Afghanistan – A Win for America’s Enemies and Violators of Human Rights

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By Omar Qudrat

On August 31, 2021, President Biden announced America “ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan.” The American people witnessed horrifying immediate consequences of Biden’s disastrous withdrawal: U.S. citizens abandoned in a now-terrorist state, allies abandoned with broken American promises, and gut wrenching images of a humanitarian calamity. That humanitarian calamity continues. 

The more far-reaching effects of Biden’s exit has evaded the preponderance of U.S. media coverage.

In his Afghanistan exit, President Biden delivered at least four strategic blows to the United States:

1. China became the beneficiary of potentially trillions of dollars’ worth of strategic rare earth elements in Afghanistan. A scale perhaps second only to China’s reserves, President Biden helped sharpen China’s edge in its quest for global preeminence,

2. The new central and south Asian regional scheme may drive two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, closer to a future war, threatening regional and global security,

3. In a very important region, the world has a new terrorist nation state that falls squarely under the sphere of influence of America’s competitors and adversaries, China and Russia, and

4. America has sent a message to the world that it is acceptable to Washington, D.C. that a terrorist organization engaged in systematic human rights abuses be a sovereign government in our world.

The American people should take stock of the multiple new strategic threats emanating from what has happened in Afghanistan if the people are to hold future administrations to account to manage these threats.

First, rare earth elements are important because they make functional the warfare instruments of the present and the future. Rare earth elements are essential for a range of critical items such as superconductors to fiber optics, high-capacity rechargeable batteries, which are a future staple for civilian and military uses, satellites, lasers, aircraft, missile guidance systems, anti-missile defense systems, and more. For mass consumption goods like phones, computers, and TV’s, rare earth elements afford China substantial trade leverage. Indeed, during America’s trade war with China a few years ago, China’s rare earth export prices increased.

In recent years, China accounts for about 95% of the world’s production of rare earth elements and about 40% of the world’s rare earth reserves. According to the Government Accountability Office, back five years ago the U.S. Department of Defense alone accounted for about 9% of global demand of rare earth elements. That number will continue to climb.

Chinese “unrestricted warfare” military strategists assert that anything can and should be used as a weapon in “virtually infinite” new battlefields in modern warfare. Afghanistan presents an opportunity for China to surge in rare earth preeminence.

China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative seeks to expand its economic power and influence over poorer nations in all continents with debt-trap diplomacy. Afghanistan has fallen into China’s sphere of influence. 

Second, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan changes the security paradigm in Central and South Asia, specifically between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers.

Pakistan has long feared a future war with India as an existential threat. Pakistan is aware it cannot prevail in a conventional military confrontation with India. That’s why for decades Pakistan has pursued a policy to take control of Afghanistan as a satellite state, in order to use Afghanistan as a launching pad for asymmetric warfare against India in the event of a future war. Pakistan’s approach to accomplish this was to back and maintain command and control over the Taliban.

Pakistan has now secured Afghanistan via the Taliban. Should a future war between India and Pakistan occur, Pakistan can use Afghanistan as a terrain from which to launch asymmetric warfare capabilities, specifically terrorist operations, and an insurgency against India. Consequently, a potential future war between the two nuclear powers would become protracted and intensified, risking escalation between two nuclear powers. India’s risk calculations have and continue to shift since Pakistan secured Afghanistan via the Taliban. The world has a stake in ensuring India and Pakistan tensions do not escalate in the future. 

Third, America’s adversaries have rushed in to secure interests with the Taliban as the U.S. disposed of its influence and levers there. America is limited in its ability to engage the Taliban.

Can the U.S. recognize a terrorist organization as a sovereign government? Can U.S. taxpayer dollars be handed to a terrorist organization for any purpose? Can America accept a terrorist flying into Dulles or Reagan airport to start work as an Ambassador in Washington, D.C.? Can the United States engage in trade relations with a terrorist organization? While plenty of laws arguably prohibit these, a group of Senators felt compelled to introduce an act titled, “Preventing Recognition of Terrorist States Act” to enjoin the Biden administration from taking such steps.

Nations like China and Russia have no such trepidations working with war criminals and terrorists. Both nations have welcomed the Taliban into their spheres of influence. European leaders and senior United Nations officials have established official relations with the Taliban. By legitimizing the Taliban, a terrorist organization systematically committing gross violations of human rights,, the credibility of the west, not just America, is significantly damaged as credible advocates of human rights on the world stage.

