The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Kim Da-mi, Jeon So-nee team up for coming-of-age film 'Soulmate'

  • 3

    Park Hyung-sik to play crown prince in tvN series 'Our Blooming Youth'

  • 5

    Discussions on raising age for free subway rides gain momentum

  • 7

    Too many emergency text alerts? Gov't to halt daily COVID-19 notifications

  • 9

    First lady expands presence in domestic politics

  • 11

    'Ant-Man 3' promises bigger, better action with same family dynamic: cast

  • 13

    Seoul to discuss reforming free transportation benefits for seniors

  • 15

    FSC OKs Apple Pay to be available in Korea

  • 17

    Yoon's office to press charges over report on fortune teller

  • 19

    Britain's trade with N. Korea more than doubles last year: report

  • 2

    Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars

  • 4

    Itaewon tragedy's bereaved families harassed by far-right protesters

  • 6

    SM to introduce multi-production system to increase business capabilities

  • 8

    Plan to construct new memorial center for ex-president faces backlash

  • 10

    Ex-justice minister gets 2-year prison term for academic irregularities surrounding family

  • 12

    Apple Pay can be launched in Korea: financial regulator

  • 14

    Able C&C sale attracts dozens of potential buyers

  • 16

    Naver to roll out conversational AI service

  • 18

    Naver 2022 net profit down 96% on one-off factor

  • 20

    SEMICON Korea defies chip industry downturn

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Sun, February 5, 2023 | 10:04
John J. Metzler
Afghanistan's Saigon scenario
Posted : 2021-08-23 17:10
Updated : 2021-08-23 17:03
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link
By John J. Metzler

Sadly, we have seen this movie before. In the spring of 1975 the collapse of South Vietnam coming to crescendo with the fall of Saigon indelibly marked a generation.

Cities like Pleiku, Danang and Hue in this contemporary saga are Kunduz, Kandahar and Herat. Now with the Taliban's stunning success over the beleaguered and ineffective Afghan Army, the same tragic fate awaits Afghanistan since the Taliban captured Kabul.

"Afghanistan is spinning out of control," warned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He added, "Humanitarian needs are growing by the hour."

America's frustrating 20-year military commitment in Afghanistan was coming to an end in any event. It was certainly time to go and both sides of the political aisle in Washington realized this.

Yet it was the Biden administration's original tone deaf policy to plan completing the pullout on Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the most hideous Islamic terrorist attack on the U.S. This timing signaled weakness and an almost comic understanding of the war we were fighting and that killed 2,400 Americans and injured another 20,000.

The pullout of remaining U.S. troops and over 8,000 NATO forces from France, Italy and Germany created a gaping political power vacuum. Significantly the move psychologically demoralized the Afghan army almost immediately. The Taliban filled the void with lightning efficiency.

American political policy in Afghanistan has been a mix of muddled mediocrity, lubricated with billions of dollars in misspent largesse amid great expectations which exceed the cost of the post-World War II Marshall Plan that rebuilt devastated Europe!

Now the drama has turned full circle and reached its crescendo with the fall of Kabul.

The U.S. military's pullout from the strategic Baghram airbase a month ago allowed this military hub brimming with so much new U.S. equipment to fall first into the hands of looters then an indifferent Afghan garrison. The move telegraphed reckless stupidity to the Taliban fighters.

Yet news of this chaos in Afghanistan has been tempered by the faux strategic sagacity of President Joe Biden who weeks ago expressed confidence in the Afghan military being able to defend the war-torn country.

But as the Taliban reached the gates of Kabul, Secretary of State Antony Blinken conceded that the collapse "has happened more quickly than we anticipated." Clearly this was not a rout of the American military but a tragic collapse of its Afghan proxy.

It's not that the Taliban Islamic militants are really so tough; nor that the Afghan side lacks training or armaments, but sadly the motivation and willingness to fight. Taliban, harbingers of a medieval ideology and theocratic regime, had the momentum to victory.

