The sad tale of the Afghan people - EDITORIAL

Afghanistan is once again on the brink of civil war. After 20 years of attempting to bomb the Afghan people into submission, the US as it did in Vietnam has cut and run. The US has abandoned the puppet regime it set along the lines of the ‘Vichy Government’ in France during German occupation. The Vichy government ruled France in accordance with the wishes of the Nazi Germany. Just as the Vichy regime served the interests of the German occupiers of France, so the present Afghan government is seen as serving the interests of the US occupier.  

Today, as the US withdraws from Afghanistan in haste, it is calling on its (US) citizens in Afghanistan to flee. The puppet regime it set up is already collapsing, even before the last remaining American trooper has time to pack up and leave. To cover his shame and nakedness, the US President is now advising the Afghan people to fight for themselves. As if the Afghans actually had invited America into their homeland 20 years ago.

US President Joe Biden seems to have forgotten it was the US itself that decided to collectively punish the Afghan nation for Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden’s attack on the US ‘Twin Towers’. 
In actuality, if the initial motive for the US invasion of Afghanistan was motivated by revenge - for the bombing of the ‘Twin Towers -’ it was the trillions of dollars’ worth mineral resources, precious stones and petroleum reserves in Afghanistan extended their stay in that country. 

Afghanistan has vast reserves of gold, platinum, silver, copper, iron, chromite, lithium, uranium, and aluminum. The country’s high-quality emeralds, rubies, sapphires, turquoise and lapis lazuli have long charmed the gemstone market. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), through its extensive scientific research of minerals, concluded that Afghanistan may hold 60 million metric tonnes of copper, 2.2 billion tonnes of iron ore, 1.4 million tonnes of rare earth elements (REEs) such as lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, and veins of aluminium, gold, silver, zinc, mercury, and lithium. 

According to Pentagon officials, their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large as those of Bolivia (the country’s name was changed to the ‘Plurinational State of Bolivia’) in 2009. Bolivia has the world’s largest known lithium reserves. 

The USGS estimates the Khanneshin deposits in Helmand province will yield 1.1 - 1.4 million metric tonnes of REEs. Some reports estimate Afghanistan REE resources are among the largest on earth.
During the two-decade long US war to subdue that country, close to 47,600 Afghan civilians were killed and more than double that number injured since the US invasion.

It is not surprising therefore, the US arch nemesis the Taliban, whom the US has battled for 20 long years, views the occupiers and its puppet regime as collaborators and quislings. Media reports speak of ordinary soldiers and local authorities being killed out of hand by the victorious Taliban commanders.

Human Rights Watch reports that Taliban forces are summarily executing detained soldiers, police personnel and civilians suspected of ties to the Afghan government. While not condoning murdering of enemy combatants, it was this self-same fate which befell the members of the Vichy government and those seen as collaborating with Nazi forces in France at the hands of General de Gaulle’s victorious troops at the end of World War II…
Today, what is most unfortunate is the fate of the innocent Afghan civillians caught between the warring forces. The Afghan troops and warlords who worked with the US occupiers are regrouping in small pockets as well as in the capital of Kabul.

A devastating all-out civil war on the scale of the 1990s (after the then Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan) looms large on the horizon. It is believed nearly half a million Afghans lost their lives during the Soviet adventure in that country.
Pity the Afghan people.