The Strategic Defeat of Western Imperialism in Afghanistan

Party of Labor of Iran (Toufan)

In our neighbouring country, Afghanistan, great changes are about to take place. These developments are important for us Iranians because they are directly related to the interests and to the future of our country, and we cannot remain indifferent.

In our view, the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan is not a simple, tactical defeat, but a fatal, strategic, and lasting one. This is illustrated through several key observations:

1- The goal of the military invasion of Afghanistan by the United States and its allies, was falsely claimed be a fight against “terrorism,” a fight for the realisation of women’s democratic rights, and a fight for freedom and democracy. Such claims are hypocritical at best, as the U.S. itself continues to be the world’s largest terrorist and violator of human rights, freedom, and democracy. The strategic goals of U.S. imperialist actions were:

a) To compete with Russia in the transportation of gas pipelines from Central Asia via Afghanistan to the Sea of Oman and on to Europe

 b) To establish a strong military base behind the borders of Iran, Russia, and China

Both efforts have failed. U.S. President Joe Biden claimed that the U.S. goal in going to Afghanistan was not “nation-building.” He stated instead that, “Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building.  It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy. ..Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland. .. and now terrorist threats against the United States have diminished.” This new confession, based solely on U.S. interests, tarnished the reputations and challenged the motives of the U.S. allies—the forty fellow occupiers and oppressors—who justified their occupation of Afghanistan and their atrocities by claiming to be working for “the realisation of human rights, especially the rights of women.” Such suspect claims have now been categorically exposed as false.

2- In Afghanistan, the world’s strongest economic, political, and military power, has been defeated. The U.S. escape from Afghanistan cannot be compared to its escape from Vietnam, because it is far more disgraceful and has tarnished what remained of the reputation of the U.S. imperialists in the world. The U.S. imperialist forces have escaped so frantically that they were not able to take the American citizens with them, and Ashraf Ghani fled without being able to put his slippers on. This sudden and unexpected flight was unorganised, accompanied by panic, and was based only on hypotheses that the U.S.-installed puppet government in Kabul would be able to resist long enough to establish a transitional government and reconcile with the Taliban before ultimately implementing an orderly evacuation. The U.S. government, according to its constitution, must first and foremost guarantee the security and lives of its citizens. In this, the United States has fallen into ultimate disrepute. No manoeuvre, lie, or falsification of facts offered by the self-serving and pro U.S. camps in the Iranian opposition will succeed in mitigating the fall of their master.

The United States did not even have time to inform its allies of this sudden flight and only pulled its own forces out so that the citizens and servants of NATO imperialists and of non-NATO allies, such as Australia, would not get “stuck” in Afghanistan. This has led to tension within the United States governing body and between the United States and Europe and NATO. With the U.S. flight from Afghanistan, the foundation of NATO’s existence has been shaken and NATO‘s alliance is on the verge of collapse and NATO countries have realised that they cannot count on the United States as a stable friend and ally and a credible leader in times of crisis and must take their destiny into their own hands. While Italian Prime Minister Draghi has called for an immediate G20 summit in response to the crisis, NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg has called for an immediate convening of an extraordinary NATO conference.

3- A political earthquake has shaken the foundation of NATO countries. The lives of the citizens and of the allies are in danger. The governments of the NATO countries, in order to hide their blind obedience to their master, blame the United States for this deplorable situation, especially given the United States’ official confession that its aggression in and occupation of Afghanistan was only for its national interests and that it is withdrawing its forces because the continuation of the occupation no longer serves those interests. The Western media continues to report on these events as the greatest defeat of the West after the Second World War.

NATO military officials have reported that the United States has not even been able to withdraw its modern weapons, which are not useful to the Afghan army due to a lack of trained personnel.

Many state-of-the-art aircraft, U.S. combat helicopters, and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), which had been commanded from outside Afghanistan, have remained inside the country and have now fallen to the Taliban. This will do great damage to NATO’s defence and offensive capabilities.

4- It must be acknowledged that the Taliban, by waging an asymmetric and long-term war, were able to end the occupation of the country by the U.S. and NATO imperialist powers. Afghanistan is no longer an occupied and colonised country. Following the same tradition of struggle of the Afghan people, the graves of Western imperialists are being dug beside the graves of British colonialists and Russian social imperialist aggressors. Afghanistan has succeeded in major liberation from U.S. imperialism. This undeniable fact cannot be concealed by any hodgepodge of pro-imperialist, Iranian rumour-mongers. Even if they stage hundreds of protests to expose the crimes Taliban committed twenty years ago, they would still not be able to justify their silence on the occupation of Afghanistan, on the U.S. withdrawal from the country, and on the exposure of its lies about Afghanistan. These shows and political tactics will be short-lived, and those complicit in U.S. sanctions, aggression, and occupation will be disgraced in both Kabul and Tehran.

5- Before the invasion by the U.S., the Taliban was in power for five years, from 1996-2001. During their reign, they committed many horrific crimes especially against women. Some political forces attempt to point out retroactively how those crimes justify the invasion. They claim that it would have been better for the people of Afghanistan if the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan had continued. These forces are not happy about the defeat, and they do not want to analyse the true reasons for it. Instead, they resort to unhelpful constructions of history.

Solely putting fingers  on the Taliban’s  five-year rule especially in the southern and Pashto-speaking parts of Afghanistan, does not suffice to negate the great defeat that has taken place and to avoid a Marxist and scientific analysis of the situation.

To analyse the current situation in Afghanistan, one must look at these developments through a holistic lens and with a broad perspective, moving from the whole to the parts, with impartiality and from a worldview without prejudice, malice, or lies. We must see the forest and not only the trees.

