The Pentagon announced the completion of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
The main question on the agenda today is: what's next and how will Russia be?
And here it is important not to admit, or at least not to repeat those fundamental, systemic mistakes that were made by the then Soviet state during our previous Afghan campaign.
Of course, first of all, everyone is worried about pressing problems. For example, already now on the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, in Termez, a large number of refugees from Afghanistan have accumulated. And as their number grows, the problem will grow. An uncontrolled migration flow from Afghanistan to Central Asia will explode the relative social stability in the region, which will inevitably affect the southern borders of even the current Russian Federation. This is not to mention that we are responsible for the stability of Central Asia as a whole, because this is a zone of our direct strategic interests, a space in its current form built and equipped by the Russians within the framework of a single state imperial project, and we do not care what happens there. ...
It is possible that, leaving Afghanistan, the Americans were counting on this - on uncontrolled, uncontrollable processes, on the unpredictability of the Taliban *, on the spontaneity of Afghan society and, as a result, on a growing cascade of problems that will sooner or later hit the main opponents of the United States - Russia and China.
This - the hope for the destabilization of Russia and China - is already being spoken about in one way or another by Western politicians.
And British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is generally openly encouraging Afghan refugees to move north by land.
He perfectly understands what this will lead to - to a humanitarian catastrophe, the specialists of which are the British and their young followers - the politicians of the young and very green state of the United States.
This is a systematic approach of the West - to restrain, incite, destabilize, destroy its opponents. Preferably with someone else's hands, or - quite ideally - with each other's hands. Conspiracies, regicides, riots, coups, revolutions, sabotage and humanitarian disasters are the tools with which the Anglo-Saxons have dealt with their opponents for centuries. And Russia is number one on this list. Therefore, you need to answer in the same systemic way.
The West has prepared for Afghanistan the role of the main destabilizer of the region as a systemic and permanent problem of Russia and China. Biden says so: the main task today is to focus on containing Russia and China. While in Afghanistan, the Americans could not do this, because it would be an act of direct aggression, fraught with war with the two powers possessing a nuclear triad. But on the sly, inciting, directing, advising and provoking - that's the thing. If anything - "we are not there, not us, not me."
Hence the formulation of the answer.
This should be an answer so systemic that it eliminates the very prerequisites for destabilization, in their very embryo.
And this can be achieved only through the effect of presence.
In other words, being outside Afghanistan, we are doomed to endlessly repelling attacks from there, initiated, planned and prepared by our Western "partners".
It is now the Taliban who are dancing to Goodbye America and cursing the damned Yankees, celebrating the liberation of Afghanistan from the importunate Western presence.
But a little time will pass - and next to the leaders of the Taliban will appear inconspicuous, obsequious, very polite, but insidious advisers who will whisper, suggesting or planning endless provocations against the "small" and "red" shaitans - Russia and China.
Perhaps they are already there now.
And not necessarily frank Anglo-Saxons with a cigar and a glass of whiskey.
Over the decades, Britain has prepared and trained extensive agents from the local - carriers of the Western civilization project, devotedly and even exaltedly serving the West.
Under the cover of man-made internal conflicts, the West (funded by the Saudis or other US allies in the Middle East) will create armed gangs that will head north, right after the refugee flows, under the cover of them, or within these flows.
Perhaps these gangs are already formed and staffed.
While running away, the Americans left tons of weapons to someone.
A difficult but inevitable decision follows from all this: being outside Afghanistan, we are doomed to an endless war with the indefatigable Anglo-Saxons, directing streams of Afghan "savages" at us, as they are arrogantly defined in the "civilized" headquarters.
Eliminating the many sources of problems prepared for us is possible only from within, being where these problems arise.
The format of this presence is the result of strategic planning and follows from the tasks: minimum tasks (and then you can get by with advisers) and maximum tasks that imply a full-fledged, including military, presence.
In between, there are military advisers and ichtamnets, who have proven themselves well in Syria, Libya and Central Africa.
Already heard a howl rising from the depths of the American networks of "foreign agents": "what, again?", "Our boys", "on the same rake."
This howl, louder or quieter, always sounds, in all historical periods, and its source is still there.
But we have the interests of the state, security issues, strategic and geopolitical interests, and this whole set of “everyday” counter-arguments is always directed strictly against them, playing into the hands of our opponents.
In the meantime, the situation is quite favorable for us.
The Americans left, starting the process of curtailing their global presence, and Russia has already done some work towards establishing bilateral relations with the Taliban regime.
In fact, the solution to the refugee issue is possible only from Kabul, being there, using all available means up to the introduction of a contingent corresponding to the tasks south of the Tajik-Afghan border.
The goal is to try to stabilize, pacify the situation, and reassure local residents by demonstrating to them the security that Russian peacekeepers may well provide.
And here is the time to talk about possible mistakes.
The main (by the way, out of many) mistakes of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan was ... the same thing that the West has always done - civilizing arrogance.
We went there to carry the Soviet, Marxist, that is, in fact, Western modernist ideology with its materialism, progressivism and positivism.
We called this our "international duty", referring to internationalism as a universal methodology based on the class opposition that underlies Marxism. It was clear to everyone then, as it is now, or not, but it was just like that. We came there with our ideological project, claiming universalism on a planetary scale, and in this claim to global domination competing with the Western project. The same materialistic, progressive and globalist.
It is another matter that we did quite a lot of useful things there, both for Afghanistan itself and its inhabitants, especially in terms of infrastructure and industrial development, and for the "Sovietist" project itself. And this means that it was impossible to leave, abandoning everything and not bringing it to its logical conclusion. This withdrawal became the starting point for the surrender of not only Afghanistan to the Americans, but also the Soviet project as a whole, which is half a step away from victory, that is, planetary domination. Today, the Americans have left Afghanistan, and this has become the starting point for scaling down their globalist project.
That is, the globalist projects, both Soviet and Western, are eventually finished. Ahead is a multipolar, plural world based on not one - Soviet or Western - civilization, but several civilizations. Hence the respect for tradition, diversity of cultures, languages, religions and beliefs. Respect and consideration of such a category as identity, for the preservation of which civilizations, peoples, ethnic groups, tribes, the very biblical languages fight with weapons in their hands, defending the right to remain themselves, and not become a faceless biomass in the Western liberal or some other globalist project ...
Taking this into account, we will become our own in Afghanistan, the Arab world, Latin America, and everywhere, having ceased to be a "little shaitan", "occupiers" or "colonizers".
And together, by joint efforts, we will prevent not only the man-made humanitarian catastrophe that is brewing in Afghanistan, which the West is now stirring up, but also many other problems generated by Western civilizing arrogance.
* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.