US invasion force leaves as Taliban enter Kabul

Written by: Maoist Communist Party of Afghanistan on 16 August 2021

We are repinting below a statement of the Communist Party of Afghanistan (Maoist).  It was released last March in the wake of President Biden's decision on the withdrawal of US troops. Many of its predictions are coming true as we witness the collapse of the puppet regime and the advance of the Taliban. 

Statement of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan on the announcement of the withdrawal of the American occupying forces from Afghanistan

On April 13 Joe Biden the president of the United States announced that he is “ending the longest war of America’s history” by withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan by September 11 this year.

Choosing 11 September as the date for the withdrawal of the US troops is an attempt by the Biden administration to reinforce this lie that the objective of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was the fight against terrorism. Biden stated: “We went to war with clear goals.  We achieved those objectives.  Bin Laden is dead, and al Qaeda is degraded in Iraq — and in Afghanistan.” However, the truth is the US imperialists have failed in their objectives in Afghanistan.

The war in Afghanistan was started for implementing “the project for new American century,” a plan to prevent the decline of American supremacy through military means. This plan was devised by the neoconservatives in the Bush administration to prevent the decline of American hegemony through warmongering, invasion, and occupation of the imperialist-dominated countries. This strategy also became known as the “Bush doctrine,” which allows for the US “preventive” military actions. Although, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan were conducted under the label of war on terrorism after September 11, however, in reality, the invasion of Afghanistan was the implementation of Bush doctrine, whose objective was strengthening the world domination of the American imperialism, to build a unipolar world through military aggression and aggression against the occupied countries. The perpetrators of this plan were talking of an “endless war” from the very beginning. This strategy began with the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and continued with the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump not only continued the "Bush doctrine" and the “endless war" policy but also expanded the US aggression to other West Asian and African countries. Now, although the US is withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, the United States is not seeking an end to "endless warfare.” Joe Biden stated: “At my direction, my team is refining our national strategy to monitor and disrupt significant terrorist threats not only in Afghanistan, but anywhere they may arise — and they’re in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere” Thus, the war and aggression that started by the neo-conservatives under the Bush administration under the name of “War on Terror" will continue to be waged by the Biden administration. Therefore, the claim that the United States has achieved its "specific goals" in Afghanistan is nothing more than a lie. Apparently, one of these "specific goals" was to eliminate Islamist terrorists in Afghanistan, the forces that previously the US imperialists had created supported and equipped in the region. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan not only did not destroy these forces but also increased the scope for their activities and ideology. For this reason, in addition to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, ISIS is now active in Afghanistan.

Another "specific goal" was to establish a puppet regime to protect imperialist interests in Afghanistan. In this regard, the United States has borne the cost of forming and advancing a puppet government. But this puppet regime, after twenty years of efforts, still lacks legitimacy and political cohesion and is on the verge of collapse. This regime consists of bourgeois-comprador and semi-feudal political forces that agree only on national treason and serfdom to imperialism. These forces are divided into two groups, which have existed since the beginning of the puppet regime. The dominant faction within the regime wants a presidential system, that is, to maintain the current structure. But the opposition, especially the Jamiat-e-Islami party, wants a restructuring to a decentralized system in which executive power is divided between the president and a prime minister. This split within the regime is an important factor of its current incohesion and could play as a factor in its eventual collapse; for this reason, many are worried about the onset and intensity of the "civil war" in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden, visiting the graves of slain soldiers in Afghanistan, stated with colonial arrogance: “From the very beginning, you may recall, I never thought we were there to somehow unify . . . Afghanistan” This is another lie that the leaders of American imperialism are telling to deflect their destructive role in Afghanistan over the past four decades. American leaders pretend that the current social crisis, war, and reactionary violence, and the rise of fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan, including the Taliban and ISIS, have nothing to do with the US aggression or imperialist policies. Although, the forty-year crisis in Afghanistan at every stage has been a reflection of the contradictions and crises of the imperialist and social-imperialist capitalist system. This crisis began with the aggression and occupation of Soviet social imperialism and intensified with the rise of fundamentalist forces and the direct aggression and occupation of US imperialism and its allies. Now twenty years of war and occupation have intensified the scope of this social, political, and economic crisis and has increased class division to an unprecedented level. The bourgeoisie-bureaucratic comprador, which controls the helms of the puppet regime, literally uses this institution as a jirga to divide the spoils and plunder. But the masses, the working classes, the peasantry, and the petty bourgeoisie are in the worst possible condition, suffering from poverty and the continuation of war and violence. In the last two decades, Afghanistan has always been at the top of the most corrupt countries in the world, because national traitors and the reactionary forces controlling the puppet regime is only after capital accumulation by plundering imperialist aid and plundering the commons and the properties of the masses.

