US 'strategic' withdrawal is a fiasco

Following the ill-coordinated, messy US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Kabul has fallen into the hands of the Taliban at an astonishing speed. The entire world is watching the change of flag from black, red and green of Afghanistan to the white with black Shahadah of the Taliban.

The collapse of the Ashraf Ghani-led Afghan government was so swift that it gave no time to the tens of foreign embassies to evacuate their diplomats and other staff. Even more worrisome, the fate of those Afghan people who have worked for the United States administration since US-led forces launched the Afghanistan War in 2001 is uncertain.

However, despite the ungraceful withdrawal, reminiscent of the US' retreat from Saigon in 1975, President Joe Biden has been "courageous" enough to fix, eventually, a US historical wrong. The US forces' entry into Afghanistan was endorsed by the United Nations as a legitimate response to the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida's terrorist attack on the US on Sept 11, 2001. Its military operation was approved by the UN Security Council, since the then Taliban government refused to turn in Osama bin Laden. In this context, the US' war in Afghanistan made sense.

With the successful execution of Operation Neptune Spear in 2011, the US forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. At that time, the US could claim to have accomplished its mission. However, Barack Obama, then US president, continued the war, and expanded the US military mission to a political one to transplant American values and culture in the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority country through "nation building".

This ill-advised move was not endorsed by the UN, and the US should not have gone ahead with it because it was something beyond its reach. Given these facts, the Donald Trump administration held talks with the Taliban, even signed an agreement with it saying it would withdraw the remaining US forces from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.

Its promise to withdraw its forces notwithstanding, the US had already delayed its withdrawal from the quagmire it had turned Afghanistan into by 10 years — from 2011 when Bin Laden was killed to 2021. These 10 long years have seen the weakening of the US' morale and the huge drain on its resources, forcing Biden to pull all US forces out of Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, in his bid to fix a US historical wrong, Biden has committed another horrendous mistake. After fighting the Taliban for nearly 20 years, the US has the obligation to protect not only its own civilians, diplomats and troops, but also those Afghans who worked for the administration, as well as other foreign nationals in the country and, if necessary, make proper arrangements for them to leave the country in an orderly manner.

Unfortunately, Biden misjudged the situation in Afghanistan, by ostensibly underestimating the strength and reach of the Taliban. The tragic exodus from Afghanistan and the chaotic, heart-wrenching scenes at Kabul airport define yet another shameful moment for the US.

The US military is leaving Afghanistan, ending a war Washington could never have won. It was the same logic that led to the US fiasco in South Vietnam in 1975. By admitting its failure, the US administration has relieved its strategic burden and redistributing its resources to meet its present need, most obviously, to implement Biden's "3C" policy toward China, that is, to cooperate and compete with, and confront China.

When former US president George W. Bush declared the "war on terror" on the soil of Afghanistan in 2001, he sought China's cooperation by admitting that the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement was a globally recognized terrorist organization.

And now that almost all its forces have pulled out of Afghanistan at blinding speed, Washington is requesting Beijing to play a bigger role in post-withdrawal governance of Afghanistan. So China has every reason to demand that the US respect its sovereignty and national security interests by containing the ETIM.

As the two-decade war in Afghanistan has devastated Afghanistan, the US has no right to quit the country and leave the mess for Afghanistan's neighbors to clean up. Despite withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan, the US has the responsibility to rebuild the country in partnership with any government that is in power in the country — and with the help of regional partners. In this regard, China and other stakeholders including the US should continue to collaborate to help build a better Afghanistan, at least to ensure it does not become a haven for terrorists again.

In terms of geopolitics, Biden, in his speech on Aug 16, emphasized the challenges the US faces from China and Russia while explaining why he decided to pull out all US forces from Afghanistan. So the US administration could shift its global strategic focus more to coping with China and Russia. But terrorism will continue, as Biden mentioned. To curb sporadic terrorism attacks across the world, the US cannot fight alone without coordinating with big countries like China and Russia.

Global leaders, on their part, should take a long-term view of the situation in Afghanistan. The US has pulled out of Afghanistan without achieving victory over terrorism there. To counter terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the US needs to work with China and Russia now and also in the future. The US should not be basking in the illusory glory of "defeating" terrorism in Afghanistan and turning its back on China, and at the same time asking China to contribute to post-withdrawal governance in Afghanistan, in order to eliminate terrorism.

The author is a professor at, and former executive dean of, the Institute of International Studies, Fudan University. The views don’t necessarily reflect those of China Daily.