War on Terror, Mission Accomplished and the Magnitude of Western Hubris
The hypocrisy, pomposity and arrogance of ‘Mission Accomplished’ when nobody knew what the mission was, although we all now know well what has been accomplished!!
Illustration: Steve Bell/The Guardian
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen,...You name it: Western intervention is a catalogue of failure in ‘nation building fantasy', ‘democratisation’ and ‘civilising the sullen peoples, half devil and half child, like in The White Man's Burden’
But, lest we forget, these amoral western interventions in other people's lands and lives, have been extremely successful and profitable for the merchants of death and their immoral military industrial complexes!!
This, indeed, is the continuing saga of western so-called ‘democracies’ immorality and greed, so manifestedly showcased during the Iran/Iraq war, when arms and weapons of mass destruction were sold to both, so that the war can be continued and huge profits could be made from death and destruction for many years to come.
Interested readers on these issues can see further my analysis of the cost of the war, arms trade and more in the book I had published in 1990: The Economic Consequences of the Gulf War .
Furthermore, to my mind, perhaps, the best way to understand Afghanistan today is to understand the criminal actions in Chile in 1973: Forty Years On: Remembering 9/11, 1973, The Butchering of Chile
And Will They Ever Learn!
This is what president George Bush had said 28 after the tragedy of Chile, when the U.S.-led coalition launched ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ with air and missile strikes in Afghanistan:
‘I don’t care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some asses!’
‘F**k diplomacy’! ‘We are going to war!’
And what a war they have had, lest we forget!
Reverting back to the debacle of recent wars of choice, the following links provide an excellent analysis:
‘If historians of the future wish to understand the ignorance and hubris that accompanied the decline of the west’s power, this week’s emergency parliamentary debate on Afghanistan will provide an insightful case study. The delusions that have long characterised British foreign policy remained intact when Iraq was destroyed for the sake of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction; when British soldiers were forced into a humiliating retreat from Iraq’s southern city of Basra at the hands of Iranian-backed Shia militias; and when Libya was left as a failed state. It seemed unlikely that the Taliban casually waltzing into Kabul would finally break the spell.
Take the much celebrated contribution from Theresa May, who asked, “Where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul?” and rued the repercussions of Britain depending “on a unilateral decision taken by the United States”. The former prime minister is a fantasist: Britain has not had a foreign policy independent of the United States since the 1950s, and indefinite occupation of Afghanistan, which has been proposed as an alternative to withdrawal, effectively means transforming the country into a colony…’-Continue to read
‘The magnitude of the United States’ failure in Afghanistan is breathtaking. It is not a failure of Democrats or Republicans, but an abiding failure of American political culture, reflected in US policymakers’ lack of interest in understanding different societies. And it is all too typical.
Almost every modern US military intervention in the developing world has come to rot. It’s hard to think of an exception since the Korean War. In the 1960s and first half of the 1970s, the US fought in Indochina – Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia – eventually withdrawing in defeat after a decade of grotesque carnage. President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, and his successor, the Republican Richard Nixon, share the blame.
In roughly the same years, the US installed dictators throughout Latin America and parts of Africa, with disastrous consequences that lasted decades. Think of the Mobutu dictatorship in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the CIA-backed assassination of Patrice Lumumba in early 1961, or of General Augusto Pinochet’s murderous military junta in Chile after the US-backed overthrow of Salvador Allende in 1973…’-Jeffrey Sachs, ‘Blood in the Sand’,Tikkun, 18 August 2021
How the US military got rich from Afghanistan
‘The Middle East region spent $289bn on defence procurement, based on orders and contracts that were signed between 2010 and 2019. Of the $289bn, $66bn was spent on buying UK arms.’
Britain, the Middle East and arms sales: A breakdown
Imbecile leadership and Debacles after Debacles
The Immorality and Inhumanity of the Politics and Economics of ‘Shoulder to Shoulder’ in Debacle!
The Shame of the Labour Party that Should Have Known Better
President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to Tony Blair during a ceremony at the White House
in 2009 for his services to ‘Shoulder to Shoulder!) ( Image: Getty)
Can Buffoons Learn Lessons? Can they show remorse and repent?
Buffoon #1: ‘Shoulder to Shoulder’ With George!
Buffoon #2: Humiliated by Joe for the Services rendered by Buffoon #1
A very special relation!! Photo:TrendingintheNews
‘Boris Johnson was first blindsided by Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan, then today he was rebuffed -
Britain has gone from standing shoulder-to-shoulder with America to being given the cold shoulder’
'Humiliation for Johnson as America gives Britain cold shoulder in brutal lesson'
And now this is the Debacle of ‘Shoulder to Shoulder!
Afghanistan and the UK’s Illusion of Strategy
Chilcot report slams Tony Blair over U.K.'s botched involvement in Iraq war
How Tony Blair’s disingenuous line on Iraq eroded our faith in politicians
The Hypocrisy of Mission Accomplished When Nobody Knew What the Mission was,
although We Now Know Well What has been Accomplished!!
Illustration: Nicola Jennings /The Guardian
The Afghanistan Debacle: How Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden Bamboozled the American Public
The fall of Kabul: a 20-year mission collapses in a single day
Taliban triumph: anatomy of a disaster in Afghanistan
Britain’s Afghan failure: a military and political disaster
After 20 years and $2tn spent in Afghanistan, what was it all for?
(The war in Afghanistan cost the lives of 454 British servicemen and women, exceeding the death toll of the Falklands War in 1982. Total deaths of coalition forces (Britain, USA and allies) totalled 3,486. A further estimated 2,000 British military and civilian personnel were wounded in action and Financially the war in Afghanistan cost the UK at least £37 billion - roughly £2,000 per household.)
It has taken 20 years to prove the invasion of Afghanistan was totally unnecessary
The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris
US deserves big share of blame for Afghanistan military disaster
How US-Funded Abuses Led to Failure in Afghanistan
The Afghan war: A failure made in the USA
Afghanistan: two decades of Nato help leaves a failed and fractured state on the brink of civil war
Czech president: NATO's failure in Afghanistan puts its legitimacy in question
Nota bene
Whilst researching to write this piece, I came across an article I had written on 12 February 2010, pleading with President Obama to be for the Common Good in all he had planned to do.
Alas that is now all history. But, nonetheless, reading what I had written over 11 years ago made me quite emotional. What if somehow, President Obama, had seen or read my humble plea? Would the Middle East, the US, The world be a better place today? Alas I can only dream!
Please see the link below:
Dear President Obama, this is my plea to you: Be for the Common Good
And at this point, lest we forget, this is how the delusional imperialists show their love, care and humanity for Afghanistan, the Afghanis, women and children: They invade their land, humiliate them, colonise them, and when they are defeated, they shed crocodile tears for their victims, and then, at the most critical time, when Kabul is about to fall to the Talibans, the clowns pack their bags and go on holidays!!
Afghanistan: Boris Johnson And Dominic Raab Slammed For Going On Holiday While Kabul Fell
Photo:unilad
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And now finally, the most important lesson to learn from the
‘Maestro of humanity’, Dr. Gino Strada
