I'm Not So Sure That This Is a Bad Thing

Over at the Wall Street Journal, they are wringing their hands over the fact that thousands of Western trained and Western educated professionals are looking to flee as the Taliban gains ground.

One of the changes over the past 80 years is that in much of the non-Western world, colonial functionaries from the ruling nations have been replaced with neo-colonial functionaries trained by what used to be those colonial powers.

The West remains in charge, only the middle management changes.

To the degree that they are chased out of ANY less developed country, this is probably a good thing, because they serve their masters, not their neighbors:

Afghanistan’s professional class of men and women, part of a generation that came of age under the shield of the U.S. military, are weighing the danger of rapidly advancing Taliban forces. Many are packing their bags. 

………

Long before President Biden announced the U.S. withdrawal in April, hundreds of thousands of Afghans had fled to Europe, Australia and the U.S. Now, many of the well-educated people who prospered in the new Afghanistan and hadn’t dreamed of leaving have also concluded that staying put is no longer an option.

………

More affluent Afghans are paying thousands of dollars on the black market for visitor visas to Turkey, India, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan—the few destinations that remain relatively accessible.

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Modern Kabul bears little resemblance to the city the Taliban ruled before the U.S.-led invasion 20 years ago. The capital city has expanded to a metropolis of nearly six million people. It is dotted by shopping malls, high-rise buildings, bowling alleys and espresso bars catering to a young Afghan generation that has grown up in a relatively liberal environment fostered by the U.S. presence.

I believe that the description for this would be, "Colonial Outpost."

………

The 20-year U.S. effort in Afghanistan had many failures. It generated corruption, creating a class of tycoons who grew wealthy from U.S. military contracts. The political system is dominated by the same ethnic warlords who confronted the Taliban in the 1990s.

It created even more wealth for the US companies managing those contracts.

Colonialism, again.

Before the US started meddling in Afghanistan in the late 1970s, this country was on the road to modernity, but the US decided to support the creation of a world-wide Islamic fundamentalist network so as to destabilize the nation and draw the Soviets in.

The Afghans are still suffering from this, particularly in places other than Kabul, and the 911 attacks are a direct consequence of this as well.

The fact that the "Stooges of the American Empire" are on the short end of the stick is unfortunate, but it is better than the alternative, both for the people of Afghanistan, and the people of the United States.