Who’s next !

I cannot allow anyone to challenge the integrity of my country and trample on the sovereignty and dignity of my country. Of course it will be a long war but we will fight. These are the words of Mullah Mohammad Omar, time goes on and after 20 years, time is calling today Mullah Omar! you have won and the so-called greatest power in the world has lost. Historians will continue to write, and American institutions will teach their children by adding another defeat to their curriculum. Now let’s talk about the future of Afghanistan. The Taliban have overthrown the government of President Ashraf Ghani and taken over Afghanistan after nine intensive days of incursion. In spite of long-term huge military investments made by the United States, the regular Afghan army could not effectively engage the Taliban troops. Most cities, including Kabul, the capital, were taken over by the Taliban without resistance and the government established with U.S. support collapsed within two weeks. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, many question marks about the future of the country remain. Will Afghanistan choose to cooperate with anti-American countries or will it continue to incorporate radical groups at the expense of its relations? The Taliban, which misused their power during their first government between 1996 and 2001, seem more prepared to rule the country. They had formerly introduced many harsh measures against the country’s population. For instance, they banned women from working, closed schools for girls and forced men to grow a beard. Nowadays, it seems that they will be relatively more flexible in their political perspective. The expectation that they have learned from their political mistakes is quite high and therefore the possibility of political recognition of the new regime is much higher than before. The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan is a huge strategic failure from a geopolitical perspective. The withdrawal has greatly damaged U.S. credibility in the eyes of its allies, encouraged its rivals to follow more challenging policies, and thus further weakened U.S. claims for global hegemony. The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan indicates a clear failure for the U.S., who invaded the country in 2001 to tackle the Taliban government due to its support for al-Qaida. Ironically, the Taliban regained control of the country with the support of al-Qaida. Similar to the end of the Iraqi invasion, the end of the invasion of Afghanistan is humiliating for the U.S. In other words, the U.S. may have won all the fronts in Afghanistan, but it has lost the war. The damaged U.S. credibility will influence the global perception of liberal democracy. According to the official explanations offered by U.S. presidents starting with George W. Bush, the U.S. was determined to introduce liberal democracy to other states, i.e. Afghanistan and Iraq. However, after the U.S. withdrawal, global public opinion has lost confidence in liberal democracy and in its European partners. Popular demand for an alternate government model may increase in near future, which will increase the risk for the Western hegemony. The Taliban’s policies will largely determine the future of countries in the region, policies of global powers toward the region as well the future of Afghanistan. The policies of the Taliban in the coming days will determine the policies of regional and global states toward Afghanistan. If the Taliban secure political stability and incorporate other ethnic groups and Shiite people, political recognition will be relatively easier, since non-Western countries such as China and Iran do not have pre-conditions in their relationship with other actors. All in all , Afghanistan became the graveyard of the three great powers of the world. The sun of Britain set here, Afghanistan buried Russian socialism and now America’s capitalist system and its power suffered the worst defeat. Britain, Russia and the United States were buried here.