Afghanistan: The End of an Era?
(A Twitter thread by @helenacobban)
Can we say that what is happening in #Afghanistan is the #EndOfAnEra? Yes, in many different ways… (thread) >
First, it’s the end of this 20-year era in US/world politics bracketed by 2 searing, much-photographed incidents that each involved (a) airplanes & (b) desperate people falling out of the sky. >
So we can say it’s the end of this era of the US’s attempt to invade & then completely control/remake #Afghanistan. Many Americans (solipsistic, as usual) compare this solely to #Vietnam1975. However, >
The chaotic nature of the US departure from #Afghanistan has a *lot* in common with numerous previous imperial/colonial collapses since 1947, including >
#France leaving #Algeria, #Portugal leaving Angola, Batista leaving #Cuba, etc… (Read about Angola here.)
> One thing that’s distinct about today’s #ImperialCollapse episode is the breathtaking hubris of Americans thinking they could remake a country not only distant but also landlocked! So when the attempt fails >
>They’re forced to try to get everyone (Americans, their native informants, etc) out *by air*. I realize the whole thing is absolutely tragic but as I’ve noted before >
The endings of #WesternEmpires involve a lot of violence/suffering, but so too do (a) creating the empire and (b) maintaining it. The only one of these variables that can be substantially altered is the *period during which empire is maintained*. Needs to be as short as poss! >
We can say that what’s happening in #Afghanistan is the end of the 20-year era of US in Afghanistan (and derivative violence-based sociopathies like the invasion of #Iraq) but we can also hope >
that it’s the end of the era of the unraveling of #WesternImperialism in general, which has continued since 1947. And thus, that it might also be the end of the 606-year era of #WesternImperialism itself. >
As I say, that’s still a hope, though its realization depends on all of us, including people who identify as “White”, understanding the essentially violent nature of #WesternImperialism since its dawn in 1415 CE, and *choosing* to build a a saner, anti-racist world. >
Growing up in England in the 1950s/60s, I was mis-taught history *so badly*. We just imbibed the idea that “Western values” were moral and wonderful. “Sir” Francis Drake & “Sir” Walter Raleigh were portrayed as great heroes, “explorers”, etc >
When in truth they were brutal, for-hire pirates who contracted to Queen Elizabeth to plunder on her behalf & thus built the “English Empire”. We were taught about all the amazing (European) “explorers” who “discovered” different sea-routes & peoples around the world, but >
we were never taught that #Columbus, #Magellan, #DaGama, & the rest of them were involved in brutal wars of aggression built on plunder, enslavement, broad use of demonstrative violence (“shock & awe”), rape, etc. >
Those men & the investors & “royal” political leaders who organized their voyages were the people who built the global power of “the West”. Its values? >
… were a reliance on #NavalGunnery to impose their wills on distant people, & a rampant “Christian” supremacism that mandated the seizure & use of all the resources (inc. human resources) of non-Christian lands & the conversion of all non-Christians (by force if necessary) >
Those mandates came from the edict “Dum Diversas” issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452. The Portuguese & later the Spanish considered them binding. The English, Dutch, & French, who came a bit later, had their own interpretations but kept the core ideas of #ChristianSupremacy >
> which over time got changed to #WhiteSupremacy, & later still put on a sort of liberal-ish veneer. (“We act as we do for the good of the whole world because we’re so smart”, “White Man’s Burden”, etc.) But still >
The core institutions (UN, WTO, World Bank, IMF) created by the Americans in & after 1945 still embody the lingering values of #WhiteSupremacy. Why do 4 “White” nations have veto powers at the UN? Why do US & EU always run the financial institutns? >
& how come no internat’l institution has ever held the West European nations or their settler-colonial offspring (US, Australia, etc) responsible in any way for the genocides, brutalities, slaveries, economic wrecking, etc they’ve inflicted on the world? >
How come the US is able to cripple the economies of #Iran, #Cuba, #Nicaragua, #Palestine, #Lebanon, at will and the “international community” does nothing to stop it?? How come George W Bush & Tony Blair will never see the inside of a jail cell for the wars they launched? >
This is because the “West”, these countries that “represent” (v. imperfectly) the interests of only a small portion of global humanity, still controls all relevant “global” institutions. So to build the post-West world that’s needed we have a lot of work to do >
and this work certainly involves re-educating as many “Westerners” as we can about the colossal harm our governments have inflicted on the world in the past 606 years… & until today. >
So yes, we can say that what’s unfolding in #Afghanistan is the #EndOfAnEra. But what era do we want it to be an end of?
Originally published at https://threadreaderapp.com.
