{"id":12371,"date":"2021-08-14T23:58:27","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T06:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12371"},"modified":"2021-08-15T05:23:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T12:23:09","slug":"post1-142","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12371","title":{"rendered":"“The Observer view on the fall of Afghanistan”, The Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Observer editorial, London, 15 August 2021<\/p>\n

The Taliban\u2019s rapid advance is chilling but a united response can still avert catastrophe<\/em><\/p>\n\"A<\/picture>A Taliban fighter, armed with a rocket-propelled grenade, enters Herat, Afghanistan\u2019s third biggest city.<\/span>Photograph: AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span><\/span>he fall of Afghanistan to fundamentalist Taliban forces is a disaster foretold. Although the capital, Kabul<\/a>, remains in government hands, the scale and speed of the insurgents\u2019 advance has left no doubt who now holds the upper hand. This swift implosion is likened to the final days of the Vietnam war, when the Viet Cong overran Saigon in April 1975. If what the world is witnessing is the moral as well as the physical collapse of a nation, the fall of France in June 1940 may be the better analogy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The success, though not the startling rapidity, of the Taliban\u2019s many-fronted offensive in seizing key provincial capitals and much of rural Afghanistan was predictable once it became clear, in June, that residual US forces were rushing to leave<\/a>. The foolish, unilateral American decision to quit at short notice effectively obliged Britain and other Nato allies to follow. It wrongfooted government forces. It gave Taliban leaders the opening they had awaited for 20 years.<\/p>\n

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The resulting shock waves are widely felt. Joe Biden bears immediate responsibility for a preventable reversal that will have lasting, deeply negative consequences for the longsuffering Afghan people and for western security. But this failure is shared with previous US presidents<\/a> who took their eye off the ball in the years after al-Qaida\u2019s 9\/11 attacks \u2013 and especially with Donald Trump, whose unbelievably inept, self-serving \u201cpeace deal\u201d with Taliban leaders in Doha last year paved the way for capitulation.<\/div>\n

Britain, America\u2019s steadfast but unconsulted ally, also faces searching questions about what was achieved and what happens next. Boris Johnson<\/a>and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, claim the occupation prevented more al-Qaida attacks and advanced women\u2019s education. But Wallace also admits there is a resurgence of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, as well as of Islamic State fanatics, which is a looming worry. It\u2019s obvious the job is incomplete \u2013 and that what good has been done may quickly be undone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pity that Wallace\u2019s sharp criticism of the US \u2013 he described Trump\u2019s Doha giveaway as a \u201crotten deal\u201d and the withdrawal as a \u201cmistake\u201d <\/a>\u2013 was not more clearly articulated when there was time to do something about it. His admission that he tried and failed to persuade France and Germany to help maintain a military presence starkly illustrates the limitations of \u201cglobal Britain\u201d. Without the US, and estranged from Europe, Britain was powerless.<\/p>\n