On August 30, 2021, the last US soldier left Afghanistan, effectively ending a two-decade war and occupation that cost 2,461 Americans dead in the end.
The chaotic images of the American withdrawal from the Kabul airport in August 2021, as well as the death of 13 American soldiers at the Kabul airport, from Taliban bombings, had then shocked international and American public opinion.
Two years later and Americans still seem troubled and with many question marks about the ability of the US to maintain global hegemony and dominance in the Western world.
Another element of doubt and denting the reputation and “soft power” of the US is the ongoing war in Ukraine, where despite the unique and colossal political, economic and military support to Ukraine, the West, the US is not enjoying the results as they had planned and expected.
Netanyahu’s Revelations – American Report
In his memoirs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalls an important event from 2013, when then-US Secretary of State John Kerry proposed a secret visit to Afghanistan to see US-trained Afghan forces: “Bibi, I want to arrange a secret visit for you in Afghanistan.
You will see with your own eyes what a great job we did there to prepare the Afghan army to take over the country once we leave. “Eight years later, the result of this “great job” was an embarrassing spectacle, a diplomatic humiliation and a national security disaster.
The report entitled “Left Behind: A Brief Assessment of the Biden Administration’s Strategic Failures during the Withdrawal from Afghanistan”, issued by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 2022, focuses on the failure of the Biden administration to foresee the rapid occupation of Afghanistan by the Taliban, which was created immediately after the withdrawal of American troops. And he points out that the Biden administration ignored many serious warnings from the intelligence services (particularly the CIA) and decided to abandon Bagram Air Base despite reports that this could lead to the Taliban taking control of the capital, Kabul.
The report also reveals that the White House ignored the State Department’s opposition to the withdrawal. He utterly failed to properly plan the evacuation until it was too late, the failure on the ground was evident and, in the process, abandoned tens of thousands of Afghan partners and collaborators with the Americans to their sad and for many fatal fate at the hands of the Taliban.
And the return of the Taliban to power looks like a crushing defeat for all those who fought for another Afghanistan, one that will mainly respect the rights of girls and women.
Western Mild Power Wound
During the tenure of former President Barack Obama, he cultivated and developed the concept of “smart and soft power”, in the implementation of US foreign policy. This approach, defined by Joseph Nye, former government official and former dean at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, in the sense that the president must be able to combine “hard power”, which it is of course characterized by coercion, with “soft power” based instead on attraction.
This marked a shift away from the harsh politics and wars in the Middle East since September 11, 2001, by former President George W. Bush.
However, the perception associated with the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan has undermined and continues to undermine US efforts to portray itself as a champion of human rights and a superpower that respects and protects its allies.
In fact, a study recently published in the academic journal Place Branding and Public Diplomacy introduces a new concept called “passive projection,” which emphasizes the importance of monitoring the decline of a country’s soft power and the subsequent consequences for its global standing. .
The author of the study considers that “passive viewing” can be evaluated through three main indicators: the governance systems of the state, the perception of the state by its inhabitants and the objective perception of the state by external agencies.
Abandoning allies and losing trust
As a result of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the global reputation of the US is constantly decreasing, especially among allied states. This creates a feeling of mistrust, abandonment of allies and betrayal, and skepticism about US “hard power” capabilities.
European Council President Charles Michel had expressed concerns that “the chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan forces us to speed up honest thinking about European defence”. A 2022 analysis by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan University by Schwarzer and Shavit concluded that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is interpreted – inside and outside Israel – as a US willingness to abandon allies of it, potentially setting a precedent for other regions as well.
Especially today, with the developments in the war in Ukraine, which do not fulfill the expectations of the British and Americans, there is a tendency expressed by many Western media that the appropriate conditions can be created to reach an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, without the failed policy of the West and especially the UK is clearly visible. and USA.
Currently, much of the US focus is on the conflict in Ukraine, where it is clear that Kiev has not heeded the lessons of the situation in Afghanistan. The US cannot afford a second Afghanistan-style failure and a solution is being sought, with the responsibility of Ukraine and not the US and its allies.
Ukrainian president Zelensky is a scapegoating victim, as is emerging from the American press.
All of the above potentially explains the growing confidence of Washington’s allies, such as those in the Persian Gulf, to resist and refuse certain demands that align with US interests but conflict with their own.
A typical example, that recently two loyal allies of the USA, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. they joined four other countries in BRICS, the Global South institution challenging the dominance of the dollar today. And it seems that more important ones are coming.