Now our immediate task is to secure and evacuate personnel from the sprawling U.S. Embassy without evoking haunting scenes of Saigon 1975. Grim scenes of the Kabul chaos are juxtaposed with the president's delusional sanctimonious malarkey.

We never grasped the truism that Afghanistan remains a tribal and ethnic quilt of peoples who see sovereignty resting in their particular province or valley and bound often by warlords and fundamentalist Islam.

Trying to create a secular and internationally respectable state promoting elections, tolerance, and women's rights, while clearly a noble concept and probably embraced by a significant minority in urban centers such as Kabul, became Quixotic at best.

The French daily Le Figaro headlined, "Afghanistan: the Routing of the West." Renaud Giraud opined, "Europe will pay for the inconsistency of the United States in Afghanistan."

The ousted Afghan government in Kabul can at best be seen as largely incompetent and corrupt. Clearly a Taliban victory signals a victory of Islamic extremism. It evokes the humiliation of the U.S. by forces which cannot be grasped by Washington think tanks or woke leftist media. A return of an al-Qaida terrorist network is almost assured.

A few poignant issues: U.S. military commitment to prevent a serious al-Qaida presence for 20 years.

Human rights: Sadly we already know the answer as we did back in South Vietnam.

Interpreter: So many decent and dedicated Afghan civilians worked with the American and European coalition forces as interpreters, guides, etc. Their fate following a Taliban takeover is painfully obvious.

The U.S. has given special refugee status to some of the interpreters and their direct families.

Regional powers: The Iranians, Turks, Russians and the Chinese are all gauging their reactions.

Refugees: The expected outflow of refugees may be staggeringly high and the human tide will soon reach Europe and America.

Stranded civilians: Over 15,000 Americans are stranded in Kabul depending on Taliban good-will to let them leave. The Biden administration's appalling incompetence to withdraw the military before U.S. civilians has left them marooned under Taliban control.

The U.N.'s Guterres warned, "The international community must unite to make sure that Afghanistan is never again used as a platform or safe haven for terrorist organizations."

The fall of Kabul and the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan presents a starkly stunning geopolitical setback for the United States' standing and global credibility.


John J. Metzler (jjmcolumn@earthlink.net) is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism ― The Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China."


 
Top 10 Stories
1Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars
2Itaewon tragedy's bereaved families harassed by far-right protesters Itaewon tragedy's bereaved families harassed by far-right protesters
3Discussions on raising age for free subway rides gain momentum Discussions on raising age for free subway rides gain momentum
4Too many emergency text alerts? Gov't to halt daily COVID-19 notifications Too many emergency text alerts? Gov't to halt daily COVID-19 notifications
5Plan to construct new memorial center for ex-president faces backlash Plan to construct new memorial center for ex-president faces backlash
6First lady expands presence in domestic politics First lady expands presence in domestic politics
7Able C&C sale attracts dozens of potential buyers Able C&C sale attracts dozens of potential buyers
8FSC OKs Apple Pay to be available in Korea FSC OKs Apple Pay to be available in Korea
9Naver to roll out conversational AI service Naver to roll out conversational AI service
10SEMICON Korea defies chip industry downturn SEMICON Korea defies chip industry downturn
Top 5 Entertainment News
1Kim Da-mi, Jeon So-nee team up for coming-of-age film 'Soulmate' Kim Da-mi, Jeon So-nee team up for coming-of-age film 'Soulmate'
2Park Hyung-sik to play crown prince in tvN series 'Our Blooming Youth' Park Hyung-sik to play crown prince in tvN series 'Our Blooming Youth'
3'Ant-Man 3' promises bigger, better action with same family dynamic: cast 'Ant-Man 3' promises bigger, better action with same family dynamic: cast
4[INTERVIEW] Disney+ 'Big Bet' director on portraying greed and desire INTERVIEWDisney+ 'Big Bet' director on portraying greed and desire
5TXT, Le Sserafim top Oricon album and singles chart TXT, Le Sserafim top Oricon album and singles chart
DARKROOM
  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

  • World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

    World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group