UN expresses alarm over extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan 2:16
(CNN Spanish) -
For many, and especially for the
millennials
who began to observe the world since 2000, the war in Afghanistan seemed like something that had always been and always would be.
An entire generation grew up looking at images of American soldiers patrolling Kabul and the Taliban threatening from their caves, until they became a postcard of normalcy.
But one day in August 2021, for better or for worse, it finally ended.
What is the balance after 20 years of war in Afghanistan?
The United States presence in Afghanistan lasted 19 years, 10 months, and 23 days, from the start of Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001, until the last American plane took off on August 30, 2021.
In almost 20 years of war in central Asia, 2,442 American soldiers and 1,144 soldiers from different NATO countries and at least 3,846 contractors died, according to a survey by the Watson Institute of Brown University.
The numbers appear limited compared to the 51,191 insurgents killed in the same period, in addition to between 47,000 and 71,000 civilians and between 66,000 and 73,000 members of the Afghan security forces.
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Taliban issue decree on women 0:46
The economic cost was also enormous.
The United States government admits to having spent US $ 978,000 million in the war, although Watson Institute estimates speak of a figure closer to US $ 2.3 trillion, counting all the expenses.
And that's not counting those contributed by NATO members and by the UN in humanitarian programs.
This is the end of an era, which some compared to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, and which raises many questions.
What's next now?
Afghanistan, "tomb of empires"
Afghanistan's long history has always been linked to that of some of the greatest powers of its time: the Greeks under Alexander the Great, the Mongols under Genghis Khan, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States are among some of they.
But occupation by these powers was always difficult and ultimately unsustainable, leading to the country being known as the "grave" or "graveyard" of the great empires.
Only in the 20th century did Afghanistan come under the control of the British, Soviets and Americans, in addition to two periods of self-government.
The arrival of the United States came in October 2001, just a month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks perpetrated by al Qaeda against the Twin Towers and other targets in the country.
The beginning and end of 20 years of war in Afghanistan 4:33
At the time, Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban, a Sunni Islamist organization that had taken power in 1997, which the United States accused of protecting al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Taliban control of the country would end with the US invasion, but in the following years they would continue to act as an insurgency.
America's years in Afghanistan
The occupation of Afghanistan by the United States and NATO was marked by two major military operations against the insurgency, which took place amid efforts to rebuild the country and support the formation of a new Afghan government.
The first operation, Enduring Freedom, ran from 2001 to 2014 with the aim of destroying both the Taliban government and the al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan.
In 2015, the smaller Sentinel of Freedom operation was launched with the aim of carrying out counter-terrorism activities against al Qaeda and the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS), at the same time delegating more tasks to the Afghan security forces.
None of the military operations nor the reconstruction program met their objectives, and the prolongation of the war led to different governments in the United States beginning to plan to withdraw from the country, while the Taliban forces, never completely defeated, began to take more and more Afghan territories from their bases in rural areas.
US military base now seized by Taliban 4:47
The withdrawal of the United States was finally announced on April 14, 2021 by President Joe Biden, and finalized on August 30, when the last American plane took off from Kabul after a few months of chaos and violence.
And the Taliban regained power, overthrowing the Afghan government.
The end of an era in Afghanistan
The departure of the United States once again left Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban, who in their first government had been characterized by imposing strict Islamic laws on the Afghan population, with particularly strong restrictions for women, and prohibiting non-Islamic demonstrations.
Also, for maintaining close ties with the terrorist group al Qaeda.
Since their return to power, the Taliban have promised restraint in the application of Islamic laws, sever ties with al Qaeda, not seek revenge against officials of the US-backed government, and maintain control over numerous local factions, but numerous recent reports seem show that old practices continue.
In mid-December, for example, the United Nations (UN) said it was alarmed by the many reports of extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan, including hangings, beheadings and public displays of corpses.
The fact that the United States no longer has a strong military presence in central Asia has also opened spaces that could be filled by countries such as China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran.
China - which is in global competition with the United States - and Russia, in fact, were some of the few countries that did not evacuate their embassies, and expanded trade relations are expected between the Taliban and Beijing, which it has not yet formally recognized. to the new government.
In fact, China has been cultivating its ties with Afghanistan for two reasons, argues Vanda Felbab-Brown, a researcher at the Brookings Institution.
The first is economic, and has to do with Afghanistan's possible role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a vast network of trade lines between Europe and Asia also known as the "New Silk Road."
In this regard, the Chinese state newspaper
Global Times
reported in early November, about two months after the US withdrawal, that trade in agricultural products between China and Afghanistan had been resumed.
"China will continue to listen to the call of the Afghan people to offer support within their means," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at the time.
At the end of the same month the
Global Times
reported that envoys from China were in Afghanistan exploring the possibility of setting up a lithium mine in the country.
Beijing's second concern is security and similar to the one that has also motivated the United States: China fears that Islamist terrorist groups will operate from Afghanistan, influencing the Chinese territory of Xinjiang, home to a significant Muslim minority - the Uyghurs - who maintain a tense relationship with Beijing.
But to achieve this, he has tried to negotiate with the Taliban themselves so that they will not allow it.
Explosion devastates Shiite mosque in Afghanistan 2:01
"When it became clear in 2010 that the US troop surge in Afghanistan was not going to defeat the Taliban, China began to engage with the group to ensure that Afghan militants do not cooperate with their Uighur counterparts," Felbab- Brown.
Two other situations raise questions for the future: drug trafficking - the Taliban have been linked to the cultivation of poppies to produce heroin - and the situation of refugees.
With regard to the latter, according to UN data, it is estimated that in mid-2020 there were 5,853,838 Afghans living outside the country, which has been a historic impetus for migration due to violence and internal instability.
In 2021 alone there were 550,000 internally displaced persons due to the advance of the Taliban, and from July until the definitive withdrawal of the United States and NATO in August, 122,000 people would have been evacuated by air, bound for the United States and different European countries and countries. the region.
"As we approach the conclusion of 20 years of war and struggle, of pain and sacrifice, it is time to look to the future, not to the past," Biden said Aug. 31 after leaving the United States.
The question is, perhaps, what look will that future return to us.
Afghanistan