Silencing Afghanistan’s women

September 12, 2024

ISLAMABAD – This week, the Republican Party came up with its own report regarding the issue, pinning the blame squarely on the Biden administration for the botched American pullout, following Donald Trump’s withdrawal deal. The report alleges: “The administration’s unconditional surrender and the abandonment of our Afghan allies, who fought alongside the US military against the Taliban — their brothers in arms — is a stain on this administration.”

Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, chair of the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he would use all tools at his disposal to make sure that the Biden administration would be held accountable for “the catastrophic failure of epic proportions their decisions caused”.

As is always the case with matters related to Afghanistan, the assertion is a self-serving one, motivated less by any actual concern for Afghanistan than by a desire and an attempt to come up with material with which to jab the ascending star of the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. In truth, both sides, the Democrats and the Republicans, are equally to blame; both had the power to change things and chose not to. There was always bipartisan support for propping up the always flailing and utterly corrupt Afghan governments that ruled from Kabul.

Both sides knew about the hundreds of millions of dollars that had been sunk into development projects and that were supposed to win ‘hearts and minds’ but that really only padded the pockets of various American contracting companies. Afghanistan remained the underdeveloped hinterland beyond the immediate reaches of Kabul, warlords were paid off to maintain the appearance of some semblance of control and there