This 9/11 could have been worse

It seems like half a life has passed, but it’s only been five months since Joe Biden He appeared in front of the world, through the television camera, to announce that he intended to honor the agreement signed by his predecessor with the Taliban and to close off the US military presence in Afghanistan. Of course, he warned, Donald Trump He had promised to leave the country on the first of May and he was not in a position to fulfill such a schedule. Too many loose ends. With which, he explained, the withdrawal would take place throughout the summer and would have an end point full of symbolism: September 11, 2021.

With that announcement, Biden was looking to score two goals.

First, end the longest war in American history. A war that, at this point in the film, practically no one understood. When it started, the objectives were clear. Delete from map to Osama Bin Laden and the jihadist network that led for their attack on the Twin Towers. But the first part of the mission was fulfilled in 2011, when a US commando crushed the terrorist leader in Pakistan, and the end of Al Qaeda, well, the organization has been proving for twenty years that it can continue to act regardless of who governs Afghanistan. Hence the question that most Americans have asked in recent times regardless of their ideology: what do we paint there?

Second, put an end to that war in the most dignified way possible. That is to say: hiding as far as possible the failure of having spent two decades in a place that, despite a stratospheric investment in human lives and billions of dollars, you have never managed to control (because, the experts would add, you have never bothered to understand). How? Delaying the departure date so as not to have to march in the rush and rescuing with a helicopter, in extremis, to people crowded in the embassy. Those things so from 1975. And once the withdrawal is delayed a little, what other date to see the last contingent of marines leave Kabul quietly than on September 11. The same day that everything originated, twenty years later. The squaring of the circle dressed with an extremely illuminating caption: we close the stage.

In the beginning, everything went as expected. His popularity remained above 50% and at the NATO summit in Brussels in mid-June there were handshakes and nods. The plan had the approval of both citizens and their allies.

Everyone has seen how the first power asked the bearded men for a margin to continue rescuing compatriots and collaborators

Then came the closure of the Bagram airbase in July. The Americans left the nerve center of their operations in the region in a truly strange way: at night, treachery and leaving the Afghan army with a span of noses. At the same time, an intelligence report was leaked that cut the resistance capacity of the Afghan government against the Taliban advance: from two years to … a few weeks. Consequently, the rush came and, with it, a colossal disaster that will be discussed, at least, for the remainder of the century.

There is little point in dwelling on the events of August. Everyone has seen how in the middle of the month, specifically on the 15th, the Taliban entered Kabul. Everyone has seen how the world’s leading power asked the bearded men for a margin to continue rescuing compatriots and collaborators. How thousands of people suffered avalanche after avalanche on the perimeter of Hamid Karzai International Airport, desperately waving papers and passports in the hope of finding a hole in the military planes leaving the Afghan capital for safer latitudes. How some of them, after gaining access to the runway, grabbed onto a C-17 in full takeoff only to plummet onto a roof in the city seconds later. And the whole world has seen, in short, how an Islamic State terrorist flew to pieces a few meters from the place taking the lives of 182 people, thirteen of them US military.

Predictably, and while the rest of the world was assisting the fright, the American citizenry began to get pissed off. On August 16, a day after the entry of the Taliban into Kabul, Biden’s popularity dropped, for the first time, to 50%. Two weeks later, after the bombing at the airport gates, the level of approval of the president (47.2%) was exceeded by the level of rejection (47.5%).

The American press, meanwhile, wanted to know why Biden was to see them coming. His explanations, however, did not improve anyone’s mood. He declared that the war had to end yes or yes, he implied that there is no way out of Afghanistan because it is a disaster, he offered evasive answers when asked about the opinion of his generals and, as icing on the cake, he blamed the Afghans for not flattening the issue. From being cowards unable to stand up to the Taliban, wow. A comment, the latter, that managed to unite both the academics who have studied the region and the military who have fought in it: this guy, they concluded, has no bloody idea.

However, the 46th president of the United States was able to turn the page on August 30, when he was informed that the last American military plane had left Kabul without major, Ahem, mishap. It was then announced, not without a certain pride, that since the entry of the Taliban into Kabul, 124,000 people had been removed, with the invaluable help of the allies, including Spain. However, far from motivating any celebration, that figure was answered with another: what about the tens of thousands of Afghans we have left behind? And the 200 Americans still trapped in Afghanistan? The answer, a bureaucrat: “We are working on it.”

The stain of the exit became even blacker, if possible, in old Joe’s dossier

As we live in the times we live in, Afghanistan occupies less and less information space. Most likely, and except for a hecatomb, In a matter of weeks, the country will be relegated to the inside pages, Sunday, and specialized magazines. Other news (an earthquake, an election, the coronavirus, Taiwan) will ask for passage and, logically, it will be granted.

However, the consequences of the scare promise to last. Not just in Afghanistan, where of course they will. Also in the West. The US military establishment, without going any further, is already registering suicides related to the withdrawal among its veterans. Matt Zeller, former CIA analyst and founder of the organization No One Left Behind, advanced to the journalist Megan K. Stack that what happened is going to generate “a monumental trauma” among those in uniform.

To this must be added the political climate. The United States celebrates its elections midterm, or half term, next year. They elect 435 seats in the House of Representatives, a third in the Senate and a good handful of governors. Experts do not expect that elections where people vote locally, thinking about the economy, insecurity and probably also the pandemic, will be disrupted by something that has happened on the other side of the planet. However, the Republican Party is expected to include the evacuation of Kabul in its campaign. What’s more: one of the possible presidential candidates in the 2024 election, a young senator from Missouri named Josh Hawley, has called for Biden’s resignation. Surprising? Not much. But you have to keep in mind where we come from: in a society as polarized as that of the United States, Afghanistan was one of the few issues that enjoyed a certain consensus. Not anymore. Or yes, but from another perspective: now it is Biden who remains on the sidelines.

Then there are, of course, relations with the European Union. On this side of the Atlantic, many applauded, a year ago, his victory over Trump as they perceived a return to normalcy. Compadreo, good manners and, above all, complicity in an increasingly unstable geopolitical framework. In France and Germany, for example, the confidence of their respective populations in Biden was around 70% (compared to 10% reaped by Trump). Right now, however, tension and mistrust are rampant.

“The Americans have lost the prestige that accompanies a world leader,” the Czech president declared a few days ago. Milos Zeman when asked about Kabul. He also slipped the word “cowardice.” “The absence of communication, not having consulted anyone about the withdrawal, has left a scar,” he commented, in turn, Carl Bildt, former Swedish Prime Minister. For its part, Armin Laschet, candidate of the Conservatives in the elections that Germany will hold this month, defined the matter as “the greatest disaster in the history of NATO.”

All of the above said, some argue that it could have been worse. Yes: worse. How? Well, having to go out by legs between people who fall from the sky and jihadists who exploit themselves a few meters away not one day in August but on September 11 itself. An even tastier little caramel than the current one for all those who have lost their voices exclaiming Allahu akbar in the last weeks. An even blacker stain, if possible, on old Joe’s dossier. Hence the rush, perhaps.

*** Borja Bauzá is a journalist.

Reference-www.elespanol.com

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