Revenge

Western media organisations are on the lookout for the Taliban taking revenge against the people who opposed them during the war. This is a bit naïve as the destruction of war always produces desires for revenge. War and revenge have always fed on each other and always will.

The war in Afghanistan was started because many people in the United States wanted revenge for the 9/11 attacks. So, if Americans are allowed revenge for attacks on their cities, why are the Taliban not allowed revenge on people who betrayed them. Expecting otherwise is a double standard of morality.

Of course, many Afghans who worked with the American and NATO forces will be afraid. However, choosing to work with an invading army (even the US or NATO) is a risky business, even if the money they offer for collaboration is good. You need to be sure that the side you have chosen will win in the long term.

I suppose that most of those who worked for the Americans assumed they would win, so that working for them was a sure thing. That has proved to be a mistake (Given the developing pattern of withdrawals from the wars it started, working for American forces anywhere is likely to be a mistake). No doubt, a few assumed that by working for the American forces, they were on the side of good, but that is a doubtful proposition.

The news media assume that the people wanting to escape Afghanistan are choosing to flee to freedom. I suspect that it is simpler than that. Most are wanting to flee because they know they will now be seen as collaborators with an invading enemy army. Some will be especially fearful because they have betrayed their villages or families to the US-backed security forces. Some will be really afraid because they supplied information to the Americans that resulted in villages or groups of people being bombed. Some will be afraid because they dobbed in their enemies to settle old scores.

I feel sorry for those who chose to collaborate with the losing side in the Afghan War, but some choices have serious consequences. Losing armies rarely care about the locals that supported them when they retreat. The US people want to forget this war, so they don’t want a huge influx of Afghan refugees into their nation, even though it was their political leaders who started and perpetuated this war.

The large number of people wanting to leave Afghanistan is a consequence of the modern way of fighting a war. Traditional armies took cooks, drivers, and other supporters with them into the battle zone (officers had their orderlies and the ordinary troops fended for themselves). So, when they withdrew, everyone who fought could return home, provided they survived the fighting.

Modern military forces don’t work like that. They send trained fighters, but employ the local people in the country they have invaded to provide logistical support. The modern army needs huge numbers of cooks, cleaners, translators, drivers, loaders, mechanics and office staff to support. Sending them from the home country is too expensive, so they choose to hire local people who are much cheaper to employ.

The invading nation uses its greater wealth to seduce local people into supporting their cause. These people do extremely well if the invading army wins the war, but if the invading army has to retreat, they find themselves being treated as collaborators with the enemy of their nation.

This practice is hugely dishonest. By paying local people to provide logistical support for their military forces, western nations are effectively bribing people to betray their own people, which is not fair. If Western nations are unwilling to send people from home to support their armies, or train their own people to speak the local language, they probably shouldn’t be there. War on the cheap is immoral.

For countries like New Zealand, Australia and the US to send military forces to a foreign country and recruit locals to support them without a plan to extract them if the war turns bad is morally irresponsible. The lack of planning by the US and its NATO allies that has created the shambles at Kabul International Airport shows that they did not really care about the people that they paid to collaborate with them.