Comprehensive and factual vision should be based on observation, experience, comparison, logical generalisation, the compilation and arrangement of facts, calculation, summarisation, and reality, and not on fantasies, internal desires, subjectivism, and the blatant manipulation of facts. Focusing on separate, scattered, unimportant, and ambiguous publicity stunts does not solve any problem in the current situation.

Social contradictions change as does the struggle against them. We have to consider this dialectical approach when we analyse events.  We cannot base our analysis on the outdated facts that may not express the truth for today. This is something that should be the criterion for our evaluation of the events. The arguments of some of individuals and revolutionary forces of Iran, who are not self-serving and have no complicity in imperialism and Zionism, is based on outdated facts and therefore do not express the current situation.

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) is the only serious Iranian political organisation that condemned the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, considered the occupation of the country a crime against humanity, and always called for the unconditional withdrawal of NATO imperialists from Afghanistan.  We are proud of our stance and of the validity of our revolutionary policies with regard to the people of Iran and Afghanistan.  We remain opposed to the aggression against Iran by imperialism and Zionism. Unlike our approach, all corrupt, deviant, and pro-Israeli Iranian opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran supported the invasion of Afghanistan, considered the imperialist forces civilised and modern, and are now shamefully unapologetic to the people of Afghanistan. This self-proclaimed Iranian opposition is complicit in imperialism and Zionism in Iran and Afghanistan and continues to cover up the crimes of the U.S. imperialists. Those complicit groups and individuals agree with the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iran, and by comparing the capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic in Iran to the Taliban in Kabul, they are trying to assist the U.S. in finding an excuse to attack Iran.

6- The defeat of the US and the West in Afghanistan is strategic and will have far-reaching and historic dimensions.

This catastrophic defeat comes at a time when newly emerged Chinese social imperialism is launching a massive economic and political invasion of the region and the world. Without war or overt military aggression, it is preparing to seize the strongholds of the Western imperialists one by one. In particular, the presence of China and its cooperation with Russia has upset the political and military equations of the world. These important political components can no longer be ignored in the analysis of world affairs. The balance of power in the international arena is about to change, and the decline of the oppressive and predatory imperialism of the world—as evidenced by the U.S. presence in and retreat from Afghanistan also—has begun.

The defeat of U.S. imperialism and its consequences in the region and in Afghanistan must be examined in the light of these decisive political realities. It is the deep, calm, and wide stream of water that determines the political current in the world, not the various, insignificant, tumultuous, and turbulent streams. All of these streams will eventually flow into the main river and into the sea. For scientific evaluation, the issues should be considered in this context and evaluated in the light of these developments. We have to see the whole storm and not just the breeze. 

– The U.S. escape from Afghanistan reminded the world that countries cannot be invaded and occupied forever. The day will come when the occupiers will be forced to leave in disgrace as a result of the inevitable struggle by the occupied.

– The defeat and flight of the United States in Afghanistan showed how fragile the imperialist forces are and illustrates its true status as a “paper tiger.”

– The U.S. escape from Afghanistan thwarted all of George W. Bush’s plans to establish a new order in the Middle East and to destabilise and disintegrate Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc.

– The U.S. escape from Afghanistan thwarted America’s grand plan to invade Iran with assistance from Israel. And now the spies, Iranian monarchists, pro-Israeli “leftist“ organisations, and all the others who wished for the U.S. to attack Iran, are left to mourn.

– The U.S. flight from Afghanistan disrupted the regional reactionary front, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Israel. We will see new developments in these countries in the future.

– The U.S. departure has brought Pakistan closer to China and Iran.

– The U.S. escape from Afghanistan has created a political vacuum that will be filled primarily by China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan in favour of the policies of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). China’s influence in Afghanistan will grow through large investments in Afghanistan’s precious and untapped reserves, and one of the stumbling blocks that the United States laid against the construction of the Silk Road will be removed.

– The U.S. departure reduces Saudi influence in Afghanistan.

– The flight of the United States will force the great country of India to refrain from relying on the promises of the United States and to peacefully reconsider its differences with China and Pakistan in the context of the current world situation.

 – The scandalous escape of the United States from Afghanistan is also in the interest of Iran. It reduces the risk of U.S. military aggression from the east of Iran, increases the good neighbourliness between Iran and Afghanistan—two countries with similar culture—and strengthens historical friendship and ties between the two nations. Of course, U.S. imperialists will try to disrupt the region by exporting ISIS, Wahhabis, Salafists and jihadists, and prevent the people of the region from finding peace and security in their countries.

The United States opposes peace and security in Afghanistan because creating chaos, intrigue, division, and incitement of ethnic and religious groups in Afghanistan against each other is a policy that U.S. and Israeli will benefit from. Tension in Afghanistan causes unrest on the borders of China, Central Asia, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan. This tension serves to counter the construction of the Silk Road through Afghanistan and Iran. Iran’s interests dictate that our people take a positive view of this disgraceful defeat of imperialism in the region, which will weaken the U.S., the world’s largest state terrorist. The Iranian people should rely on friendship with the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, establish economic and trade relations with Afghanistan, and crush the imposed U.S. imperialist sanctions on Iran.

Unfortunately, there are still those who, out of hatred for the terrible era of Taliban rule, turn a blind eye to the undeniable facts. Some do so with revolutionary sincerity while others have sold themselves to the enemies of the people of the region. Some evaluate the recent events in Afghanistan as a plot between the U.S. and the Taliban. To them, the U.S. flight in disgrace, the regrets, the apologies, the humiliating statements of the top leaders of European and Western governments, the success of the policies of China, and the presence of Russia and Iran in Afghanistan are all staged. These are delusions and poorly constructed rationalizations. It has long been said that a person who pretends to have fallen asleep cannot be awakened.

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)