Lesson from Charlie Wilson’s War: The U.S. foreign policy paradox called Afghanistan
It was in the afternoon on August 15 when I watch the news that Taliban forces was encircled the Afghanistan capital, Kabul after successful offensive that was being launched since May 2021 against the Afghan government under President Ashraf Ghani. I followed the Afghanistan news for the next few hours until night and the channels that I watch was Sky News, Aljazeera, DW News English and CNN. Before I slept, the last news that I followed in Afghanistan was President Ghani and his government members are fleeing from Kabul to the Tajikistan (then to Uzbekistan and currently in United Arab Emirates) and Taliban was successfully to takeover the Arg Citadel (Afghan Presidential Palace) at night.
The next morning, I woke up and read all the headlines news that says Taliban is in power and Afghanistan government has collapsed. The headline news also follows the mass evacuation of U.S. citizen and personnel in Afghanistan through their embassy in Kabul and was taken through the helicopter which landed on embassy ground and rooftop before they gonna departed from Hamid Karzai International Airport. When I saw the video of the evacuation on U.S. Embassy rooftop, I was reminded by the same event on April 30, 1975 when U.S. military are evacuating their embassy personnel along with South Vietnamese refugees who were trying to escape from the advancement of North Vietnamese military in South Vietnam capital, Saigon which at that time has already fallen including the collapse of South Vietnamese government. The Marine Corps soldiers are trying to defend the U.S. Embassy in Saigon against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attack. The event known as the Fall of Saigon and it was remembered as the shameful day in U.S. history and also concluded the Vietnam War saga which was started in 1955.
There is a saying that “history is always be repeated” and now we are witnessing the Fall of Saigon in the 21st century and this time it was in the South Asian country called Afghanistan. Probably, August 15, 2021 will be remembered as the second shameful day in U.S. history after Fall of Saigon and this time the event will be known as the Fall of Kabul. Soon after the Taliban takeover on Kabul, the U.S. government under President Joe Biden was criticized and blamed by the members of Congress and the Afghan diaspora who lived in the U.S. and other countries because of the decision of military withdrawal from Afghanistan without calculated decision in the midst of Taliban offensive. But the White House also blaming to the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of his incapability to address the crisis and halting the Taliban takeover before they reached Kabul.
There is no need to blame each other because all the stakeholders who involved in Afghanistan issue are the one who should be blamed. The U.S. government, Afghan government and Taliban are the stakeholders that needs to be blamed by the international community. These stakeholders, specifically the United States, are the major player in order to create the situation in Afghanistan become more complicated and making that country were never in peace. However, in order to understand the root of all the problems in Afghanistan, we must look to the national history of Afghanistan, especially around 1978 and 1979 when Soviet Union was launched an invasion of Afghanistan.
However, in order to giving a more understanding regarding the Afghan history, I’m gonna give you the simple explanation through the movie recommendation. When the news about Taliban’s successful takeover on Kabul is broadcasted, I was remember about the movie that I used to be watch and it had a relevance with the current situation of Afghanistan. The movie is Charlie Wilson’s War which was released on 2007 and directed by Mike Nichols and starring by Tom Hanks (my favorite actor), Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty and John Slattery. The movie tells about the efforts of U.S. Congressman Charles “Charlie” Wilson from Texas 2nd Congressional District and CIA officer Gust Avrakotos who were trying to persuaded the U.S. Congress and the government — who at the time under President Ronald Reagan — to gave support to the Afghan mujahideen and helping them to repel the Soviet forces out of Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan issue was not become a concern by Congressman Wilson until he was approached by Texas public figure and businesswoman, Joanne Herring who were visited the Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan before Wilson and probably she was being briefed about the situation from Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Then, Congressman Wilson becomes more concerned about the Afghanistan affairs after seeing the horror from the Afghan refugee camp during his visit in Pakistan. Since then, Congressman Wilson was inspired to rally a support to get more funding for Afghan mujahideen with better equipment and training from CIA to fight the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The United States support for Afghan mujahideen is also supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, especially Israel and Egypt who had the largest stockpile of Soviet armories which was used to armed the mujahideen. This CIA operation was known as the Operation Cyclone and it was recorded as the most expensive covert operation ever conducted by the United States with estimated amount 2 million U.S. dollar, according to the Guinness World Records.
However, after the Afghan mujahideen was successfully repel the Soviet forces and withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989, CIA officer Gust Avrakotos gave a warning to the Congressman Wilson that the Afghanistan should be given the development aid, build the roads, transition to democracy, established schools to educate Afghan children’s before they being influenced by emerged radical groups which known today as the Taliban. Congressman Wilson appealed to the Congress and asked to the government to continue the foreign aid to the Afghanistan in order to keep away the radical groups before they gonna starting to recruit the young Afghan generation. But the U.S. government was not give any attention or response regarding Congressman Wilson warning and he was worrying that government ignorance will bring a blowback to the United States. And it did. It did happen. It did happen with 9/11 attacks in 2001 and that moment changes the landscape of international relations and geopolitical structures.
