The Afghan Legacies of George W Bush and Tony Blair

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/7/31/george-w-bush-should-shut-up-and-go-away

The author of the editorial is correct in exposing a rather startling truth - men like George Bush have no conscience. A man who should be in sackcloth and ashes is instead living the good life and has been largely rehabilitated in the eyes of the American public. 

 

His presidency ended in disaster. The seeds were sown for the present social chaos and at times the near implosion we've seen in recent years. The military had been pushed almost to the breaking point, a nightmare scenario (from their perspective) only exceeded by the near-collapse of the institution in the early 1970's in connection to Vietnam.

Well over a million people have died as a direct and indirect result of Bush's wars. While all the blame cannot be placed on him - Obama and Trump played their part to be sure - he certainly got the ball rolling.

Entire societies were wrecked, countless families destroyed, and infrastructure in some places has been set back for at least a generation. He is by any estimation a criminal, a veritable monster - far more destructive and deadly than Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban combined.

It is particularly galling that he remains in good standing among American Evangelicals who even now wistfully look back on the Bush era. In many cases they too have all but abandoned conscience.

Much more could be said about what he did to American society in terms of surveillance and the law. Then there's the prison camps, kidnappings, death squads, torture and the like. George III who inspired the rebels of 1776 seems like a lightweight when compared to Bush II. I suppose many people have already forgotten all of this even though he left office only twelve years ago.

It's also deeply offensive to hear the likes of Tony Blair who has recently emerged from his lair to speak out in criticism of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. It's astonishing that he's even able to show his face. Through sheer deceit he manipulated his nation into the Bush Wars. A pseudo-liberal if ever there was one, the Blairites have been subsequently exposed as a Right-wing faction fully committed to capitalism and the restoration of the British Empire - even if it means riding on Washington's coattails for the foreseeable future. One cannot but shake one's head in remembering Blair's absurd rhetoric from the time.

After 9/11 he was quick to sign on to Bush's war in Afghanistan pledging to bomb the Taliban's poppy fields - knowing full well that the Taliban had quashed the opium trade once they came into power. Since their ousting in 2001, the trade has flourished. Yes, the Taliban once again turned to the trade to finance their guerrilla campaigns. They view it is an immoral economy for a Salafist state and thus when in power they banish it. But when out of power they utilise its undeniable lucrative potential to help fund their fighting machine. Besides, if it merely poisons the minds and souls of Westerners, what do they care?

But as we know the real drug kingpins over the past twenty years have been those connected to the Kabul puppet regime - and the CIA. History repeats itself. The connections to America's campaign in Indochina are palpable and unmistakable.

Bush and Blair think the consequences of a US-NATO withdrawal are going to be bad. Just think about that for a moment. Let it wash over you. It's an amazing thing for them to say given the level of death, destruction and violent debauchery they and their successors have unleashed on the country for the past twenty years. It just boggles the mind - the degree of self-deception and moral bankruptcy these men possess.

Bush made Iraq and Afghanistan far more brutal places than they already were. Iraq despite being under a dictatorship was fairly stable and progressive in many respects. The Taliban while harsh to be sure had finally brought about a modicum of stability to the country which at that time had been in a state of war for seventeen years - which is why in the late 1990's the US was actually trying to cut deals with them. When the US realised it could not work with them and it was more advantageous to the larger geo-political strategy vis-à-vis Central Asia to oust them - the news took a noticeable turn and it became obvious by the end of the 1990's that the US was itching for an excuse to invade. The warmongers and militarists in Washington didn't have to wait long did they? September 11th gave the Neo-conservatives the blank check they had longed for - to launch global war in order to secure American hegemony and unipolarity.

The Taliban would not enjoy the support it has today but for the occupation and the establishment of the ultra-corrupt Kabul regime. The society has been shattered and this has only fueled the process of radicalisation. The so-called 'improvements' are largely found within the handful of urban pockets and among the nations' paltry middle class and oligarchs - all of whom are plugged into the American led money pipeline.

Bush laments the suffering that will be unleashed on women and girls but remains blind to the countless women and girls who have been maimed and killed by American bombs and military operations and not just in Afghanistan but in the Pashtun border regions of neighbouring Pakistan.

If Bush was an actual Christian he would be broken and the shame and repentance would be evident. These things are not present in him, nor seemingly in those who still laud this man and his evil legacy.