Afghanistan, 25 Years Later: Journalist Emran Feroz on the Legacy of “America’s Longest War”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Today marks 25 years given that the U.S.-led intrusion of Afghanistan, the start of what would end up being the longest war in U.S. history. Less than a month after the September 11th World Trade Center attacks, the United States introduced airstrikes versus Afghanistan. The Taliban federal government was ousted within months, however the U.S.-led war and profession would continue for almost 20 years, throughout which more than 100,000 Afghan civilians were eliminated, according to the U.N. More than 2,300 U.S. service members passed away. The U.S. invested trillions of dollars on the war and efforts to construct an Afghan federal government and military, that eventually collapsed with sensational speed in August 2021.

Today, Afghanistan is dealing with a deepening humanitarian crisis. Ladies and women have actually been locked out of college and face sweeping constraints on their work, motion and involvement in public life.

AMY GOODMAN: Our next visitor, Austrian Afghan reporter Emran Feroz, is simply back from a month reporting in Afghanistan. His brand-new piece for Truthout is headlined “The War on Afghanistan Was Launched 25 Years Ago. It Still Hasn’t Ended.” He’s joining us from Stuttgart, Germany.

Emran, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why do not you set out what you discovered, as you’ve simply returned from Afghanistan? The U.S. bombed Afghanistan when the Taliban were in power, and the Taliban are back a quarter of a century later on.

EMRAN FEROZ: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Yes, I invested practically an entire month in Afghanistan, and the thing is that, as I composed in this pieceI think the “war on fear” is not over, particularly due to the fact that considering that the U.S. withdrawal, a great deal of airstrikes are still happening, specifically in the recentlies and months. And all these airstrikes are being performed by the Pakistani military program, which sort of took control of America’s function and is now utilizing the very same “war on fear” arguments that we heard for 20 years, once again to strike Afghan civilians. And the current strike simply occurred a couple of days earlier in the south of the nation, near the Pakistani border. And once again, the majority of the victims were civilians, specifically kids.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Emran, if you might state– you understand, a lot of individuals were shocked by the reality that the Taliban came back to power so rapidly. Who was supporting the Taliban in all those years?

EMRAN FEROZ: I indicate, throughout the 20 years of America’s longest war in Afghanistan, we might plainly see that failure was coming. The Afghan program in Kabul, the pro-Western Afghan program in Kabul, was extremely corrupt and was participating in a war that appeared to be limitless due to the fact that a lot of individuals were making money from it. And this war really made a great deal of individuals upset and, you understand, left them aggravating, and a great deal of these individuals, in fact, specifically in Afghanistan rural websites, began to support the Taliban once again.

I likewise desire to highlight that a lot of the locations that I checked out throughout the last weeks, for example, Bagram Air Base, close to Kabul, were in reality reproducing premises for America’s opponents, due to the fact that you had this big jail complex in the middle of the nation, which ended up being kind of a Little America. You had abuse jails beside Burger King and KFC and Starbucks, and a great deal of boys who disappeared there and who never ever came out, or a great deal of individuals, consisting of Taliban fighters, who were brought there and, in reality, ended up being a lot more radicalized through the important things that took place there.

AMY GOODMAN: You composed this piecesimply out, headlined “Why Bagram Air Base Remains a Target Five Years After U.S. Exited Afghanistan.” If you can discuss what’s occurred to females and women there now?

EMRAN FEROZ: The circumstance of ladies and ladies is quite bad in Afghanistan. I suggest, it’s– as currently discussed, they have no access to college. There is a lot of– like, you understand, a lot of issues when it comes to letting them work, enabling them work. And you might plainly see that ladies and ladies in Afghanistan are dealing with these repressions, which, really, regrettably, the Taliban themselves stated war versus them. That’s what a minimum of a great deal of Afghan women and females are going to inform you.

And you see that likewise a great deal of individuals, because of that, still attempt to leave the nation. Afghanistan is still producing a great deal of refugees, 10s of countless individuals who wish to leave the nation. And particularly in the cities, when you speak with individuals, including my own family members and good friends, they state, “OK, what should we do here? Particularly when it pertains to the future of our children, there is no future here. We are required to leave, even if we do not desire to do that.”

And this is, regrettably, the severe truth that everybody learns about, consisting of a great deal of Taliban authorities. And if you speak to them, you will likewise hear various things. There is kind of a disparity in between the Taliban management in Kabul and the one in Kandahar, which is making the laws. And it appears that, particularly in my case, like the important things that I experienced, is that a great deal of Taliban themselves do not actually support these repressions, however they are required to do it since there is a rigorous hierarchy, and they fear that they’re going to be divided if they begin to combat about this.

AMY GOODMAN: Emran Feroz, we wish to thank you a lot for being with us, Austrian Afghan reporter, author of Graveyard Empire: Four Decades of Wars and Intervention in Afghanistan

That does it for today’s program. Take This Story, Please!the documentary about Democracy Now!will be viewable online for the very first time in an unique occasion beginning Tuesday, October 13th, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. If you reside in the United States and Canada, you can see the movie in your own home and become part of the post-screening Q&A, concern and response, with me and the filmmakers, the Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin. The discussion will be moderated by the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Maria Hinojosa. To discover more, you can go to StealThisStory.orgYou can join us and assist support the effect of this movie that commemorates the value of independent media. I’ll likewise be at Fort Collins and in Boulder at University of Colorado the 26th and 27th of October. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh, for Democracy Now!