Editorial: Afghanistan comes full circle

The heart-rending footage that went viral on Twitter was immediately juxtaposed alongside the image of the Falling Man, a photograph shot by AP cameraman Richard Drew who captured the last moments of a man in a free fall from the World Trade Centre during the September 11, 2011 attacks in New York City. The assumption is that the man fell, either searching for a safe haven or jumped off in an attempt to escape the smoke and fire. The 9/11 attacks in turn prompted the US to embark on its War on Terror, in pursuit of the mastermind of the terror strike Osama bin Laden, a former Mujahideen warrior who fought the Soviet Union, during its occupation of Afghanistan.

For those who might remember, it was National Geographic photojournalist Steve McCurry’s iconic picture of the Afghan Girl that had opened the eyes of the western world to the horrors of the Russian occupation in Afghanistan. Sadly, it seems like the Afghans had only escaped the frying pan and been thrown into the fire post the Soviet invasion as the US military occupied Afghanistan in 2001 with the goals of destroying Al-Qaeda and the militant group hosting it in the country - the Taliban. And now, the world of the Afghans seems to have come full circle in the most harrowing manner as the world bears witness to its people heading for the exits once again, giving rise to yet another humanitarian and refugee crisis rolled into one.

In many ways, the US’ War on Terror turned out to be the epoch-making event of the new millennium. It set the standards for everything from legislations about the surveillance of civilians, via the Patriot Act, to igniting the discourse on human rights violations and the right to dignity, when photographs from the Abu Ghraib detention centre were flashed across dailies globally. Of course, what this War also managed to do was reshape the political dynamics of the vulnerable regions in the Middle East, flinging nations such as Syria and Iraq into a quagmire of unprecedented turmoil where violence and bloodshed became a part and parcel of everyday lives, thanks to the emergence of various terror outfits such as ISIS, AQIM and others. For the current refugee crisis that we are witnessing around the world, from migrants landing up at the shores of the Greek island Lesbos by the thousands to hundreds of refugees being detained at the borders of wealthy European nations, a significant share of the blame of such tragedies lies at the door of the US.

Post the takeover of Kabul, US President Joe Biden is said to have announced the fresh deployment of US soldiers in Afghanistan, just days after a complete pull-out of forces from the battle-worn nation. As far as the US is concerned, any further military engagement with Afghanistan, might only lead to yet another plunge into a rabbit hole of unrest and uncertainty from which America might find it extremely hard to recover. For the rest of the world, it might be a moment to wait and watch as what we are witnessing in Afghanistan right now is nothing short of its 9/11 moment. Two decades since the fall of the twin towers, another apocalyptic takeover has transpired a world away. Only time can tell how dramatically the political history of the world will be written henceforth.