Why Afghanistan Still Matters

WASHINGTON (04-21) – “The global security challenges the United States is facing today is on a scale…that we haven’t seen since the end of World War II” is how Four Star General John “Jack” Keane US Army (RET) in speaking at the Hudson Institute on April 21 characterized the existential threat of growing transnational terrorism for America, in the wake of its rapid withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021.

In meeting that challenge, Keane went on to say that collectively those threats are “exceeding the capabilities of what we have in coping with that reality.” He opined that we need to develop a national security strategy and that we urgently “….need to get resourced properly to deal with erosion of the United States military capabilities.”

He specifically mentioned the threats posed by the Taliban, ISIS-K (Islamic State – Khorasan Province) and Daesh in Afghanistan by saying that the unconditional withdrawal from there “incentivized our adversaries to be more aggressive” as they saw the US leadership’s decision to withdraw as weakness and a sign of the lack of US political will to confront them.

General Keane attributed this to their concluding that the withdrawal exhibited “the decline of the United States world leadership.” That conclusion was the nexus which empowered “China, Russia, North Korea and Iran to organize themselves together.”

This was evidenced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine six months later and in Iran’s proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen attacking US troops 125 times and in attacking shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthis to “drive the United States out of the region,” while the US “never laid a glove on them” in reprisal. This led to the overwhelming perception that “US weakness was real.”

Along with this is China’s increasing incidents invading Taiwan’s air defense zone that has increased from 1,700 events in the aftermath of the withdrawal in 2021to 3,000 in the past year alone. In furtherance, there have been three massive events within two years’ time of Chinese ships surrounding the island as part of an “intimidation and coercion exercise.”

Those events have been scrutinized by US analysts as to likely foreshadow a “rehearsal of a blockade of Taiwan.”

All this while the situation in Afghanistan today is one of an unrecognized Taliban controlled government wherein dissidents face “…arrest, torture, exile and death” along with thousands of others who have been killed or disappeared including hundreds of former government officials in which the “Taliban simply have a stranglehold on all aspects of life in Afghanistan.”

General Keane further pointed out that allowing “safe havens” for any of the “forty plus terrorist organizations around the world” in places such as Afghanistan must not be allowed to exist as breeding grounds of further terrorist attacks. He lamented the withdrawal that has blinded US intelligence to the situation on the ground and for adopting an “over the horizon” intelligence gathering capability in its place that would not fully assist in disallowing terrorists a safe haven.

In return, ISIS has planned three attacks last year, one in Iran, one in Moscow and one in Austria at a Taylor Swift concert. Only the Austrians were able to prevent the attack. He went further in speaking about three other terrorist actions that had been planned against the US and Canada that had been thwarted. “We need to take direct action against those safe havens. We just can’t sit here and wait for something horrible to happen against our people…or our European allies.”

The only opposition to the Taliban government operating in country today is that of the NRF (National Resistance Front). Speaking on their behalf was Ali Nazary, Head of Foreign Relations, who said there are an estimated 24,000 terrorists presently inside Afghanistan which General Keane characterized as the “epicenter of terrorism today.”

Lisa Curtis CNAS (Center for a New American Security) spoke about the Doha deal between the US and the Taliban that in her view went too far in accommodating the Taliban by saying that was “handing over the country like a birthday cake. It was not a peace agreement; it was a withdrawal agreement.”

She went further criticizing the Trump administration for last week emailing some 14,000 Afghans who legally entered the US after 2021 and were placed under TPS (Temporary Protection Status) and/or parole and telling them to self-deport to another country within one week or they will be deported and face prosecution here. She termed this action as “abominable.”

Many of those affected assisted with the US mission or fought alongside US forces. The termination of their TPS status was made by the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) after a review in consultation with the Department of State.

This is a betrayal not only to the Afghans but to the many US veterans who fought in Afghanistan and their post-war efforts to see their comrades in arms and families resettle in the US to begin new lives for their efforts and sacrifices.

Curtis read a quote from the head of one of the refugee agencies involved stating: “Forcing Afghan women and girls back to Taliban rule where they face systemic oppression and gender-based violence would be utterly unconscionable. It would be a stain on our nation’s reputation.”

Luke Coffey, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute spoke on why Afghanistan still matters saying that Afghanistan is home for “…at least twenty different transnational terrorist groups operating more freely now than they have ever been before” including more “regional focused groups” that threaten to create instability in the region “which could quickly lead to problems for us around the world.”

Coffey characterized Afghanistan as a “blind spot” as far as counter terrorism and intelligence efforts and he went on to discuss that the seven billion dollars’ worth of weapons left behind by the Biden administration in Afghanistan are now showing up in Central and South America.

Ali Nazary Head of Foreign Relations for NRF of Afghanistan said the group has increased their in-country operations against the Taliban, 57of which have been verified by the UN in the last three months.

“Sustaining our resistance and expanding our resistance without any external support” is one success he noted they have achieved in the past three and a half years, by “proving their will, our determination and our competence” which he said many in Washington questioned in the beginning.

He spoke further of over 20,000 terrorists who are presently training in Afghanistan preparing to facilitate attacks in both the region and against the international community including the United States. He further stated that in June 2024 there were three terrorist cells uncovered in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York all of whom received their training in Afghanistan and entered the US through the southern border.

The great lesson to be learned is that 9/11 was not a one-off historical event against American and Western interests, but a painful lesson to be ever more vigilant and proactive in crushing this growing and dangerous transnational threat.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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