US war economy cause of poverty and hunger in Afghanistan

While Afghanistan experiences extreme cold and famine, the US continues to show willingness to release the $7 billion frozen Afghan funds. The US says the funds will be split between the Afghans and the 9/11 victims, with half going to the Afghan people. Hunger, famine, and starvation are the words that dominate the lives of 957 million people in 93 countries of the world. People in these countries do not have enough to eat regularly. About 8.9 percent of the world's population sleeps with empty stomach each night. Alarmingly, the number of people starving is expected to increase further.

Eliminating poverty is a priority of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, but the situation is gradually getting from bad to worse. Global politics has negatively influenced the whole situation. We have witnessed powerful countries use hunger and poverty as weapons to meet the unmet targets, win affiliations, misuse resources, avenge defeats and embarrassments.

Afghanistan is an evolving crisis with catastrophic effects. Extreme cold and poverty are reshaping the destiny of the people. The Taliban government is handicapped in resources and facilities to meet the mounting crisis. The 20 years of war against terror only fueled the West's war economy, with businesses reaping multibillion profits from it. The Afghan people were used, abused, and abandoned by the US and its allies. It is predicted that about one million children will die because of cold and hunger in Afghanistan in the winter, while the West and its allies are successfully distracting the world's attention toward less potent issues.

The US and its allies have a history of creating humanitarian crises and issues to justify their unfair and aggressive actions. History will reveal whether the US abrupt evacuation from Afghanistan was situational or intentional. At the same time, the country is gradually losing to poverty, hunger, extreme cold, and death. Afghanistan is not the only country to meet such a fate because of the US' lack of planning and vision and exploitive attitude. Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Iraq are other examples.

But why leave the country in destruction and dismay that's critical for the West? Ideally, after the war, the nation should be given a fair chance to recover from war trauma, breathe to gain strength, and get back on its feet. Sadly this is not what the world has witnessed. Post-war anarchy serves the US interest as it helps in energizing its proxies. Moreover, it increases the potential to manipulate the geopolitical location and resources of the country. As the issue prolongs, the US rationalizes its war traps and unfair and irrational actions in many cases. Gradually many countries with potential became the appetite of the US war economy.

This can be marked as the dark side of the unipolar world where the US presented itself as a sole superpower. The non-Western friends and foes met the same fate sooner or later as the US long-term strategy is based on crippling the economy and crushing drive to prosper.

Gradually the world is becoming more polarized. China has successfully eliminated absolute poverty in its country, a seemingly impossible task.

China's model of growth and development hugely depends on a mutual benefit and win-win cooperation with other countries. As an economic superpower, the country positively influences more than 70 economies. The friends and alliances are allowed to grow and develop, prosper and progress.

On the other hand, the US is alarmed by the world's inclination toward China and demonizes it by categorizing it as an "economic take over" and "Chinese loan trap." The difference is obvious, so the US is fast losing its alliances. In the recent past, the US failed to isolate China in the Winter Olympic 2022, with many close countries choosing to participate and resisting the US boycott pressure.

But will the world rise against poverty and hunger as weapons against Afghanistan's poor and innocent people? It is high time that the world should stand with the right. The poor children, women, and men who can lose their life to hunger, cold, and poverty need help. This region needs peace and is on the verge of a new horizon. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Belt and Road Initiative have opened new prosperity, stability, growth, and development opportunities. Like Afghanistan, neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Iran and Turkey are experiencing economic pressures. The aim of the West is to either win their support or cripple them to make them unable to take independent decisions.

Additionally, the US is provoking a war between Russia and Ukraine. Any catastrophe in the region can only serve the Western interest of distracting the region from the path of prosperity. A wholesome effort is required to avert such possibilities and ensure that Afghanistan gets it right in full. It's time that the world should not allow hunger and poverty as a weapon of mass destruction by the US.

The author is an opinion journalist and current affairs analyst from Pakistan.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.

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