The British magazine The Economist said that the United States, which fought a two-decade war in Afghanistan that cost more than two trillion dollars and the lives of thousands of its soldiers, as well as the deaths of tens of thousands of Afghans - both military and civilians - is now calling for an end to this "adventure." unfortunate” the whole without having almost anything to be proud of.
The magazine emphasized that it may already be true that al-Qaeda, which sparked the war by planning the September 11 attacks, is no longer a major force in this country, although it has not been completely eliminated, but other terrorist groups hostile to America - including a branch of The Islamic State group continues to operate there, and the Taliban militants who once harbored Osama bin Laden have recently launched a "horrific return" to the scene.
corrupt government
The movement's fighters - the magazine adds - are now in complete control of about half of the country and threaten to occupy the rest, while the pro-Western Afghan government, which has survived on a lot of American blood and money, is a corrupt and widely hated government and in continuous retreat.
The Economist asserts that, in theory, both the Taliban and the Western-backed Afghan government are on a negotiating path toward a peace deal in which the insurgents lay down their arms and instead participate in a redesigned political system.
In a best-case scenario, strong US financial and military support for the government (in the form of sustained air strikes on the Taliban), combined with massive pressure on the movement's friends such as Pakistan, could produce some form of power-sharing agreement.
But even if this happened, despite the fact that the chances of it happening are slim - the magazine adds - the Afghan scene will be a frustrating scene, as the Taliban will insist on going back and imposing what the magazine called its "brutal religious authority" as it did during its previous rule, where women were confined in homes Girls were banned from schools and harsh punishments were imposed on people for trivial reasons.
overthrow the government
In fact, the most likely scenario is that the movement tries to exploit its field victories to try to overthrow the government by force, as its fighters managed in the recent period to actually control many rural areas, while the government forces’ control was mostly limited to cities and towns.
The latter has also begun to abandon its positions. This week, more than a thousand Afghan soldiers fled from the northeastern Badakhshan province to neighboring Tajikistan.
Although the movement has not succeeded so far in seizing any Afghan city and imposing its control over it, and it may actually lack the manpower needed to do so in many areas at once, it may prefer - according to the magazine - to slowly strangle the Afghan government instead of attacking it face to face. It is clear that the momentum of field developments is in its favour.