I watched with very deep-seated concern in a London television the fall of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
For 20yrs now the US government has spent nearly $1Trillion dollars of US money, £22Billion pounds of UK’s taxpayers and most importantly precious lives of Americans and allied forces to keep the very fledging peace in that region after the infamous 911 attack on America. Thousands have been trained as lawyers, doctors, journalists and indeed soldiers and policemen by the occupation forces.
Afghanistan was beginning to find its location in the value chain of humanity. Then alas, the Americans, based on an agreement Donald Trump, the immediate past President of America signed, decided to leave Afghanistan unconditionally. In fact, it was to be on or before May 2021, but President Biden extended it to September 11, 2021.
Today as we watched through the lenses of international media, Kabul has fallen uncontested into the hands of a very surprised Taliban. It was indeed an easy walk over.
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The soldiers and military personnel that have been trained and equipped by the Americans could not stand up to be counted when their country needed them most. What a shame. The Americans and their Nato allies I am sure will be disappointed on how easy the Taliban they have kept in abeyance for decades now, have taken Kabul and by extension Afghanistan like a piece of cake . The Power is in the will, not in the sophistication of weaponry.
Several leaders have come up after the war propped by America trying to rebuild what looks like a cursed nation in a twisted trajectory, haven been occupied by the British, the Russians and now the Americans.
No matter the excuse, Biden should have known this will happen.
Donald trump will be laughing now as he set this time bomb up for Biden who should have reconsidered its relations with the Taliban once he came into office.
Trump reneged on the Obama Iranian nuclear deal plan and cancelled it, on assumption of office. Biden should have done the same here.
The image of people desperately seeking to flee the country due to their understanding of what the Taliban stands for is worthy of note. Hordes of people on the tarmac following a moving and taxying aircraft as it was about to take-off is heart wrenching. The story and footage we are getting from Kabul is dispiriting. Especially, since Nigeria is fighting a related Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram in the North East. This of course is going to embolden them in their very warped and psychiatric pursuit of power based on primitive dogmas of their religion.
The international community must rise up to the challenge and save the world from a wave of bush-fighters forcefully taking over legitimately elected governments.
This must not happen or be encouraged to happen. The United nations must trigger all available and extant laws to deal with this brigandage before the world is thrown into a 3rd world war as splinter Islamist states will begin to try their ‘luck’.
It is time for the United Nations to be united and cut short this work of iniquity in Kabul, before it gets brothers and sisters around the world in sympathy.
A note of warning to the Taliban .
The Kabul/Afghanistan they are capturing now is NOT the same as the one they left 20 years ago. You now have young, educated, technology savvy women, men and of course the internet and global news and chat media like, twitter, Google FB and WhatsApp.
80% of the Afghan economy and budget is driven by foreign money.
If the Taliban returns to its anachronistic and its very brutal and fundamentalist rule, Kabul will fall again, this time by the hands of its impoverished citizens. Maybe, and just may be, that will be the necessary rebirth and Recalibration that Afghanistan needs.
And for Nigerians who are hoping that the west will kill themselves to save you or birth a new nation for you. Think again, and think hard enough. As Nigerians, we must learn to work together no matter our differences and build the nation of our dreams.
When the sane wouldn’t lead, anyone from the sanatorium will call the shots. In our pursuit for a great society for Nigeria, the challenge has indeed has been the will.
A strong will is itself a weapon.
And to south east; in our pursuit for a better homeland for our people in the south East, may we not allow the emergence of a SE version of Taliban? Our region must not be made ungovernable.
Ala Igbo must not be allowed to become a theatre of war or mayhem. The agitation must not asphyxiate the very people and economy you are fighting for. We should collectively, say never again, will alaigbo be the theatre of war under no guise. Never again.
Odibo is a strategy consultant and government policy analyst.
