I don’t think I need to tell anyone about the scenario in Afghanistan right now. Whether it is the videos of people trying to climb on an aeroplane or whether it is the videos of the Taliban committing atrocities on the people. Whether it is the news reporters or common female entrepreneurs, or simply anyone who wants to live a civilized and educated life is being taken under the radar. While someone is being killed brutally or someone is being tortured by a hunter publicly  But, when something like this happens, it makes all of us reckon once how and why the situation reached this. For this, we will have to take a deep look at the history and how geopolitics played its part in making what we know as ‘The Graveyard of Superpowers’.

A country with No Conqueror

Afghanistan has been a country that has never been taken under any regime properly. There might be some examples in the extreme past, but after that, we only have failure stories in the Modern Era. All of this started with the GREAT GAME, which was a conquest between Britain and Russia to conquer Afghanistan to have control over the ‘link’ between Asia and Europe. Well, Britain took the first step and captured Afghanistan.

It was followed by the First Anglo-Afghan War which forced the British out of the place. But Britishers being Britishers attacked again and after the Second Anglo-Afghan war established a British protectorate, which meant they ruled the place through their appointee Abdur Rahman Khan. But Afghanistan didn’t give up and the Third and Fourth Anglo-Afghan wars completely swiped the British out of the place with Britain accepting the defeat. Here, we need to specifically look at the point that when Britishers were ruling a country as large as India, they failed to rule a small country Afghanistan, which itself speaks about the valour and resilience of Afghans.

Amanullah Khan leads the empire to modernity

Amanullah Khan was the King of the Afghan empire and under his exemplary leadership, the country was headed in the right direction. Not only did he promote liberal and secular values all over the country, but even Hijab and Burqa were made non-compulsory. At this point in time, Afghanistan was a modern country with stunning visuals and locales, if some of you know about the HIPPY trails, they too were connected with Afghanistan Also, he had just one wife that too through a love marriage, which was very well a revolutionary thing to do at that place and at that time. His wife Queen Soraya Tarzi too was a promoted girl’s education, women’s rights and even tore the veil publicly. Now, this was very well a ‘Burnol’ moment for the religious extremists and a thunderous revolt led to civil war due to which both the King and Queen had to flee to British India. They even named their daughter INDIA, (Princess India D’ Afghanistan). But, Afghanistan had fallen into the wrong hands now.

Rise of Extremist led Violence

Now, Afghanistan was ruled by Nadir Shah followed by Zahir Shah. Under him, the election system came up in Afghanistan with two main ideologies; Communist and Islamist. Meanwhile, Pakistan too was volunteering separatist movement in Afghanistan with the Pashtun population, which was a considerable share of the population in both the countries. All this lead to rising in murder, violence and chaos in the country. Here, while Zahir Shah went on a foreign tour, his rebel minister Daoud Khan used the military and communists to undertake a coup establishing Afghanistan as a Republic with him as the president. He tried to propagate the ideology of Islam, Nationalism and Socialism.

But the violence on the other hand led to another coup called the SAUR REVOLUTION in which Daoud Khan is killed. Now, Nur Mohammad Taraki is the new President who tries to bring some social reforms and also pitch a secular and feminist approach. Now, this was enough for the Islamist extremist group to kill him down following a civil war. This group only turned out to be the MUJAHIDEEN. Since a Communist leader was killed, the Soviet which was the flag-bearer of Communism at that time, entered Afghanistan starting another chapter in the country.

The Cold War Damages

America saw the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan as its defeat for reasons only it can explain. Now, it starts funding the Mujahideen so that they can bring as much damage for the Soviets as possible. Mujahideen used these funds in weapons, arms and even textbooks teaching violence in the name of religion to small children and creating illiterate monsters like them. On the other hand, Iranian Revolution in which Islamists took over the country from Communists worried Hafizullah Amin, the then president and he too takes a religious stance building mosques and distributing Qurans. But he was no less than a psychopath committing atrocities in public. Soviet itself killed him and put Babrak Karmal at the place.

By now, the Mujahideen had got quite powerful and had enough to cause severe damages to the Soviets through its Guirella warfares. At the same time, USSR was splitting into pieces and the Soviets needed to focus out there, so they started searching for reasons to leave the place. Soviet even sign an agreement with the US, as per which the latter would stop any funding to Mujahideens and finally Soviets leave the place in 1989. The Afghan President at this time was Mohammad Najibullah who tries to bring peace and stability without any kind of extremism. This was a sin according to Mujahideens and the fact that the US broke its promise and kept its funding on, Mujahideen were able to kill Najibullah and establish the Islamic State of Afghanistan.

The Rise of Terrorism and USA’s Change of Side

Mujahideen itself gets divided into a number of factions and the faction that comes out on top is the world-famous TALIBAN, which literally means students, but just literally. Under the Taliban regime, a flurry of bans come into place. Things as simple as movies, sports and the internet gets banned. Women undergo hell as they weren’t allowed to go anywhere without Burqa and a male partner. Taliban guards were out there on the streets to beat the hell down anyone who breaks ‘their’ religious rules with hunter. Also, atrocities against minorities such as Hindus, Sikhs and Christians and their cultures escalate.

While By this time only Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia recognise Afghanistan as a country and terrorism is on the rise and on 11th September 2001 the deadly attacks at the World Trade Centre take place. The main mastermind behind this was Osama Bin Laden according to whom it was revenge from the USA for its attacks over Somalia and Iraq. On expected lines, Pakistan went ahead and sheltered Laden in its country. The USA finally saw where to have all its fundings have finally landed and angrily launched an all-out mission. They went into Pakistan and killed Laden and also conquered Afghanistan throwing out the Talibani regime.

USA does a FAQIR 

Although, the USA had Afghanistan very much under its control and also set up a democratic government there with Hamid Karzai then and Ashraf Ghani later as the president. But, despite all this Taliban kept brewing and it is astonishingly surprising that why the USA didn’t completely eliminate it during its stay there. Also, thousands of US soldiers fighting for a country having almost no connection with the USA went through heavy backlash back at home. Finally, after 20 years and after spending $2 trillion and losing around 2300 odd soldiers in the battle, the USA packs its bags and goes back, as at this point in time it already has a well-poised enemy China to spend energy on. Here, Joe Biden doesn’t deserve all the blame as someone had to take the call to stop the war that’s not theirs.

Conclusion: Pray for Afghanistan 

So, in the end, if we look at the whole story who do we find as the reason behind all this. Obviously … the US, no not because they have pulled back from there, but I am here talking about what the USA has been doing over the past many years. Wasn’t it the US only because of which all of this started and every bloody time, Afghanistan was inching towards stability and development, the USA with its too much extra spending funded goddamn terrorists. It has easily left the country, but it’s the innocent Afghanis who are helplessly staring towards Hell. I said above that Afghan people never give up easily and have a lot of resilience and valour. Well… you can just hope that these qualities help the people over there face the dictatorial regime. Now, the future of the country hangs on the rope of uncertainty as the country is being ruled by Illiterates with empty upper chambers. While for India, it is a huge matter of concern as India has invested heavily in Afghanistan both diplomatically as well as financially. Though the government has started talks with the Taliban, the situation is far from being called certain or stable. There is a lot to come and a lot to face and India’s strategy will be WAIT AND WATCH. On the other hand, my heart goes out to the people of Afghanistan and I would request everyone to keep a fraction of your daily prayers for those stranded in there… I hope they are safe. And the USA … humanity will never forgive you.

JAI HIND