Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

THE quick collapse of the Afghanistan Government and the comeback of the Taliban have surely offered a lot of lessons for the world to learn.

I think one important lesson is that without the support of its people, no regime can last long. The Afghan Government led by former President Ashraf Ghani has demonstrated its weakness, incompetence and total reliance on the United States. Without the support of the Afghan people, its regime fell apart in only 10 days under the attack of the Taliban. Ghani fled his homeland to a third country, later known to be the United Arab Emirates, on Aug. 15. Ghani said on Facebook that he left to avert bloodshed in the capital.

Following two decades of a vain attempt to build a Western-style democracy, an incredible expenditure of US$2 trillion and the sacrifice of thousands of U.S. soldiers, this was also a debacle for the United States, a superpower which is always trying to intervene and meddle in the business of other countries. No matter U.S. allies, partners or enemies, the whole world was astonished by the debacle caused by the hasty military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

It seems that today’s Western countries lack sagacious and far-sighted leaders such as Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, who had inspired and led the world out of the mire of World War II. When Churchill was 25, he cried for freedom. Twenty-five years later, he changed his mind and said that self-discipline was important. After another 25 years, when he was 75, he said self-discipline brings freedom.

While hailing for freedom verbally, today’s Western leaders know little about self-discipline, but are good at abusing power and shirking responsibilities. Their action is even less than graceful. For example, former U.S. President Donald Trump was quick to take advantage of the so-called “Biden’s Saigon” (signifying the U.S. interference failure and military retreat from Saigon, Vietnam in 1975) this time in Afghanistan, mocked Biden to be incapable and foolish, and even called for his successor’s resignation.

It is reported that Chinese and Russian embassies are still operating in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, with all staff at their posts and keeping close contact with their citizens who are still in Afghanistan. Almost all Western countries have evacuated their ambassadors and diplomatic staff, but since the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul on Aug. 15, the militant group has so far not killed any civilians in the city. However, video footages have shown that Afghans flooded onto the tarmac seeking to board commercial flights and U.S. soldiers stationed in the international airport shot several Afghan people to death in order to enable the evacuation of U.S. officials first. Some other Afghan people were also killed, either being crushed by or falling from the planes when they took off.

As for the Taliban, today’s Taliban may be different from what they were. Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, said the Taliban do not want to harm others, do not want to live in isolation, and call for a peaceful power transfer and international relations. The Taliban also pledged they would hold talks aimed at forming an open, inclusive Islamic government and take responsible actions to ensure the safety of Afghan citizens and the foreign diplomatic corps. They also promised amnesty, as their leaders are trying to show a different and positive image to the world.

Nevertheless, over the past four decades, Afghanistan has been suffering from great damages, including those from the armed intervention by the United States. No matter which organization will take power in Afghanistan, its future government is faced with daunting challenge of reconstruction of the war-torn land. The new Afghan regime should also draw a clear line from terrorist groups as soon as possible and crack down on all kinds of terrorist forces, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, so as to avoid wars and humanitarian disasters, ensure the legitimate rights of its citizens (especially women and children), and win people’s hearts, international recognition and global support.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)