Washington needs to do soul-searching about its failure in Afghanistan: China Daily editorial

With the Pentagon announcing on Monday that the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan had been completed, the US-led invasion into the country has officially ended. But the United States should not think this means that its responsibility to Afghanistan ends here.

In particular, rather than slapping sanctions and exerting pressure on the country, which will only be counterproductive, the US needs to work with the international community to ensure Afghanistan can embark on the road of peaceful reconstruction as soon as possible by helping to provide it with urgently needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance.

In addition, as Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, pointed out on Monday, the US withdrawal should also prompt reflection and correction on its part. Military intervention in a sovereign state, no matter how lofty the excuses are, solves no problem and only creates more.

Since entering Afghanistan two decades ago, the US-led forces have caused more than 30,000 civilian deaths, injured more than 60,000 people and turned 11 million people into refugees. According to official figures, in 2019 alone, at least 6,825 drone strikes took place in Afghanistan, and 7,423 bombs and other munitions were dropped on the country, an average of 20 bombs a day.

Afghan civilians have continued to pay a heavy price this month as the US accelerated its withdrawal and the Taliban made a whirlwind advance to enter Kabul and regain power in the country. Thursday's suicide bombings at Kabul airport killed 170 Afghans, alongside 13 US soldiers. In retaliation, the US launched a drone strike on Sunday, which reportedly killed 10 civilians.

The carnage shows the tasks of nation-rebuilding and preventing the country from becoming a haven for various terrorist groups remain as daunting as ever. The suicide attack at Kabul airport once again revealed the hard truth that the war in Afghanistan did not achieve the goal of eliminating terrorist forces in the country.

The US needs to learn a serious lesson from its longest war: That the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of countries should be respected. As for what it should do next with regard to Afghanistan, it should respect the right of the Afghan people to independently determine their own future, make due contributions to the country's rebuilding efforts and take resolute actions to prevent terrorist organizations from taking advantage of the chaos in the country.

Washington also needs to do some serious soul searching about its double standard on terrorism and its selective counterterrorism efforts, which have proven to be detrimental to the international fight against terrorism. What happened in Afghanistan should serve as a reminder that counterterrorism needs concerted efforts from all members of the international community. It is high time that the US joined hands with the rest of the world to combat terrorism in all forms and manifestations in accordance with international laws.