Why the Taliban won

 

            Afghanistan's long and tragic story will tarnish the American psyche for generations to come. Blood, bullets, and books did not stop the Reconquista of the hermit kingdom. After two trillion dollars of American treasure and thousands of American GI lives, it was all in vain. The tears on American flags didn't defeat a humble and illiterate insurgency. Men who could barely read or understand thermodynamics defeated the most powerful military in the world. All the trillions and billions of dollars of military hardware, missiles, and Apache helicopters could not defeat a jihadist warrior with a scimitar and sandals.

             The Taliban sang phrases from The Quarn as they shot American m-4s into the air as they took Kabul. Even as women wept and children screamed at the Kabul airport, Marines were left helpless and unable to save the tens of thousands of fleeing Afghanis from the impending doom of dictatorial theocracy. Babies handed over barbed wire in desperation were not saved and were handed back to crying mothers.

                Thousands of miles away, Joe Biden licked ice cream. The Pentagon was caught off guard that Kabul fell so quickly. Why? Why did the Afghan army flee so quickly? Why did her leaders abandon her? Because there was nothing left to save. All of Afghanistan was built on a lie. A lie perpetuated on American money.  Alie that Afghanistan could become a democracy. Trillions were spent in a new 21^st century Marshall Plan. The Taliban were even stunned at how quickly they took over the country. In my humble estimation, it would have taken the Taliban one or two years to fully conquer the country. Never in my wildest dreams did I feel they would have a complete military victory in less than one month.

             We naive Americans believed that by spending billions of dollars on wells for Afghans, we could magically instill democracy in the Afghans. Alas, it did not. I feel and bemoan all the little Afghan girls, for whom they will never go to school or feel the wind in their hair in public anymore.

                With abundance comes decadence.  We believed that if we threw money at the problem, it would solve itself. Let women Army medics go into rural villages, and then the elders with fixed cultural beliefs from the 7^th century will transform into modern Milan.

             It has worked in times of conquest, one culture over another. Roman culture overtook Gaul. Greece over Ancient Egypt. American democracy over Japanese fascism. But that takes one thing to overcome those termites of Savargy. Willpower. Without willpower, there is no determination to conquer and change a people. Caesar did it with genocide and Roman legions. Alexander did it with the conquest of the Nile. America did it by dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan. You have to be a savage in order to dominate a savage. Kid gloves and Disneyland dreams will not bear fruit on a barren tree. In Afghanistan, there was no tree of democracy. It was as barren as a desert.

                After the Taliban fell in 2001 from American troops, there was a brief window to assimilate and change them into small d democrats.  Through osmosis, we could have changed the future generations from a stone-throwing society to a book reading society. China is dominating the Turkic Muslim minority in the Xinjang region. Is it evil? Yes. Is it genocidal? Yes? Is it a concentration camp with brainwashing? Yes and yes.

                It’s very hard to imprint a culture of democracy into a culture that doesn’t want it. Germany and Japan were much easier because they had centuries of development and infrastructure to sustain a population able to participate in democracy. Afghanistan and her master, the Taliban can’t even build a bus or run modern power plants, or modern agriculture without outside assistance. Both in terms of funding and engineering expertise, the Taliban have neither. A preindustrial and primitive peasant society is all they have planned for. Roads, power plants, and hospitals? What are those? Female doctors? No! Woman in school? How unislamic.  Modern infrastructure with modern financial policy? That’s crazy talk. I do find it amusing to see the former terrorists trying to fly helicopters and figure out other modern, advanced technology.

                The Taliban can barely read or write. But they expect to run and rule over forty million citizens with just a Kalashnikov. In fact, some Taliban have complained about working in government offices. Yes, Jihadis, it’s easier to run an insurrection than run a government and country.  There is no afternoon fruit in the mountains with your buddies as you sing songs and shoot assault rifles at American troops. You have to deal with modern phenomena such as inflation, economics, electricity for cities, and logistics of agriculture. Policy isn’t easy. Government isn't easy.

            Afghanistan's economy and agricultural supply have both collapsed. Yes, I’m sure The Taliban will have a fine Islamic judiciary to deal with petty thieving. But other than that, I have little confidence in The Taliban's ability to run the country effectively. But how did these sheep herders defeat us? One word: Islam.

                Islam has produced some of the strongest warriors in the last thousand years. I’m not talking about muscles or weapons, but the hearts that swing those swords. Accounts of Muslim warriors’ bravery and audacity throughout history are countless. Japan had the same warrior spirit with Bushido, but Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave Hiroto pause. We did not have the termination or tenacity to beat the Taliban as we did the Nazis and Japanese in World War Two. We as a society had limited interest in the Afghan War. We squabbled over minor things as the Taliban inched closer to victory like a prowling panther.

In a nutshell, it's an Afghantian tragedy. They are once again plunged into darkness and barbarism. But we Americans can go back to our Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as Joe Biden does. We can ignore the Taliban. Afghan women can’t.