Exactly 20 years ago, the USA invaded Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting international terrorism. The tried to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, then the head of al-Qaeda, who was wanted for his involvement in the 9-11 attacks. In the process the USA also overthrew the Taliban, an extreme conservative Muslim organisation that was ruling the country.
Ever since then, the USA had thousands of troops on the ground in active combat. It has been estimated that the war cost the USA 2 trillion US Dollars, which is the equivalent of 100 times Afghanistan’s GDP of 2019. Now, 20 years later, the US abruptly withdrew from their longest war in history, just to give the country back to the Taliban. It is astonishing, that all that effort lead to nothing. But it is not without precedence. The Vietnam war also only served as the backdrop for countless brutal and horrific movie scripts, it served nothing else. When the USA withdrew, they left a country in ruins and countless American families grieving their lost sons.
This doesn’t only highlight that the USA is incapable of leading a war, but that they have a misjudged attitude towards international policy making. They are supposed to be the leaders of the free world. They are supposed to encourage the spread of liberal ideas, such as the principle that everyone is equal before the law, that everyone should have the freedom of speech, enjoy a free press, be able practice the religion of their choice and be able to work in a free market economy. Women must enjoy the same privileges as men, and children must be protected and not prayed upon. If need be, the USA must step in to defend those principles. That can not be done with bullets and rockets, but by conquering the heart and minds.