WASHINGTON -- If the propagandists of the Taliban had scripted the collapse of America’s 20-year mission to reshape Afghanistan, they could not have come up with more harrowing images. As insurgents swept into Kabul, desperate Afghans, terrified about what the victorious zealots might do, chased departing American cargo planes down the runway, trying to clamber into the landing gear and inevitably falling to their deaths. The American-backed government had surrendered without a fight—something that American officials were insisting would not happen only days before. Afghans were left in such a horrifying bind that clinging to the wheels of a hurtling aircraft seemed their best option.
According to The Economist, America has spent $2 trillion in Afghanistan; more than 2,000 American lives have been lost, not to mention countless Afghan ones. And yet, even if Afghans are more prosperous now than when America invaded, Afghanistan is back to square one. The Taliban control more of the country than they did when they lost power, they are better armed, having seized the weapons America showered on the Afghan army, and they have now won the ultimate affirmation: defeating a superpower.
The insurgents have made a show of magnanimity, pledging that they will not take revenge on those who worked for the toppled government and insisting that they will respect women’s rights, within their interpretation of law. But that interpretation kept most girls out of school and most women confined to their homes when the group was last in power, in the 1990s. Brutal punishments—floggings, stonings, amputations—were common.
As a result, America’s power to deter its enemies and reassure its friends has diminished, The Economist said. Its intelligence was flawed, its planning rigid, its leaders capricious and its concern for allies minimal. That is likely to embolden takfiris everywhere, it added.
According to China’s tabloid newspaper Global Times, the victory of the Taliban is a major failure of Western civilization that started with its expansion 500 years ago.
“The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has a symbolic significance, that is the use of force to transform or conquer so-called backward civilizations will no longer work because the world today is completely different from 500 years ago when the West conquered South America.”
According to the paper, the West has been undertaking religious and ideological missions

all this time. In addition, it has been plundering wealth and markets all over the world relentlessly.
“This has caused endless wars around the globe and left heavy burdens on developing countries politically, economically, and geographically. In particular, the West’s forceful promotion of its political standards has constrained developing countries from seeking a stable development path that suits their own cultural and historical traditions.”
After the withdrawal of American troops, Western media complained sadly that the U.S. had run away without completing its mission, which was a “heavy blow” to the spirit of its allies.
Armin Laschet, Germany’s possible successor to Angela Merkel after September’s general election, described it as “NATO’s biggest debacle since its founding”.
“We look like a deer caught in the headlights,” says Mathew Burrows, a former senior CIA officer now at the Atlantic Council, quoted by the Financial Times. “It is one more chink gone in the American empire.”