US war pushes 90% of Afghans into poverty

Once the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was complete, US President Joe Biden proclaimed an end to the two decade US-led war in that country as well as an end to “major (US) military operations to remake other countries.” Biden also vowed to defend the US from Daesh and similar groups without embroiling the US in other “forever” ground wars. Instead, Biden intends to wage such conflicts with “over the horizon” assets –bombers and drones and demonstrated their use when striking Daesh bombers seeking to target Kabul’s airport during the final days of the US pullout.

This means no end to the campaign, dubbed the “war on terror,” by George W. Bush in his address to Congress and his country on September 20th, 2001, nine days after Al Qaeda’s attacks on New York and Washington. He also transformed the planned offensive against Al Qaeda’s presence in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan into a global effort designed to eliminate Osama Bin Laden’s organisation and similar groups. To carry on with this offensive, the US retains a military presence in 85 countries.

In last week’s report on the worldwide US military campaign, Brown University’s Costs of War Project summed up the first two decades by pointing out that this war has killed more than one million people and cost the US $8 trillion. The Project’s researchers covered both the human and material costs of conflicts the US has waged in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen and else-where.

The overall financial cost of US warfare includes $2.3 trillion for the full-scale military campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan and $2.1 trillion in Iraq and Syria.

The Project’s co-director Neta Crawford said, “It’s critical we properly account for the vast and varied consequences of the many US wars and counter-terror operations since 9/11, as we pause and reflect on all of the lives lost.”

Direct deaths are estimated at 897,000 to 919,000 people, including 387,072 civilians, but she admits that these figures are “likely a vast undercount of the true toll these wars have taken on human life,” she stated.

This is because the US does not, intentionally, count the number of foreign fatalities inflicted by overseas operations while it does count deaths and woundings among its own soldiers and contractors. During this period, the Cost of War put deaths at 7,000 for US soldiers and for 8,000 contractors.

On Afghanistan specifically, US military deaths were 2,324. contractors 3,917, allied troops, 1,144, Afghan military and police 69,095, opposition fighters 52,893, and civilians 46,319 (by all sides).

(In the view of this correspondent, these figures explain to a certain extent why Afghan forces did not fight the Taliban after the Trump administration decided to make peace with the Taliban in January 2020 and pull remaining US troops and contractors out of the country, leaving Afghan soldiers without logistical, intelligence, resupply and air cover. Since the US was, all too clearly, determined to hand Afghanistan over to the Taliban, Afghan soldiers saw there was no point in resisting its advance across the country.)

The report also points out, “Several times as more (people) have been killed as a reverberating effect of the wars — because, for example, of water loss, sewage and other infrastructural issues, and water-related disease.”

Displacement inflicts even wider disruption on civilian populations. Due to the global US “war on terror,” 38 million people have been displaced within their home countries or sought refuge in neighbouring countries or distant lands. “Total displacement could be closer to 49-60 million, which would rival World War II displacement,” the report reveals. Although 26.7 million people are no longer displaced, this “does not erase the trauma of displacement or the displaced have necessarily returned to their original homes or a secure life.”

The US-Taliban war has thrust 90 per cent of Afghans below the poverty line. Agricultural production, which formerly fed the population, has been severely reduced by drought, conflict and instability. Eighteen million people depend on humanitarian aid to survive, although deliveries of food and healthcare have been disrupted. The UN reports that in 2021 about a third of Afghans are malnourished and half of all children under five are malnourished.

There were 3.5 million internally displaced Afghans before the US began its withdrawal to which another half million have been added this year, 80 per cent of them women and girls.

Returning to the issue of refugees, the US has never assumed responsibility for the millions of people driven from their homes and homelands by its foreign wars.

While Washington evacuated 123,000 people, 9,000 of them US citizens, from Afghanistan during its August 15th-30th airlift, it is not clear how many Afghans will be permitted by the Taliban to leave and how many will be allowed to settle in the US or in US allied countries.

The number of Afghans who entered the US through August 31st was 31,107 while 40,000 have been accommodated at US bases overseas awaiting to be processed.

At least 50,000 are expected to be settled in the US, Homeland Security boss Alejandro Mayorkas said. This number is far short of the 300,000 who worked with US forces and officials over two decades. If family members are counted the figure could rise to 1.2 or 1.3 million. They are a uniquely US responsibility.

The European Union wants to avoid another mass influx of refugees like that of 2014-15 when over a million sought asylum. The bloc is prepared to throw money at poor countries neighbouring Afghanistan to allow Afghan refugees to settle there. They are, however, reluctant to do so. Refugees have a reputation of overstaying their welcome.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have currently gathered at the borders of Pakistan, which already hosts 1.4 million registered refugees, and Iran where 780,000 registered refugees live.

There are hundreds of thousands of unregistered Afghans living in both countries. The country hosting the third largest number of Afghan refugees is Germany with 148,000 and it is prepared to accept another 10,000 — but could take up to 40,000.

When Vietnam fell to the Viet Cong and Cambodia collapsed into the brutal hands of the Khmer Rouge, the US took in 140,000 refugees, most serving in the US-sponsored forces, while three million fled the country and millions more were left to the tender mercies of the victorious Communists. Following George W. Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, the US admitted only 47,331 Iraqi refugees, the majority of whom had served as interpreters and contractors. Jordan took in more than a million and Syria 1.25 million.

Waging war creates commitments for the powers involved even if they try to shirk their responsibilities.