CHOMSKY: COLLAPSE OF AFGHAN GOVERNMENT, VICTORY FOR TALIBAN NOT SURPRISING
‘We should not assume Afghanistan will become haven for terrorists’
Noam Chomsky — legendary American historian, political activist, and founder of modern linguistics — believes that the most basic reason for US failure in Afghanistan was America’s intelligence information, which is rarely accurate. One of the most influential public intellectuals in the world with over 100 published books, he shared with Gulf News his views on some of the most pressing current global issues.
In an interview in early 2021 when Chomsky was asked about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, he had predicted the pullout would cause the fall of the Afghan army and the government. The 92-year-old’s predictions would turn out to be accurate.
I contacted Chomsky to gain his insights on the ongoing events in Afghanistan and his predictions for the future of the war torn country.
During our Zoom interview, Chomsky shed light on why the fall of Afghanistan was inevitable, argued why he does not believe the Taliban would allow extremist groups to spread their influence in Afghanistan and passionately stressed the importance of collaboration between China, Russia and the US to help Afghanistan recover from its humanitarian and economic crises.
Collapse of Afghan army
We kicked off the interview with why the US administration proved to be so wrong on the consequences of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, with President Joe Biden rejecting the inevitability of a Taliban takeover in a press conference as late as July 2021.
“The basic problem is one that is familiar, in other circumstances; Vietnam, Iraq. The executive branch of the government is burdened by intelligence information which is rarely accurate. The people on the ground know what’s happening but as the information filters up to the top it gets modified to what people want to hear and they literally don’t know what’s happening. We saw that over and over again. If you are not burdened by intelligence and you are just looking at the facts it was pretty plain what was going to happen,” said Chomsky. He pointed to the Afghans’ lack of support for their government as well as flaws in the army’s methods and numbers as clear indicators of the unavoidable outcome. “The army was largely on paper, about half of it wasn’t even there. Others were trained on the American military model where you rely on air power to prevent soldiers from entering into combat. You are not going to win a guerrilla war that way.”
Vietnam comparison
In 2001 they (Taliban) did keep Bin Laden as part of the tribal culture. They didn’t want him around, he was a nuisance.
Noam Chomsky | Historian
With Vietnam, he highlighted the disconnect between the US generals who were advising Washington they had “won the war and it was all over” only for the Tet Offensive, a coordinated series of North Vietnamese surprise attacks in South Vietnam, to occur several weeks later in Jan 1968. The South Vietnamese were well equipped with an army of 700,000 soldiers, trained by the US. The US and South Vietnamese managed to hold off the attacks but North Vietnam scored a strategic win and the event marked a major turning point in the war.
Iraq comparison
Take Iraq, the Iraqi army that the US had created had about 350,000 well armed soldiers according to the statistics. Eight hundred Daesh extremists, “coming in pickup trucks, waving rifles. Iraqi army disappeared. It happens over and over again and you never learn from it,” Chomsky said.
Potential Afghan ‘civil war’
“Whatever the policy should be, it should be determined by Afghans. They are the ones who are going to have to live with the situation. They should be brought actively into the arrangements.”
He delved into history again for a reminder that over 20 years ago, the anti-Taliban resistance inside the country was opposed to the US invasion. The invasion, when it came, resulted in growth of support for the Taliban.
“The people who were at the wrong end of the bombs, they often know what’s happening. So right away the most respected of the anti-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan, Abdul Haq, had an interview, he was asked about the invasion, he was bitterly opposed to it. He said the invasion will just kill a lot of Afghans, it will undermine our efforts to overthrow the Taliban
from within. The US is doing it because they want to intimidate everyone. It’s pretty accurate. By now the evidence is overwhelming that the American strategy of bombing villages, sending in special forces to break open people’s doors in the middle of the night and arrest somebody, all of this was creating Taliban.”
Drone strikes killing children
On Aug. 29, 2021, the US carried out a drone strike in Kabul against what it said was an Daesh target in response to an attack on Kabul airport. A family of 10, including seven children, were killed in the attack, which the US
has not disputed. Chomsky, visibly upset by the tragedy, pointed to the effects this could have for the US. “Consequences? Doesn’t take much imagination, especially when it has been happening over and over for 20 years. You bomb and you kill a family ... you create more Taliban.
Safe haven for terrorists?
“First of all, why should we assume that Afghanistan will become a haven for terrorists? The Taliban have every reason to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the country. In 2001 they did keep Bin Laden as part of the tribal culture. They didn’t want him around, he was a nuisance. But they couldn’t just kick him out. When 9/11 happened they did begin to make offers to allow him to be moved out of the country somehow, maybe sent to an Muslim state for a trial or maybe to totally surrender if the Taliban leadership could live in dignity. Absolutely not,” he said while referring to leaked Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defence, internal records that showed he rejected negotiations.
Road to recovery
So what does Chomsky see as the way forward for the recovery of Afghans and Afghanistan? “First thing that is the willingness to absorb, properly, the people who are able, who want to flee and are able to flee. Don’t close the doors to them as Europe and the US are now doing. Work jointly with China, Russia, Tajikistan, Middle Eastern countries to help Afghanistan recover in the way that Afghans will determine. So let them do it, they’ll make mistakes, they’ll do the wrong thing, we’ll try and help.
“First and simplest thing we can do is release funds for reconstruction. Then jointly, probably mainly with China and Russia, work on some kind of support for internal development programmes. It’s a shared interest. All the imperial powers have the interest in seeing Afghanistan recover. We can turn to a different course, undermine them (Daesh) by supporting societies where they are trying to establish roots relying on our brutality. It’s not a secret, it’s right in front of our eyes.”