The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) Solidarity Network is proud to announce the premiere of the Afghanistan News Update. This monthly newsletter aims to bring a collection of news reports and analyses to help the public better understand the complex and dynamic situation in Afghanistan through an anti-imperialist lens. Below are milestones over the past few months in the aftermath of the Biden administration's decision to withdraw military troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.
The number of U.S. Special Forces and mercenaries in Afghanistan is expected to increase as a result of the U.S. military withdrawal.
Contractors say from their perspective, nothing has changed since Biden announced the United States would be withdrawing by September 11. In fact, the number of contractors has "beefed up." Contractors offer the "same level and same range of skills—all at a much lower political cost and with a dose of secrecy." (The U.S. Is Leaving Afghanistan? Tell That to the Contractors, New York Magazine, May 12, 2021)
Biden will withdraw 2,500 soldiers while leaving behind 18,000 U.S. Special Forces, mercenaries and intelligence operatives, "privatizing and downscaling the war, but not ending it.” (Biden's Not Ending the War—He's Privatizing It, CovertAction Magazine, April 18, 2021)
Despite the United States' apparent ambivalence and uncertainty swirling around the viability of the Afghan government, one thing is sure: Billions of dollars in U.S. funds will continue to flow to Kabul. This comes while the CIA courts outside partners.
Despite staunch opposition from the Taliban and the Pakistani people, U.S. and Pakistani officials have been negotiating terms for a renewed cooperation agreement to allow the CIA to conduct intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan following the U.S. military withdrawal. Presumably, the CIA found it in its strategic interest to leak this sensitive information to the New York Times. (C.I.A. Scrambles for New Approach in Afghanistan, The New York Times, June 6, 2021)
An inter-agency delegation from the United States—including representatives from the Defense Department, National Security Council and USAID—have apparently pledged $6.6 billion over the next two years to support Afghan security forces against the Taliban, including adding “more U.S. facilities” and “aircraft … to strengthen the Afghan Air Force.” The amount is in addition to the more than $266 million in humanitarian aid that is expected to be provided to Afghanistan. (Official: U.S. Pledges $3.3 Billion in Funding for Afghan Forces, Voice of America News, June 6, 2021)
NATO officials have expressed “[s]ignificant questions … over exactly how NATO will continue to fund the Afghan security forces, whether to continue training Special Forces troops somewhere outside the country, and exactly who might provide security for civilian workers, embassies and Kabul’s airport.” (NATO Ministers Question How to Wind Down Afghanistan Operations, Al Jazeera, June 1, 2021)
The ability of Afghan forces to provide necessary security to the United States and NATO continues to be called into question. Dozens of besieged outposts or bases, and four district centers, have given up to Taliban insurgents this month, in an accelerating rural collapse as American troops leave. (A Wave of Afghan Surrenders to the Taliban Picks Up Speed, The New York Times, May 27, 2021)
The Taliban has warned that it will “not remain silent” in response to “speculations that Pakistan may allow the United States to use its soil for counterterrorism operations after American troops complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan.” Pakistan has a history of officially denying the United States the use of “military bases or allowing drone attacks in Pakistan,” while “secretly” allowing the United States to conduct such activities. (Taliban Warns Pakistan About Hosting U.S. Military Bases, The Diplomat, May 27, 2021)
Although U.S. troops are set to be out of Afghanistan by early to mid-July, well ahead of Biden’s September 11 deadline, "big issues remain unresolved.” (Pentagon Accelerates Withdrawal From Afghanistan, The New York Times, May 25, 2021)
U.S. lawmakers said that Afghans heavily depend on U.S. and international enablers, including "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets and maintenance and repair for their equipment." The lawmakers said they will support U.S. funding for Afghanistan’s civil society and for its social and economic development, but only if U.S. security forces are on the ground. (U.S. Lawmakers Seek Continued Efforts in Afghanistan, TOLOnews, May 19, 2021)
The CIA is preparing for the "likely collapse" of the Afghan government and a return to civil war. CIA Director William J. Burns has acknowledged that the agency is “looking for new ways to collect information in Afghanistan once [U.S.] forces are withdrawn,” including through alliances with regional leaders outside the Afghan government. (Spy Agencies Seek New Afghan Allies as U.S. Withdraws, The New York Times, May 14, 2021)
Mounting evidence suggests the CIA and the Pentagon have lost faith in Afghan security forces, but are prepared to offer nominal support insofar as it will further Washington’s larger geopolitical interests: “Containment of Russia and China.” (Afghanistan: US exit is with caveats, Indian Punchline, April 22, 2021)
China asserts its geopolitical interests to counter U.S. destabilization efforts in the region.
