THE U.S WITHDRAWAL FROM AFG BY YAAKOV AMIDROR
(JNS) Earlier this week, I spoke with a respected American journalist who asked about the impact on Israel of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the country’s fall to the Taliban. He was not the first person to ask about this. Some expand the question, tying the hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan to the U.S. decision to stop fighting in Iraq, leaving behind only U.S. troops that will train the Iraqi army. The first to define the process of U.S. withdrawal from the region was President Obama, who talked about a pivot to the East, in other words shifting U.S. efforts from the Middle East eastward, alluding to China. President Trump followed suit, deciding to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria and Iraq (although this was not fully acted upon). President Biden continued this process and brought it to a difficult end in Afghanistan, taking another step toward a
complete withdrawal from Iraq. In other words, this withdrawal from Afghanistan is part of an ongoing historical process reflecting deep-rooted American sentiment. The enormous U.S. investment in wars in the Middle East, the trillions of dollars spent, and tens of thousands of dead and wounded, have not yielded the desired result. With regard to Israel, the question is how this U.S. decision to reduce American military involvement in the Middle East, and the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, will impact the international and regional order within which Israel operates. Thus, three spheres need to be addressed: global, Middle Eastern and Israeli. From a global perspective, the collapse of the U.S. nation-building effort in a country that America took responsibility for
in 2000 is a resounding failure, especially considering the lightning speed at which it happened. Will this failure impact America’s international standing, primarily the race between it and China? Most likely, it will impact U.S. standing very little. U.S. competition with China is not tied to any one event. China is driven by its beliefs and wide-ranging assessment over time of America’s decline; that the democratic system has run its course and China has emerged on the global stage to change the world, not integrate into it—and certainly not according to the rules set by the West. It is not at all certain that China is interested in Afghanistan becoming a terror state, but what happens in Afghanistan will not dictate China’s actions. America’s success or failure in Afghanistan will also not lead Europe to
change its cautious position regarding the struggle between China and the United States. Europe will continue to speak in grandiose terms about protecting human rights and simultaneously expand its trade with China. The Europeans would certainly be happy if the United States succeeds in isolating the Taliban, and were even willing to provide some help during the various stages of the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda—but most Europeans believe trade is preferable to war, and when your largest trading partner is China you cannot really fight it, even if there are obvious moral reasons to do so. The real lesson the world took from the U.S. failure in Afghanistan has to do with the entire Middle East. The failure of America’s Middle East policy has demonstrated that history cannot be replicated, and that what succeeded after
YOUNG U.S. SOLDIERS ON THE WAY BACK TO KANDAHAR ARMY AIR FIELD ON SEPT. 4, 2003. THE SOLDIERS WERE SEARCHING FOR TALIBAN FIGHTERS AND ILLEGAL WEAPONS CACHES. PHOTO: STAFF SGT. KYLE DAVIS/U.S. ARMY.
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MASSACHUSETTS JEWISH LEDGER
| AUGUST 27, 2021
majewishledger.com
