In a way, the lockdown has been good, in that a lot of people I have needed to contact have been around and able to help. Of course, it is all virtual yet there are concrete results. I wanted to talk briefly about Afghanistan and the twenty-year occupation by coalition forces. A lot of artists are leading the charge for raising humanitarian aid for Afghanistan after the takeover by the Taliban. It is well-meaning but I think the invasion was the main problem, to begin with. Biden had been quoted as saying that the mission in Afghanistan was not for nation-building. Coalition forces allowed the growing of narcotics for pharmaceutical companies and even guarded crops. There are slamming revelations of Australian SAS executing Afghan children during this occupation. Once coalition forces had left the US-funded regime fell apart in less than a week. 

Another way to look at it is, the US supported a minority of Afghans to run the country and created fortified zones to repel the majority of Afghan aggression which was driven by a number of groups in Afghanistan. The US had no intention to support the majority of Afghani interests as they were seen as militant and dangerous. In fact, the Taliban which drove the wedge in coalition interests were well organised and determined to drive out foreign forces at a great cost. People may be worried about traditional Islamic values overriding women’s rights yet the mission was not to deal with these issues in the first place. No army has even been assigned to simply take off burqas and support women’s rights in any middle eastern country. These types of issues have to be sorted out within a country through channels other than using drones to support coalition ground forces.

The US could have tried nation-building, but when you look at their disastrous attempts in Iraq and the pushback they received there, there really wasn’t any room for success. I feel that peoples concerns are self-serving as we expected a sovereign nation to take on our values. The main mission was to dismantle terrorism yet as we learned there are no distinct borders when it comes to terrorism. Also, terrorism has been going on in the world for a very long time. It is understandable the US wanted to avenge one of the largest terrorist attacks in recent history yet there were many options available on a local level to combat these issues. Allowing the growing of narcotics for example doesn’t seem to be particularly anti-terrorism-related as well as setting up a puppet government. It would be nice for people to see the mistakes made in the name of freedom and democracy, that have taken on the logic of imperialism.

People may accuse me of being unpatriotic, yet I don’t want to disseminate values that I hold dear with armies and military occupation.