亚洲人的阿富汗教训

Afghanistan Lessons for Asians
Tan Wah Piow

The United States switched off the lights in Bagram, where Afghanistan has its biggest military airfield, to pull out its forces in the stealth of darkness without even informing the Afghan commander.

After 20 years and spending over the US $2 trillion to oust the Taliban, the United States cut their losses. Within less than a week of the withdrawal, the Taliban is back in control of 85% of the country!

Singaporeans might have forgotten that the SAF had sent 500 men to fight with the United States in Afghan between 2007-2013. In 2014, the Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen and K Shanmugam, the Foreign Minister, described Singapore's involvement as 'effective'. From what we now know, the war was an unmitigated disaster. The claim of "effectiveness" by Singapore politicians in 2014 was an overstatement.

Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general who served as the White House's Afghan war czar during the Bush and Obama administrations, told government interviewers in 2015 that "We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan, we didn't know what we were doing." (Sydney Morning Herald 10 Dec 2019). According to the Washington Post which examined the Wikileaks documents on Afghanistan, three White House administrations misled the public about the failures in the Afghanistan war, "often suggesting success where it didn't exist". Were the Singapore politicians similarly duped by the White House?

Singapore's involvement in Afghanistan went beyond providing medical or logistical support. Even if the SAF engagement in a combat role was to "try out one of its weapon systems in an actual combat environment", what moral debt Singapore politicians owe to the Afghan people for deaths and displacement that ensued? Singapore troops were deployed to man a radar system and engaged in a "counter-battery fire" for a "9 to 12 months" period. (WikiLeaks 2019 June 5 US Embassy Singapore).

By virtue of Singapore’s involvement in the war, she had aided and abetted the killing of 154,000 people in the Afghan war, of which 71,000 were civilians. Millions of Afghans were displaced. (Brown University Costs of War study, July 2021 figures). How should one quantify Singapore's moral responsibility in these circumstances having participated in six of the twenty years war?

The U.S. original mission to invade Afghanistan in 2001 to capture Osama bin Laden, the perpetrator of the 9.11 attack, and destroy Al-Qaeda. That mission was accomplished by May 2011 when the Al-Qaeda leader was traced and killed in his suburban hideout in Pakistan. By then, Al-Qaeda was already a spent force eclipsed by the ISIS. Yet, the United States stayed on for another decade. Interestingly Biden now drops the Afghanistan project like a stale dish, claiming that "the United States are not in Afghan for nation-building".

That begs the question: what were the 500 Singapore Armed Forces doing in Afghan between 2007-2013 in the first place? A Business-Standard report described it as "part of Singapore's contributions to the multinational stabilisation and reconstruction efforts there." Singapore was even involved in counselling the Aghan government on anti-corruption measures. That must be like teaching the Mafia how to submit self-assessment taxation forms.

At the Singapore State Dinner in Washington in August 2016, Lee Hsien Loong, in his speech, assured President Obama his loyalty: "That is why 70 years after the Second World War, America is still a welcomed power in Asia. We hope these strengths and qualities will be emulated by others and will enable you to remain engaged in our region for many more years." If Lee Hsien Loong was aware that the Afghan War was already a failure, would his speech be different?

Given the track record of the United States in Afghanistan and the Middle East, should this self-appointed world policeman be welcomed to the waters of the South China Sea? It is worth noting that within 24 hours of USA unceremonious and cowardly retreat from Bagram airbase, Joe Biden was asked on the evening of Friday 2 July what he thought of the impending collapse of the Afghan government. The President reply was "I want to talk about happy things, man."

Politicians on the American band wagons hoping that the United States would help to overthrow their home governments should remember the Biden doctrine, "TGI Friday" – Thank God It's Friday. The United States is not for nation building. In other words, it is conditional on America First, and to her convenience.

This rude abandonment of the Afghanistan government comes just a month after the G7 Head of States meeting proclaiming to "Build Back Better World" (B3W) to compete with China's Belt and Road Initiatives(BRI). Suppose the United States is serious about B3W, it will not abandon Afghanistan to China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan. These countries are reportedly in close contacts with the Taliban government-in-waiting to help with the reconstruction of a new Afghanistan.

Given the United States latest behaviour over Afghanistan, developing countries in Asia already lukewarm over the US-led G7 B3W promises of billion dollars investments to compete with China's trillion-dollar BRI are now likely to be even more sceptical. Even before the US abandonment of Afghanistan, many see the B3W as just another propaganda hype to decouple China from the world economy.