Why US military won’t leave Afghanistan

Afghanistan -- a geopolitically strategic country with a massive wealth of untapped mineral resources -- could serve as a conduit for Central Asian gas and oil and a source for the opium trade as well an essential staging ground for US imperialism's effort to destabilize the heart of Eurasia, says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on US President Donald Trump’s new Afghan strategy.

In a clear U-turn from his campaign pledges to end the now 16-year occupation of Afghanistan, Trump said Monday that his views had changed since entering the White House and that he would continue the military intervention “as long as we see determination and progress” in Afghanistan.

Professor Etler said, “In a word it amounts to the same old, same old. Trump pledged to recommit to the US effort in Afghanistan in the face of a resurgent Taliban offensive and step up the US military commitment to do so. Not only that, Trump declared that the US commitment to stay the course in Afghanistan was open-ended and would not be constrained by any considerations other than ‘killing terrorists.’”

“In other words, the US must continue destroying Afghanistan in order to save it. But save it from what and for whom?” he asked.

“According to the US, the initial foray into Afghanistan was meant to defeat and replace the Taliban government which was deemed complicit in the 9/11 attacks. The rationale was to make Afghanistan safe for democracy so it could not continue to serve as a launching pad for further terrorist attacks against the US,” he stated.

“It was an initial campaign in the US declared war on terrorism. But what has been the result of this strategy? Terrorism has metastasized and spread throughout the world, giving the US an excuse to intervene wherever and whenever it so chooses,” he said.  

PressTV-Trump unveils plan to prolong war in Afghanistan

The US president announced that he would send more troops to the country’s longest war, which he once described as a “complete waste.”

US hypocrisy on terrorism

“Of course, those countries which are US allies and proxies that support terrorists with financial and logistical support such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and others are immune from criticism and attack and are propped up with billions of dollars of US taxpayer money, while countries that resist US hegemony are accused of harboring terrorists and attacked, feeding the hideous US war machine with ever new fields to harvest death and destruction,” Professor Etler said.

“Trump’s new found commitment to win in Afghanistan is a reversal of his long-standing criticism of US unilateral interventionism and his specific demand to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Much of Trump’s support was based on his America First rhetoric which condemned the Bush’s, Clinton’s and Obama’s policies of overextending US power abroad and neglecting American’s needs at home,” he said.  

“This reversal however should come as no surprise, US politicians will say and do anything to get elected and then discard their campaign rhetoric on a moment’s notice. You would think by now that the American people would understand that whomever they elect as president is beholden to the US state apparatus (sometimes called the Deep State) which is the structural and institutional component of US imperialism. Any US president, no matter what their subjective motivations may be, is nothing more than a figurehead for the Military Industrial Congressional Complex and the National Security State,” he added.

‘No US politician can dismantle US imperialism’

“Thus Trump like the others before him end up pursuing what are essentially the same policies, be it in Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia or anywhere else. Those who placed faith in Trump, Obama, Clinton or any other US politician to change course and dismantle US imperialism are foredoomed to be disappointed,” Professor Etler said.

“In the case of Afghanistan it has long been considered a focal point in the Great Game, the political and diplomatic confrontation between the great powers for control of Central Asia and subsequently the entire Eurasian landmass. That was the geopolitical rationale for Carter’s national security adviser Brzezinski's support for the Mujahideen against the Soviet backed Afghan regime in the 1980s. That eventually led to the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the creation of the Taliban state,” he noted.

“No matter what the rationale for US intervention in Afghanistan it has always been to seize control of a geopolitically strategic country with a wealth of untapped mineral resources, as a conduit for Central Asian gas and oil and as a source for the opium trade, all of which amount to untold billions in profits for US corporations and cartels, that is both legal and illegal super-profits extracted from Afghanistan territory,” the commentator said.

“A new consideration is the crucial position of Afghanistan in relation to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. With China making a bid to become the nexus for a pan-Eurasian trading network Afghanistan can serve as a staging ground to disrupt its implementation. By keeping an open-ended US presence in Afghanistan the US now has its fingers on the pulse of China’s BRI, placing it in a better position to influence events in the region and potentially sabotage it,” he stated.

“The military junta (Kelly, Mattis, and McMaster) which now controls the White House can  go ahead and continue the policies of global hegemony that are part and parcel of US imperialism, no matter who occupies the White House,” he concluded.

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