Tony Kevin, a retired Australian career diplomat, who served as ambassador to Poland and Cambodia during his three decades in public service, drew some lessons from the “entirely predictable” and “ignominious rout” of the Ghani regime, in an article posted today to the Australian public policy blog, “Pearls and Irritations.”
“China has offered substantial economic help through the Belt and Road Initiative to the Taliban, with the agreed quid pro quo that the Taliban will not support any Islamist insurgencies in the Xinjiang province of China. Relations between the Taliban government in Afghanistan and the Russian and Chinese governments will be based on mutual respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he believes.
Therefore, “Afghanistan’s economic and social reconstruction could be swift, provided that it is not handicapped by continuing Western military interventions,” he warns. “There are some angry and vengeful voices in the Five Eyes strategic community already calling for continuing American drone- and bomber-launched missile attacks on Afghanistan cities from the air. No military purpose would be served now by such prolongation of hostilities and I hope that President Biden would firmly veto any such pointless aggression.”
