The Fall of Kabul and Lessons from 911

As people across America remember the events of September 11, 2001, the twenty year anniversary and recent events in Afghanistan also prompt Americans to reflect how the most audacious attacks on American soil upended their lives, changed the nation, and shaped their views of the world. The dramatic fall of Kabul, in shadow of the twenty year anniversary, is hardly surprising but still shocking to many Americans at the rapid collapse of two decades of a U.S.-led Western campaign to remake the country. The brave and courageous American or allied soldiers did their job on the battlefield and have sacrificed so much. Yet twenty years of attempting to help Afghanistan build a strong government and security force undone in merely two weeks shows how naive or misguided?the mission has been.

Here is what President George W. Bush told the nation on October 7, 2001. “On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime,”?If the original war twenty years ago had a clear mission of eliminating al-Qaeda and decimating the Taliban movement, it seemed that US government never had a cohesive strategy on what it was trying to achieve in the subsequent years. The result was spending billions of dollars to build roads, schools and governing institutions in an effort to win the “hearts and minds” but without figuring out first what values enliven those hearts and what ideas resonate those minds.

“Five times in the last two centuries, some great power has tried to invade, occupy, conquer, or otherwise take control of Afghanistan. Each intervention has led to a painful setback for the intervening power, and the curious thing is, these interventions have all come to grief in much the same way and for much the same reasons—as if each new power coming into Afghanistan has vowed to take no lessons from its predecessors.”?The dramatic unfolding of the twenty year war again confirms what American Author Tamim Ansary wrote in his 2012 book “Games without Rules: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan”. In the end, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for external forces including the United States, to build a nation for them, even more difficult trying to force a cultural narrative on a people with their own narrative and their own culture. Afghanistan is made up of resilient people and the choices they make will determine Afghanistan’s future.

On the other hand, after sacrifice of thousands of American lives and many times more Afghan civilians, American public has a significant degree of ambivalence on the question of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Even the emotional connection between the longest war in American history with the 911 attack which prompted the war in the first place is slowly fading. The haste evacuation of the embassy is eerily reminiscent of the fall of Saigon in 1975 in the wake of the Vietnam War. As the situation on the ground shifts by days, more and more people are questioning whether the war, however justified in the beginning, was worth the cost: including not only the two plus trillion dollar price tag (or about $300 millions per day for 20 years!) but more importantly the sacrifice of those lives for the mission with the hope for a democratic Afghanistan. In some ways,?every war is a tragic waste of time, money and blood. But many wars are fought not because you want to but you have to. What lessons did or did not we learn from Vietnam fifty years ago and what lessons should we learn as a nation from the Afghanistan war to guide future leaders for decision making? As a commemoration of the twenty year anniversary, I thought I would reshare the following article I wrote four years ago on the 16th year anniversary of 911.

9/11 Memorial, NY (note the reflections of the buildings resemble the number 911)

Sixteen Years After 911, What Did We Learn?

(Published on September 11, 2017)

Sixteen years ago today, a single event changed America forever. I remember vividly everyone glued to the TV as the scenes were unfolding in New York and Washington DC. Once it became clear that they were coordinated terrorist attacks, trickle of emails became a flood of concerns for many of my Wharton classmates who were working in the New York area. Just as everyone in the country, I was trying to make sense of the terrible events. Nevertheless, it was a collective sign of relief when everyone in my class was accounted for.?

I remember one of my classmates was telling the story of how her friends were walking down the World Trade Center stairs when the building collapsed. I remember another colleague was on an airplane flying from Europe to America but the flight had to be turned back, some speculating that US might have been attacked by a nuclear weapon.?

Sixteen years have passed but the memory is still strong. So much has changed since then either due to the event or despite of the event. On the other hand, the war in Afghanistan, directly triggered by 911, is still raging with no sight for an successful ending.?At this sixteenth anniversary,?it is appropriate for us to take a moment to ask ourselves what we have learned at different levels through this defining event, being attacked on its soil for the first time in American history.?

On a personal level, we learned that little things matter. Life is fragile. We should enjoy what we have and not take small things for granted. A total of 2996 people, including 343 firefighters, lost their lives from the 911 attacks and not having the opportunities to enjoy their lives as we do. Subsequently, over 6800 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Behind every major headline is one person's story begging to be heard. Some children never had the opportunities to see their parents smile at their graduations. Other parents never had the opportunities to celebrate their kids birthdays. Wife lost husband. Parents lost sons and daughters.

On a societal level, we learned again crisis brings out unity.?People do care each others. In the aftermath, people donated blood, people gave money,?people donate food and room. American’s ability to come together at time of need is truly heartwarming. Some give all and all give some. The country responded with one united voice.

With each day passing, we learned how to cope with the unprecedented airport security. With my heavy travel, I, more than many, should appreciate the necessity of airport security to combat the ever increasing threats. Yet life is short. I feel that we have let the terrorist attacks scared us. Nobody probably remembers any more what it was like to fly before 911.?We should all live a normal life as much as we can.?It is hard to tell what normal is. Are we really safe today than 16 years ago?

As a country, this was also a defining moment for many in this country truly realize the global connectedness and how our life was very intertwined with those from other side of the world, however remote or seemingly foreign to us they were. Whether or not we choose to care, things happen outside of this country can and will reverberate into the wider world and impact this country.?Despite of 911, more and more young Americans, over a quarter million last year,?go abroad for at least, part of their college education.?These young Americans usually return with an understanding and openness about the world that previous generations may or may not have. What they see and learn from outside world can and will make us a stronger country.

The world events, on the other hand, have not been as encouraging. We celebrated the first election in Afghanistan with many naively believing that election equals democracy.?We encouraged Arab spring in Middle East with sobering lessons. We overthrew a terrible military dictator Muammar Gaddafi but did not anticipate what's coming is utter chaos. The emergence of ISIS in the aftermath of the chaos poses even more challenges due to its porous nature not associated with a nation. Saddest of all, we are still in the longest war America ever engaged in its history. Democracy is the bedrock of our society and promoting democracy is a noble cause. Nevertheless, the events after 911 repeatedly tell us that democracy promotion has its limitation.

I remember the debate with my classmates at the time of the implication of overwhelming power to win a war outright vs the challenge of sustaining victory without a plan for subsequent nation building. I do not remember where I read it but historians suggest that large perturbation in any society takes about 30 to 50 years to stabilize, whatever state the society would stabilize towards.

Tomorrow is another day and life will likely continue as usual. The lessons we learn, however, will stay with us. The lessons contribute to who we are and who we?can become. It is true for us as individuals as well as a nation.

Related Articles

Sixteen Years After 911, What Did We Learn? (9/11/2017)

Bamiyan Buddha Statues in Afghanistan (08/21/2021)

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