Afghanistan, a black hole

Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Farah, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 11. Mohammad Asif Khan / AP

“There are other worlds, but they are in this one”, affirmed the poet Paul Éluard.

In the United States, the Pentagon announces the availability of technology capable of opening a window for predicting the future, the GIDE. Australia has become one of the three countries with more than 30% female representation on the main boards of directors. China has built a gigantic telescope to search for signs of life beyond the earth. Bands of bearded and turbaned warriors descend through the Afghan mountains, prints of the Dothraki barbarians in the

series

, without horses, but with rifles, they devastate cities, kidnap women and force them into marriage.

Other worlds exist and they are here.

In this era of scientific innovations and social advances, the advance of the Taliban after the withdrawal of international troops represents the consolidation of a black hole that devours modernity, crushes women, defeats the most powerful army on the planet and delivers once more with the maxim, "Afghanistan, graveyard of empires."

More information

• The Taliban take the strategic city of Ghazni, located just 150 kilometers from Kabul

Faced with such a defeat, America's rivals - China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan - may be satisfied. And worried. Due to territorial proximity and ethnic-religious affinity of its population, Afghan instability represents a greater threat to them than to the American power. Starting with the probable resurgence of Al Qaeda on a new base and, with it, a global jihadist Islamic movement on the other side of its borders. "Afghanistan," predicts international terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, "will emerge again as a terrorist Disneyland."

Beijing, despite the solemn commitment of the Taliban to respect China, risks the security of the New Silk Road, and hopes to exert influence through a network of vassal relations, delegating the ability to intervene on Afghan territory in Pakistan. Although, there are no guarantees. The July attack that killed nine Chinese engineers in Pakistan is a sign to watch out for.

Islamabad, which has actively and passively supported the Taliban, hopes to benefit from its new mediating position between them and the Asian power, as it did previously with the United States. But his success will be his biggest problem, and he will be forced to face, without pretexts or justifications, the elections of the past. The consolidation of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will encourage the most radical sectors in an already deeply divided country. The flight of Afghan refugees will fall on their territory. And in the absence of some kind of agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government, a myriad of warlords and factions supported by different countries will emerge, a new war by proxy. A new Syria. This time, about a cyclically ravaged and engulfed Afghanistan. As the violence ragesAfghan society has risen up in a movement that travels the networks with the hashtag #SanctionPakistan, sanctioning Pakistan.