to the American war in Afghanistan, there are two patterns at play: a macro pattern and a super-macro one. Ever since President Trump moved forward with the un-American approach of ending a war, there have been powers in the shadows, from Washington DC to New Delhi, aggressively working to ensure the demise of the peace deal that was signed between the United States and the Taliban. There have been ifs and buts, what-abouts and myriad non-existent reasons cooked up in the pursuit of keeping America in Afghanistan.

Then came President Biden into the Oval Office. He has largely kept quiet about ending America’s longest war. However, last week he said that withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan would be “tough”, which really was a hint at not meeting the May 1 deadline of withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan. This was the deal America agreed to with the Taliban. Now, America is planning to renege, which in plain English is called a breach of contract. And in Trump’s English it would be called ripping the deal apart, which is what he had done to the Iran nuclear deal and for which he received enormous critique. No such critique can be heard for Biden, the blue-eyed boy of the left-wing media.

President Ghani had faith in the warrior genes of candidate Biden. He knew Biden would not end the war and therefore, he was using every ridiculous method to stall the peace process such as delaying the prisoner release by claiming it wasn’t him who made the deal with the Taliban. Later, he demanded that Kabul be referred to as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which was his way of getting recognition from the Taliban while delaying the peace process. All these countless bulwarks are part of what I call the macro pattern, which is to avoid ending Afghanistan’s occupation.

The super-macro pattern runs deeper. In the show, House of Cards, Frank Underwood is tasked by his boss, the US president, to meet a businessman. The president wants Underwood’s judgment about the businessman for the job of vice-president. After the meeting, Underwood finds out that he himself was being evaluated for the job of vice-president. The same phenomenon is being observed in Afghanistan.

The advocates of keeping Afghanistan occupied are making the case now that if America leaves town, the Islamic State would be emboldened and rise up to create a chaos in Afghanistan that could someday harm America again. They argue that a generation of young Afghans have known nothing but war and fighting in the battlefield has become their livelihood. Therefore, when the Taliban makes peace and America leaves, the IS would recruit these young men because it already has the credentials of being the best employer with a larger paycheck for fighters. In a nutshell, their argument is that to prevent young disgruntled men from fighting for money, America must stay in Afghanistan.

Truth be told, it is not the Afghans who need to fight for a paycheck but rather the US that fights to earn several hefty paychecks for a few greedy corporations and their stakeholders. It is not the young Afghan men but rather the Americans who have not known an America that is not at war at any point of time they can remember. America is always at war. The American genes is more programmed for war through decades, if not centuries, of war grooming than the Afghan genes. The dead hands of the warriors are at work today. The warring genes of the ancestors that came before, who were also at war and those before them, are at work here. Afghans fight to defend, Americans defend the fight. Trump ended wars with a frown and Biden continues wars with a smile.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2021.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.