Afghanistan is widely recognized as a “failed state” and a “graveyard of empires.” However, what is not so well recognized is that it is also a graveyard for its own people and record numbers have fled the chaos there, both to neighboring countries and to others further afield. So Alex Marshall and Tim Bird have done a credible job of describing in 262 pages of their book “Afghanistan: How the West Lost Its Way”, the tragedy that is Afghanistan today in all its nuances.

If we agree with the reasons that led to the “war on terror” announced by the attack on Afghanistan in 2001, we cannot but agree that the West has not achieved its objectives there. The reasons for this are what this book focuses on, as opposed to, for example, Peter Marsden’s book on Afghanistan, which tracks the country’s tribulations from the perspective of the development effort through the NGOs there.

In my opinion, the most tangible reason for this failure to achieve the objectives is that the Taliban, who have cunningly played cat and mouse with the forces sent to eliminate them, have not been successfully eliminated militarily. Other than that, the partners in the so-called “war on terror” have had their compulsions and are unprepared for all kinds of combat endeavors. Support from immediate neighboring countries such as Pakistan has been dubious at best. Despite declared claims of being interested in peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan has been waging a fourteen-year undeclared war in that country, as recently put by an Afghan official. A convenient handling of this has been the ‘Pakthunistan problem’, which involves Pathans’ historic claims of a unified homeland on both sides of the border, possibly akin to Kurdish aspirations in the Middle East. Western involvement internally in Afghanistan under American leadership has only served its local puppets to settle scores and thus has fostered a culture of never-ending victimization and revenge. He has also created how this book establishes an entire category of ‘American warlords’. Thus, this has only perpetuated an environment that began with the 1979 Soviet invasion, which fostered an inherent rebellion against established authority. It is true that the PDPA may have been brutal in its methods, as Peter Marsden has observed, but it is a moot point whether Afghanistan has ever been ruled in some other way. Apart from that, it has been argued that there is a widespread culture of corruption that has led to it being described as a “rentier state”, which is totally dependent on external goodwill.

I believe that there is no viable state structure there that can survive a single day without foreign patronage, be it the current dispensation under Western tutelage or the Taliban under Pakistani patronage; They are all men who dance to the beat of others or at least that is how they are perceived and, as we know in politics, three-quarters of the story is about perception. from a contemporary perspective as the ‘state’ to the extent that it exists is totally dependent on foreign patronage for its operation. Even the provision of basic services like electricity depends on outside help. For example, in 2008/09, Afghanistan obtained electricity through the electricity grids of its neighbors, Herat and the western parts of the country of Iran and the eastern areas contiguous to Pakistan obtained electricity on a smaller scale from that country. The rest of the development effort was also being carried out by non-governmental organizations in the same time frame. The situation may not have changed much since the unfortunate security scenario in the country was considered and if something has deteriorated to the point where it is believed that the country is now inundated with terrorists, both for the participation of the United States and for Western reading as a stabilizing role in Afghanistan.

What is relevant about the military interventions in Afghanistan is that foreign powers have not had a coherent exit policy and, consequently, have paid a high price. Doing that in this country can only lead to disaster, similar to driving in the dark without headlights. In general, the setting in Afghanistan today reminds me of the lyrics to the song ‘Hotel California’ that says you can check-out but never leave …