No country has influenced history the way Afghanistan has. This landlocked country, right at the crossroads of Central and South Asia has been abrogated numerous times. It has stimulated the fall of prodigious and colossal superpowers that invaded it for their vested interests. From the British empire to the USSR and the US, Afghans have triumphed owing to their iron-clad resolve and faith in Allah. A country that was once regarded as a mere gateway has made history in the process.

Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The US, in a power hangover, went against the tides of history and became the latest superpower to invade Afghanistan for her own vested interests. A well planned media strategy was unleashed wherein Afghans were labelled as inhumane, extremist, fanatic and a threat to global peace. The US and all her allies went in as hungry wolves. The US ousted the Taliban and brought in a puppet government to further its designs. The US and its allies stayed for two decades. Millions of Afghans were killed, thousands sustained life-changing wounds, millions displaced, schools and hospitals bombed with impunity, thousands caged in barbaric jails in Bagram and Guantanamo and millions went through trauma. The Afghans were subjected to humiliation, disrespect and tortures. The Afghans experienced human rights abuses.

Alongside Afghanistan, Pakistan suffered massively due to the spillover from next door. Pakistan sustained over 80,000 casualties and a direct loss of over 152 billion dollars to the economy besides indirect losses. The reality is that Pakistan had nothing to do with the war next door. During 20 years, the US and her allies kept changing goalposts to prolong their stay to implement their larger designs. They poured trillions of dollars but could not evade inevitable defeat and humiliation. After 20 years’ struggle, the once ousted Taliban ousted the US and all its allies. Their efforts to inject their culture, way of life and system of government failed. The ongoing Afghan quagmire has many lessons to offer for wiser to remember. Thirteen significant ones are listed below:

Imposing a particular system of government on other states is impractical and illogical. All states and sets of people have a fundamental right to live the way they want. They have the right to elect their governments and cannot be subjugated by imported puppets. A country preserves its religion, faith and culture.

Money alone doesn’t make armies. The US spent over 100 billion dollars on raising a 300,000 plus Afghan National Army. Once confronted with a challenge, it simply ran away. An army needs an ideology, faith, resolve, respect, own-ness of masses and leadership to fight. Soldiers will never sacrifice their lives for something they don’t believe.

Corruption is cancerous to a state and society. It triggers misgovernance which degenerates attachment with state and society thus accelerating the rising of masses against government. The Afghan government of Karzai and Ghani did nothing for the masses other than plundering wealth with impunity.

History shuffles power every century. The crown of a superpower is always changing hands, and all super powers repeat the same mistakes more often and fade away. There are no permanent friends at the global level. Friendship hinges on common interests. There are no permanent allies but interests.

History reveals time and again that human rights, freedom of expression, women empowerment and other such notions are coercion tools designed to disparage weaker/targeted states. The mighty don’t care as millions in Afghanistan and weaker states have been treated as they are of cheaper blood, worse than animals and of a lesser God.

Yusuf Zaman
The writer is a student of law at Quaid-E-Azam University.