After a 20-year war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, the humiliation of the Taliban’s lightning takeover of Afghanistan raises the question of America’s most steadfast European allies: Does the United States really return as President Joe Biden promised?
Only 20 years after the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, Britain feared that the return of the Taliban and the vacuum left by the chaotic retreat of the West would allow Al-Qaida and Islamic State militants to gain a foothold in Afghanistan.
The British Defense Minister Ben Wallace regarded the Doha withdrawal agreement reached by the US President Donald Trump’s administration in 2020 as a “bad agreement.” Wallace said that Biden’s decision to leave Afghanistan was a mistake, allowing the Taliban to return to power.
Such doubts and emotions—Wallace almost shed tears in an interview—are rare for Washington’s closest European allies. Since World War II, the United States has been in almost all major conflicts except Vietnam. They are all on the side of the United States.
After the turmoil in Trump’s presidency, Biden has repeatedly promised that “America is back.” Some British diplomats questioned not only this assessment, but also its impact on long-term national security.
“Is the United States back or has it withdrawn?” said a British official who asked not to be named. “It looks like Americans are going home in a Trump-style way-rush, chaos, and humiliation.”
Western security sources worry that Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda, was harboured by the Taliban before 9/11 and may regain a foothold in Afghanistan within a few months. They say this situation threatens Britain and the wider West.
British diplomats compared the extent of the West’s humiliation to the fall of Saigon that ended the Vietnam War in 1975, or to the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. This was a strategic error and confirmed the loss of British imperial power.
A photo of a helicopter evacuating diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was compared with a 1975 photo showing a helicopter taking the diplomat from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.
After my grandfather was released from the concentration camp where he was detained, after the fall of Saigon, my mother and grandparents escaped. I feel sympathy for the Afghan people and the fighting armed forces. I hope we will never experience the fear of losing our home. pic.twitter.com/hta3CFYIA4
-Azte Cross (@Aztecross) August 16, 2021
SecondRace?
Biden has repeatedly argued that unless the Afghan army can control its own country, the continued US military presence in Afghanistan will not significantly change the situation.
But British diplomats said that the defeat in Afghanistan would weaken the position of the West in the world, gather jihadists everywhere, and strengthen the argument of Russia and China that the United States and its allies lack courage and endurance.
“We have to be clear about this: this is a shameful moment for the West,” said Mark Seidwell, the UK’s most senior civil servant and national security adviser under the leadership of former Prime Minister Theresa May.
Some British veterans questioned their own sacrifices. Some people talked about a feeling of betrayal. Some people say that their comrade-in-arms died in vain.
“Is it worth it? Maybe not. Did I lose my legs for nothing? It looks like this. Did my buddies die for nothing. Yes,” said former British soldier Jack Cummings. He lost his legs while searching for an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan on August 14, 2010.
Cummings said: “There are many emotions flashing in my mind-anger, betrayal sadness, etc.”
The United Kingdom is one of the few countries that is ready to fight the hardest with American soldiers in Afghanistan, such as in Helmand, which is considered the most dangerous southern province of the country.
Since 2001, Britain has lost 457 armed forces personnel in Afghanistan, accounting for 13% of the 3,500 deaths in the international military alliance.
The Brown University war cost project estimates that 241,000 people died directly as a result of the war. Brown estimates that the war in Afghanistan cost the United States $2.26 trillion.
secondAigon or Suez?
British diplomats regarded the Doha agreement reached during Trump’s presidency in February 2020 and Biden’s April withdrawal as a surrender, which destroyed morale in Afghanistan.
Trump said his withdrawal plan was undermined by Biden. “The Taliban no longer fear or respect the United States or American power,” he said in a statement.
The British Empire suffered humiliation in Afghanistan during the Anglo-Arab War from 1839 to 1842, but after the Al Qaeda attack on September 11, then Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban .
Fast forward 20 years: The Taliban are back in power.
“The fall of Kabul is the biggest foreign policy disaster since the Suez Canal,” said Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament.
“It reveals the nature of American power and our inability to maintain an independent line,” said Tugendhat, a British soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “As Kabul has shown, we need our allies to stand with us.”