The Taliban started their first day in power with enormous American military power by way of full equipment of a nation state's land and air forces, all left to a terrorist organization. No meaningful word to date from the U.S. government on property and technology accountability amid the largest transfer of U.S. military equipment in history. 

Fourth, the U.S. has impliedly signaled and perhaps set a precedent that terrorist organizations taking over nations—along with accompanying systematic human rights abuses—is acceptable to America.

Executions have been underway against Afghan allies since the U.S. withdrawal. Human rights abuses against women and denying girls and women the human right of education is now national policy in Afghanistan LGBT Afghans are systematically targeted by the Taliban. Threats, rapes, assaults, and wrongful detention against LGBT Afghans are surging. Many non-government organizations are admirably laboring to save Afghans at risk. One local example includes a California LGBT organization continuing to undertake efforts to rescue LGBT Afghans. The administration predictably no longer discusses Afghanistan, unless asked. Largely, journalists no longer ask about Afghanistan and human rights abuses there.

On the rare occasion the Biden administration does answer a question about Afghanistan, it still insists the president's Afghanistan exit and its effects are a success story. Since August 31, 2021, President Biden has promoted this catastrophe as an example of American excellence. The American people have soundly rejected President Biden’s dissembling approach. In August 2021, President Biden’s approval rating was 54%. It fell to 38% just two and half weeks later as horrific images continued to reach the American people. 

An unknown number of American civilians are still stuck in Afghanistan. President Biden withdrew the military first and seemingly forgot American civilians were in Afghanistan. After outrage by the American public on the abandonment of our fellow citizens and Afghan allies, President Biden sent the military back in. At this point, the administration had eliminated our capabilities on the ground and precluded a workable security posture for our troops charged with extracting thousands. On August 26, 2021, 13 U.S. service members were tragically and needlessly killed due to the grossly negligent position the administration put these young men and women in. Four of our fallen were Californians. 

The manner in which the U.S. executed America’s exit from Afghanistan, not the policy of America exiting itself, is the subject of the American public’s discontentment. The Biden administration knows this but persists with strawmen and spin. Most Americans remain unpersuaded.

Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco also damaged our NATO alliance and NATO’s credibility in the face of a more aggressive Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. U.S. presidents of both parties could face difficulty building a committed coalition when, inevitably, America is at war in the future.

But we still have opportunities, and we can still do some good.

First and foremost, the American people should continue to demand all U.S. citizens be rescued from Afghanistan. Second, America can fulfill its promise to Afghan allies who are being hunted and killed in Afghanistan—get them out. Third, for those vetted allies who were lucky to get out and are starting to populate our cities here in California and across America, we should come together as a nation to take care of them and their families. Fourth, beyond slogans, the Biden administration should fight for human rights in Afghanistan, including for women’s and LGBT rights. The administration should rally European allies to hold the line on official acts and aid until we see proof of rights being protected on an ongoing basis and a break from activities and alliances with global terrorist organizations like al Qaeda. Fifth, with a humanitarian catastrophe growing across all measures, any aid contemplated by the Biden administration should be organized with our allies to flow to the many NGOs in Afghanistan capable of executing humanitarian assistance operations. Aid should not flow through the Taliban. Aside from ensuring we do not finance terrorist organizations, the Taliban are proven thieves. The Taliban will steal funds and hoard supplies. Moreover, the Taliban at the moment are totally incapable of governing and executing such a large aid operation.

Lastly, the Biden administration should still try to influence Afghanistan and the region through partners and allies who still hold levers and credibility there, like the United Kingdom, due to England’s longstanding and unique channels to key capitals and parties in the region. Various U.S. allies are distinctively positioned to help shape the unfolding new regional scheme in Central and South Asia. 

Big picture, the United States should engage all key partners and allies to align in a shared regional vision, define shared interests together, and, as possible, lead or complement the way forward.

Meanwhile, the American public should remember every day that we have fellow Americans in grave danger in Afghanistan. The American people should zealously persist in demanding the administration bring our fellow Americans home safely.
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Omar Qudrat is a Pacific Council member and an attorney based in California. Among his positions as a U.S. Department of Defense official, Omar spent 18 months in Afghanistan during the surge as the International Security Assistance Force Headquarters Deputy Chief of Rule of Law and political advisor to the NATO Ambassador. An Afghan-American, Omar’s parents immigrated to the United States in the 1970’s. Omar is a reserve officer in the U.S. Army.

The views expressed in this article are that of the author and do not reflect the policy or positions of the U.S. Army or U.S. Department of Defense.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.