News Review 04/09/2021

US Finally Exits Afghanistan: Biden Again Defends US Defeat

Coming under considerable domestic pressure for the US defeat in Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden gave yet another speech, on Tuesday, the day after America finally exited Afghanistan, saying, in effect, that the war was lost years ago, “I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit”. Biden insisted that America, “no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan”. Meanwhile, all Biden could really boast about was that he had presided over one of the largest and fastest desertions of a battlefield in history, characterising the scale and speed of the airlift as an “extraordinary success”.

Biden also again expressed anger over the premature collapse of the puppet Kabul regime, which fell even faster than the Americans hastily fleeing the country, commenting that, “the Afghan security forces, after two decades of fighting for their country and losing thousands of their own, did not hold on as long as anyone expected” and how “the people of Afghanistan” had to watch “their own government collapse and the president flee amid the corruption and malfeasance, handing over the country to their enemy the Taliban and significantly increasing the risk to U.S. personnel and our allies”.
Furthermore, Biden explained that this was not just a defeat for America in Afghanistan but a defeat for the entire approach of militant empire-building, saying the decision to exit was also about “ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries”. Thus, America, the arrogant, the so-called exceptional power, to whom the rules of others apparently don’t apply, was forced to rediscover the bitter lesson that European empire-builders had already so painfully experienced in the previous century. Unable to sustain their empires, particularly in Muslim lands, one European power after another had been forced to grant ‘independence’ to its colonies, though of course this means merely the transfer of power to its own local agent ruling class, who would continue to serve the Western agenda. America wasn’t even able to properly achieve this in Afghanistan, though it is still making great efforts such as through applying pressure on Pakistan to force the Taliban to build a government that will continue to accept American direction.

The defeat of America, not only in Afghanistan but also in Iraq, and the American abandonment of militant empire-building exposes the true limits of the foreign disbelieving powers. If the Muslim Ummah continues to be governed by an agent ruling class loyal to the West, then it is only because Muslims erroneously overestimate Western strength while underestimating not only their own strength but also the great potential of the Islamic Shari’ah and any government founded on its sincere implementation.

With Allah’s permission, the Muslim Ummah shall soon arise, overthrow their present rulers, and re-establish the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that shall unify all Muslim lands under its governance, liberate all occupied territories, fully implement the Islamic Shari’ah, restore the Islamic way of life and carry the call for Islam to the entire world.

Kashmir again under Brutal Lockdown

The Indian Hindu state that has carried out decades of brutal occupation of Muslim Kashmir fears Muslim leaders even in death. On Wednesday, veteran Muslim leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani died after years of house arrest at the age of 91. Indian forces immediately went into action, not only intensifying its security lockdown of Kashmir and imposing a near-total communications blackout but also seizing Geelani’s body, preventing his burial at what has become known as the ‘martyrs’ graveyard’ and instead hastily burying him themselves at an alternate location before sunrise under close police watch. Kashmir is one of the most heavily militarised regions in the world, as the brutal Hindu State struggles to maintain control over this occupied Muslim land. The only reason that the Hindu state is able to do that is the acquiescence of Muslim governments, in particular Pakistan. It is Pakistan that has facilitated the ongoing Indian occupation of Kashmir just as it was Pakistan that facilitated the American occupation of Afghanistan, and the continuing Chinese occupation of Xinjiang, all three of these occupied territories directly bordering onto Pakistan, which boasts of being the Muslims world’s only nuclear state. What value are these nuclear weapons, or indeed the Pakistan military itself, which is one of the largest in the world, if they are not to be used to defend Muslims. Allah (swt) says in the Noble Qur’an:

(وَمَا لَكُمْ لاَ تُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاء وَالْوِلْدَانِ الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْ هَـذِهِ الْقَرْيَةِ الظَّالِمِ أَهْلُهَا وَاجْعَل لَّنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ وَلِيًّا وَاجْعَل لَّنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ نَصِيرًا)

“And what is [the matter] with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and [for] the oppressed among men, women, and children who say, "Our Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people and appoint for us from Yourself a protector and appoint for us from Yourself a helper"?” [An-Nisa:75].

Repercussions of American Defeat: European Union defence force

The calamitous US defeat in Afghanistan has provided the opportunity for America’s Western rivals to again raise discussion of military capabilities independent of the American-led and controlled NATO military alliance. America decided, planned and executed its withdrawal largely independently of its Western allies, even though they were also part of the occupation of Afghanistan. European Union foreign policy head Josep Borrell said on Thursday, following a meeting of EU defence ministers that included NATO and UN officials, “It’s clear that the need for more European defence has never been as much as evident as today after the events in Afghanistan.” He also said, “There are events that catalyse the history. Sometimes something happens that pushes the history, it creates a breakthrough and I think the Afghanistan events of this summer are one of these cases.” America has until now succeeded in keeping its Western allies’ military efforts largely under its leadership but it is only a matter of time before they break free of American control.