Who Lost in Afghanistan
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A Humvee, being used as a local transport vehicle after capturing it from US Army |
In 1975 a US Army colonel told a Vietnamese colonel, “ You know, you never beat us on the battlefield.” The counterpart responded, “That may be so, it is also irrelevant.”
On 13 July 2021, Gen. Austin Scott Miller, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan stepped down, marking a symbolic defeat after 20 years of American military invasion in Afghanistan.
The invasion of Afghanistan took place on the 7th of October 2001 when the US and UK started ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ with some 43 NATO allies and partners under the joint command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The US Government claimed that the invasion was in retaliation to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Pennsylvania. They blamed the Taliban, ruling war-torn Afghanistan, for the attack. However, neither evidence of the involvement of the Taliban Govt was produced in any court of justice nor did any organization claim responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks.
At the peak of the invasion, there were an estimated 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. To further reinforce the military operations, the US and its allies raised Afghan National Defense and Security force (ANDSF), with a total authorized strength of 352,000 personnel. Throughout its history, the US Department of Defense (DOD) has relied on contractors to support a wide range of military operations. To supplement the aggression in Afghanistan, the US Army engaged the private contractors as well. According to reports, there were 16,832 private contractors to support a wide range of military operations in a variety of dimensions, of which 6,147 were US citizens, 4,286 were Afghans, and 6,399 came from other countries. Thus, the mightiest army of the modern era equipped with the most sophisticated weaponry and state-of-the-art military technology kept on combating few thousand Taliban, who had only left-overs of the Soviet-Afghan War.
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| 1842: Retreat from Kabul |
"To carry out war operations in the field with a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, along with logistics to carry them a thousand li (a Chinese unit of distance, about 0.3 miles), the sum spent at rear and front will reach the overall of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men”. It is the fundamental mathematics, placed by Sun Tzu in 571 BC, but ignored by the mightiest military of the present time.
The cost of invading Afghanistan with such a massive force has been high to the invaders. According to icasualities.org, the US has paid the highest price as foreign fatalities in Afghanistan, with more than 2,400 military personnel killed and more than 20,700 wounded. As for other NATO coalition members, only Britain lost the second-highest personnel, with 455 killed. The Afghan government no longer publishes data for losses within its army, which are significant, but the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani in 2019 said more than 45,000 members of the country's security forces have been killed since 2014. There are no credible statistics for the losses incurred to ANDSF raised by the US and its allies. Yet, there is another hefty price that the US and its allies have paid.
As of September 30, 2019, the Pentagon officially estimated the cost of US operations in Afghanistan at $776 billion since 2001. But according to a study by Brown University, the cost of America's wars exceeds the Pentagon's estimate, as State Department aid is not taken into account, nor are any intelligence operations or the medical cost of wounded veterans. Factoring in all those costs, the Brown researchers say the US "wars on terror" in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan since 2001 have cost $6.4 trillion…
According to Sun Tzu, the art of war is governed by five constant factors to be considered in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions for attaining in the field. These are: (1) The Moral Law; 2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline. The Moral Law synchronizes the people with their ruler regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. Heaven signifies the times and seasons. Earth comprises of the distances, open ground, and narrow passes. Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness.
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| 2021: Retreat from Afghanistan |
The Guerrillas predominate not by outfighting but outlasting a stronger adversary. Taliban had just done that. After twenty years of invasion, the US is stepping down, and the Taliban stand victorious.
(Written by Dr. Saeed Ahmed 13 July 2021: Seihung, South Korea)
Only future can tell us who is the real winner of this 20 year long battle. The expected Taliban regime in Afghanistan will actually decide whether the ideology has sustained through all these years or US has succeeded in converting Taliban into a force of their interest. There are many conspiracies, lot of worries and tons of threats associated with US quit from Afghanistan and speedy take over of Taliban in the area.
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