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The US empire’s scramble out of Afghanistan
As Saigon marked the end of US geostrategic ambitions in Indochina, so Kabul marked the end of the same in central Asia. JOHN WIGHT reflects on Washington’s undignified Afghan exit, one year on
Taliban fighters celebrate one year since they seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022

EMPIRES advance and empires retreat, though not in circumstances of their own choosing — to borrow from one Karl Marx — and certainly never smoothly or without upending entire regions, countries and societies in their wake.

With this in mind, what unfolded in Afghanistan a year ago with the panicked withdrawal of US forces to end Washington and its allies’ 20-year occupation of the country was a historic tipping point, a significant signpost pointing to US hegemonic and imperial decline. 

In this respect, the chaotic and panicked scenes at Kabul airport, where US and British military forces hastily attempted to effect the evacuation of their own nationals still in the country, along with those Afghans who worked with them during the country’s occupation, drew comparison with Saigon in 1975. They did so with good reason.

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