The West could draw lessons from US’ loss of Afghan war

The final vignette in the tragedy that is Afghanistan was pure theatre: at precisely one minute to midnight, the last American aircraft took off from Kabul, bearing the remaining US troops and the country’s ambassador.

On the runways, jubilant Taliban fighters fired their weapons into the air and celebrated their “20 years of sacrifice”.

America’s longest war ended in defeat while perhaps not strictly a military loss, it was anything but a victory, considering the situation in Afghanistan had changed little since 2001, when the US invaded to start its “War on Terror”.

Thousands of US soldiers and those from other countries along with innumerable civilians died in both Afghanistan and adjacent countries as Washington pursued its war under four separate presidents.

In the process, the bitter conflict proved that billions of dollars and the best military equipment in the world does not guarantee that you will come out on top.

That is a lesson which other would-be conquerors, from the colonial British, to the Soviet Union, learned at a high cost, in terms of the losses of both soldiers and material, as well as global prestige.

In the case of the Soviets, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, also without a victory, percolated below the surface among bitter veterans and was one of the factors in the eventual demise of the USSR.

We don’t see the US collapsing any time soon… but the Afghanistan humiliation means there must be some serious contemplation in the corridors of power in Washington.

The West needs to realise that it needs to seek a dialogue with the Muslim world – even extremists like the Taliban – and not be seen to be latter-day Crusaders.

At the same time, groups like the Taliban need to realise they cannot continue to live in the Middle Ages when it comes to fundamental human rights.