From what I can see from the Charlie Wilson’s War is the reminder and warning to us and especially to the government that one day the blowback of their policy gonna happen if they ignored the warning in the first place. Just as same like Congressman Charlie Wilson who passed the warning to the U.S. government that Afghanistan issue is not finished along with Soviet withdrawal, but it must be continued and focusing on nations-building program which it should be in the top priority for U.S. foreign policy if they want to aiding Afghanistan. However, as it turns out, the same Afghan mujahideen that was supported by U.S. during Soviet-Afghan War, was emerged and began their insurgencies in Afghanistan which led to the Afghan Civil War from 1992 until 1996 and we know them today as Taliban. Another group that emerged from mujahideen known as the Al-Qaeda, began their terrorism attack to another countries such as 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Tanzania, 9/11 attack in New York, and 2002 Bali bombings which makes the United States take a tough stance on their foreign policy regarding the terrorist attack and designated Al-Qaeda and Taliban as the terrorist groups.
And since 9/11, the United States was began to eradicated terrorist groups in Middle East and especially Afghanistan in order to prevent another attack on U.S. soil. This situation was also creating United States to become a “world police” in the Global War on Terrorism and asking the participation of international community to go to war against terrorism. However, as it turns out when U.S. setting its foot in Afghanistan, everything become more complicated as the U.S. was trying to get more knowledge about their culture, history, politics and the rife between several ethnics such as Tajiks, Pashtuns, Dari, Persian, Pakistani and others. The U.S. was trying to established the democracy in Afghanistan and it was successful for a moment until this year. Afghanistan was enjoying the democracy and its freedom life under first-elected president, Hamid Karzai, who began to established schools for young children, allowing woman to work and participate in politics, build a infrastructures such as road, electricity, communication, internet although the national security affairs were fall under NATO-coalition forces with the United States as the main support for Afghan National Forces.
However, the stability was not lasted long until Taliban began their attacks which was started in 2002. As matter of fact, the U.S. was acted too late in order to give the aid to Afghanistan. They should be giving the aid after the Soviet-Afghan War was ended and the Afghanistan could withstand against emerging radical groups such as Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Haqqani network and others. They should aiding to established the democratic government in Afghanistan and invite all ethnics to join in the government and rebuild the country. If the U.S. government doesn’t diverted their attention from the Gulf War, probably we’re not gonna facing a Global War on Terrorism or ISIS, Taliban, Al-Qaeda. 9/11 could be prevented. Other terrorist attacks to the Western countries could be prevented earlier before it happens.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of Kabul is the “coup de grace” in the Afghanistan affairs saga which it proves of how the U.S. missed the warning and not realize that they creating their own monsters and now it becomes a blowback for the U.S. government and President Joe Biden becomes the “Most Hateful Person of the Year” which previously held by 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. The Republican Party in U.S. Congress blames the withdrawal from Afghanistan to the Biden while Democratic Party is responded by blaming it to the President Donald Trump. However, both parties in Congress and the White House under President Biden is missed the big picture in here. If they want to find somebody to blame for the Afghanistan problem, then they must blaming it to the presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and including Joe Biden.
All the U.S. presidents since Carter until Biden had their own mistakes regarding the Afghanistan affairs and it is not surprising because they had or at least had foresee the impact that they’re gonna bring in Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson’s War movie becomes a prophecy in 2021 regarding the Afghanistan issue. The policymakers especially either in the Pentagon, Congress, State Department including the White House should see the Charlie Wilson’s War to become a reminder that they miss the warning from Congressman Charlie Wilson and CIA officer Gust Avrakotos. The movie itself becomes the “writing’s on the wall” for U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan for almost 42 years since Operation Cyclone was launched. The Afghanistan Saga is created not directly by the U.S. government without their knowledge and it becomes a paradox for their foreign policy.
Now, the Afghanistan is under Taliban and what should the international community do and the United States do? The U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan is a fiasco, just same with the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1962. But, there is a chances that either the international community and the United States can solved the Afghanistan problem. I was watching the video in YouTube from TED Talks and one of the TED Talks videos is presented by former British politician, Rory Stewart who was talking about the Afghanistan. As it turns out, Rory Stewart gave a solution to handle the Afghanistan matters and the one that I catch is this: to understanding about Afghanistan problems, we had to relying the people who were understand on their culture, social, political system, ethnic problems which I sum it up as the person who understanding the geopolitical of Afghanistan.
If the foreign countries who were stationed in Afghanistan are trying to help the Afghans either their government or their people to support their nation-building program, they must understand the geopolitical situation in that country and they can relying it through the person who understand that country such as a diplomat, NGO workers, scholars or etc. If they can counting them in the effort to establish a democratic Afghanistan, then I believe the Afghanistan situation will be much more improved and insurgencies or terrorist attacks can be prevented by the Afghan peoples themselves. Rory Stewart also added that the United States and other foreign power in Afghanistan should look to the successful country such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo who was in the same condition like Afghanistan during Bosnian War and Kosovo War in mid-1990s, but with the efforts to understanding the geopolitical situation and open the support from local people and country experts and also including the role of United Nations being strengthened, then Afghanistan could be back in stability.
Well, this is just my Thoughts from the Closet.
