Forty-five years of forever wars -of direct intervention by the great powers and violence by their domestic and regional proxies- have resulted in massive suffering, unprecedented poverty and oppression in Afghanistan, today. The post-9-11-2001 UN sanctioned American-led NATO and others’ military intervention cost more than $2 trillion in treasures and considerable blood, mostly of Afghan lives and fewer international casualties. This so called “war on global terror”, promised to combat terrorism and its enablers, and liberate the peoples of Afghanistan from the Taliban rule, especially liberate Afghan women and girls. But, twenty years later, on August 15, 2021, the Americans and their allies abandoned Afghanistan, handing the country back to the Taliban, whom they had been fighting as terrorists for two decades. The irony is, the Taliban’s current governing leaders’ names are still on the UN’s terrorists’ black list. Such ending of the West’s war on terror has disillusioned the rest of the world including the peoples of Afghanistan to the core, especially the educated youth, men and women alike. The outcome of America’s longest war in history has left many in Afghanistan questioning the very meaning of the world order. For some Afghans, the meaning of even life itself is being questioned.

Forty-five years of forever wars -of direct intervention by the great powers and violence by their domestic and regional proxies- have resulted in massive suffering, unprecedented poverty and oppression in Afghanistan, today. The post-9-11-2001 UN sanctioned American-led NATO and others’ military intervention cost more than $2 trillion in treasures and considerable blood, mostly of Afghan lives and fewer international casualties. This so called “war on global terror”, promised to combat terrorism and its enablers, and liberate the peoples of Afghanistan from the Taliban rule, especially liberate Afghan women and girls. But, twenty years later, on August 15, 2021, the Americans and their allies abandoned Afghanistan, handing the country back to the Taliban, whom they had been fighting as terrorists for two decades. The irony is, the Taliban’s current governing leaders’ names are still on the UN’s terrorists’ black list. Such ending of the West’s war on terror has disillusioned the rest of the world including the peoples of Afghanistan to the core, especially the educated youth, men and women alike. The outcome of America’s longest war in history has left many in Afghanistan questioning the very meaning of the world order. For some Afghans, the meaning of even life itself is being questioned.