The Taliban have not yet clearly outlined their preferred political system. The former political system of the Taliban, under the name of the Islamic Emirate, was an authoritarian and theocratic regime headed by a mullah as Amir al-Mu'minin. But the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate system does not have support within the country and also does not the blessing of regional and international powers, and this is clear to the Taliban leadership.  Russia, China, India, Iran, and even Pakistan do not want the Islamic Emirate to return to power. That is why the Taliban intensification of war is more for making gains in the peace talks. Now they are demanding the release of the group's prisoners and the removal of the Taliban leadership from the UN’s blacklist. If these demands are met, the Taliban will likely participate in the next rounds of negotiations.

Although the US imperialists have pledged to fund and support their puppet regime in the future, the withdrawal of the occupying forces, if implemented, could shift the military balance in favor of the Taliban. In the past Taliban had managed to seize districts and provincial capitals even when the puppet regime had the aerial support of the occupying powers. Therefore, it is predictable that after the withdrawal of the occupying forces, the Taliban will enter the battlefield with a stronger spirit.

The US imperialism is now hoping for an UN-led diplomatic effort to preserve its puppet regime which cost them $ 2 trillion to build. But the experience of a decade of diplomatic efforts for peace has shown that it is only good for intensifying war. Although US imperialism is likely to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, this does not mean the end of the US imperialist domination in Afghanistan and this also does not mean a Taliban victory. In case the diplomatic efforts are successful, and the Taliban are eventually integrated with the puppet regime, and it is the Taliban that is capitulating to the puppet regime and imperialism while the colonial situation of Afghanistan is continuing. The puppet regime's political, security, and military institutions would be reliant on the US imperialist support, and the security pacts between the US and the puppet regime will continue to maintain the dominance of imperialism over the country, and the puppet regime would be reliant on the support of its masters, and the US imperialists and its allies who have pledged to continue providing financial and weapons assistance to the puppet regime.

Biden unlike Trump has involved more countries in the affairs of Afghanistan and has achieved partial agreements from Russia and China, which could accelerate the process of compromise between the regime and the Taliban. Thus, if the efforts of the countries involved, Turkey, Qatar, and Pakistan, together with the United Nations, succeed, the Taliban will participate in the "peace process" meetings and the puppet regime will be reorganized by merging the Taliban within its ranks. The emerging government from the compromise will again represent the feudal-bourgeois-comprador class. While it will also increase the theocratic, national, and gender chauvinist aspects of the current regime. The Taliban have the same class base as the forces within the puppet regime. The Taliban, like the Mujahideen, had in the past been equipped and armed by US imperialism and its allies. In a government resulting from the combination of these reactionary and treacherous forces, the masses will be further under the yoke of class exploitation and double social oppression, and the accumulation of capital will continue with the plundering of the commons and at the cost of the pauperization of the masses. Therefore, it is clear that this process of reconciliation and collusion under the name of peace has nothing to do with real peace and in the country. The only real solution is a new democratic revolution with a socialist orientation; a new democratic revolution will make Afghanistan the base of the world revolution, or Afghanistan will remain the center of the world crisis, the hotbed of imperialists, and the center of activity of fundamentalist forces such as the Taliban, ISIS, and al-Qaeda. No doubt the situation is fast-changing, the changing circumstances have created new challenges and new opportunities for us, we should dare to face the new challenges and the new opportunities in the changing new circumstances and utilize them in enhancing the revolutionary path.

Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan

March 2021

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