China and five Central Asian states express their opposition to U.S. military deployment on their soil, since increased U.S. political and intelligence activities and involvement with local opposition parties, NGOs and media groups "would only lead to [color] revolution” and attempt to sow seeds of discord. (China Blocks U.S. Bases in Central Asia, Indian Punchline, May 14, 2021)
The foreign ministers of China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have reportedly “reached a consensus on promoting the peace process in Afghanistan and anti-terrorism and security cooperation.” The trilateral talks also stressed the need to combat the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a Muslim separatist group based in the Xinjiang province, a region that shares borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Update: China helps Afghan peace with trilateral mechanism, Global Times, June 3, 2021)
ETIM has played a key role in orchestrating unrest in Xinjiang, including with deadly terrorist attacks against civilians, and was designated in 2002 as a terrorist organization by both the UN Security Council and the Bush administration. Given intensifying U.S. hostility toward China—and the faux outrage over manufactured claims of Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang in particular—China is reasonably suspicious of U.S. plans to destabilize the region by supporting ETIM members based in Afghanistan. Those concerns were heightened when the Trump administration abruptly removed ETIM from its terrorist list in November 2020, a decision that the Biden administration has not reversed. (Whitewashing terror groups on Xinjiang ‘will backfire on U.S.’, Global Times, May 17, 2021)
CNN’s alarmist reaction to the UN Security Council Report on Afghanistan follows a familiar script.
On June 2, 2021, the UN Security Council (UNSC) released its annual report from the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team. CNN reports the “UN sounds alarm over threat posed by emboldened Taliban, still closely tied to al Qaeda.”
The findings in the UNSC report, however, do not support the sensationalist headline or tone of CNN’s article.
As an initial matter, the UNSC report does not offer anything new, as the conclusion that “the Taliban and [al Qaeda] remain closely aligned and show no indication of breaking ties” was taken from the UNSC’s prior report in 2020. The report also notes the member states’ view of “no material change” to the Taliban-al Qaeda relationship (paragraph 40) and that “formal communication between senior al Qaeda and Taliban officials is currently infrequent” (paragraph 45).
Moreover, the UNSC report omits important context. Under the Doha Agreement signed in February 2020—which the Biden administration has since unilaterally repudiated—the Taliban committed to prevent al Qaeda “from using the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies,” by for example, preventing al Qaeda from “recruiting, training and fundraising” in Afghanistan or providing travel documents to allow known terrorists to enter the country (Doha Agreement, Part II). Nothing in the UNSC report suggests the Taliban violated those commitments. The report instead purports only to show al Qaeda continues to have a “presence in Afghanistan.” (paragraphs 40-49.) The Taliban, for its part, has refuted the UNSC report, which it claims is based on “false information.”
In related news, a senior advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Defense recently described in an interesting podcast episode how the Afghan government exaggerates reports of ISIS and al Qaeda fighters as a tactic to maintain U.S. support for Afghan forces against the Taliban.
Exposing the flimsy pretexts for the U.S. invasion and continued occupation of Afghanistan.
The United States invaded Afghanistan as part of a neoconservative strategy to prevent the decline of U.S. hegemony through military force and, more specifically, to establish a puppet regime to safeguard imperialist interests in Afghanistan. Nowadays, only the most dedicated supporters of U.S. imperialism will repeat official claims that the United States invaded Afghanistan as retribution for 9/11, to prevent future terrorist attacks against the United States or for humanitarian reasons. Those claims have been thoroughly debunked.
Matthew Hoh, a former U.S. Marine combat veteran and State Department employee in Afghanistan, disputes as “preposterous” that terrorist groups need a safe haven in Afghanistan. He said that line continues to be circulated, "even as the reality of the 9/11 attacks demonstrates that Afghanistan only played a minor role in the planning, preparation and training of the hijackers.” (What Critics of the U.S.Withdrawal from Afghanistan Get Wrong, CNN, May 15, 2021)
The online publication, Afghan Eye, dissects the claim that the United States has liberated women in Afghanistan. Turns out Afghanistan is a more dangerous place for women. (Did the U.S. Liberate Afghan Women?, The Afghan Eye, May 12, 2021)
Please visit BAP's Afghanistan resources page for its latest statements and fact sheets. Keep in touch on social media by following BAP on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Banner photo: Afghan security forces at a lone outpost in Kandahar, on the edge of the Panjwai District in Afghanistan, Jan. 30, 2021 (Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times)