Kaboom in Kabul
There has been wailing and finger-pointing about the overnight collapse of the Afghan "Security Force" (and I use that term loosely). And there should be. The United States spent countless billions of dollars on the puppet Afghan army. President Biden estimated there were some 300,000 Afghan soldiers -- equipped with the latest weapons -- arrayed against some 75,000 Taliban fighters. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently predicted the Afghan army would stand and fight for at least months. But it only took hours for the mighty security force to dissolve, in many cases without firing a single shot. But here's the bigger question: why did U.S. military intelligence get Afghanistan so wrong? ("Military intelligence" -- a classic oxymoron.)
The CIA has been at the heart of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan for 20 years. When the agency wasn't droning wedding parties and other wrong targets (and creating more Taliban supporters), what the hell were its spooks doing with the billions that U.S. taxpayers shower on them every year? The Pentagon spent billions more on "intelligence" in the permanent war zone. And yet top generals -- like Milley -- were also shocked by the instant disintegration of their expensive puppet fighting force.
The American Empire has become a big, stupid, ineffectual beast. And we are paying a fortune for it -- you, me and millions of other U.S. taxpayers. Even if you believed in imperialism (and most Americans, when forced to think about it, don't), you would have to conclude that you're no longer getting the bang for your buck. The empire can't shoot straight. Hell, it can't even think straight.
We all know why the American Empire still lumbers on in the Middle East. It has to do with fossil fuel deposits and our strategic relations with Saudi Arabia and Israel. But the endless wars in this region have only created more failed states and pushed the world closer to the nuclear apocalypse and climate collapse.
After the gruesome murder of George Floyd, "defund the police" became the battle cry of millions of Americans enraged and frustrated by the systemic official violence directed at citizens of color. After "losing" Afghanistan, "defund the empire" must become a new battle cry. The treasure we spend each year on the Pentagon and CIA is taxpayer money down the drain. Let's direct a big slice of that "security" budget to urgent programs that will truly make us safer -- like global warming reduction, disaster preparedness, public health, gun control, clean drinking water, tuition-free education, etc.
Martin Luther King Jr. understood this decades ago. Massive spending on the instruments of death is killing our national soul. America can't be both Empire and Democracy. If we didn't learn that lesson from ancient Athens -- or from Vietnam -- we need to finally learn it now.
General Mark Milley