As the bigtime terrorists of U.S. imperialism suffer another humiliating defeat and leave Afghanistan to the small-time terrorists of the Taliban, the world is witnessing in real time the waning of a once-dominant empire. Thanks to flawed intelligence, decades of failed strategies, and one blunder after the next by their latest incompetent president, the U.S. bosses are currently unable to guarantee safe passage for the evacuation of their own citizens, let alone the translators and interpreters and women leaders whose lives are now in jeopardy. Wrenching photographs and reports are flooding out from Kabul airport: men plunging from departing U.S. military planes; at least seven people—including a two-year-old girl—trampled to death by a panicked crowd; desperate parents handing their babies over barbed wire fences to U.S. soldiers inside the perimeter. The profit system’s  contempt for human life is on full display.
As workers attempt to escape the chaos wrought by the U.S. capitalist rulers and their corrupt local stooges, we’re seeing a horrific preview of what awaits the international working class: open fascism and global war. But these images also lay bare the key to our future. Workers cannot leave our destiny in the hands of the capitalists, big or small. We must organize as a class to face this dangerous period head-on. We must redouble our commitment to organize a communist revolution—and to build a new communist society, run by and for the workers of the world.
The abrupt withdrawal of troops after the longest war in U.S. history reflects the collapse of the liberal world order and a worldwide crisis of capitalism. As a divided U.S. ruling class belatedly pivots to prepare for military conflict with chief inter-imperialist rivalry China and possibly Russia as well, it has squandered critical ground and influence in Central Asia. It’s lost the confidence of longtime allies in Europe, who are now charting their own course. But make no mistake: A wounded empire is no less dangerous.  As the world’s bosses prepare to sacrifice workers’ lives in the next big redistribution of global resources and markets, our class has only one way out: communism.
Weakness and collapse
On August 16, President Joe Biden openly acknowledged why the U.S. needed to withdraw: “Our Chinese and Russian competitors would love for the United States to continue to invest billions of dollars in resources and attention to stabilize Afghanistan indefinitely” (La Jornada, 8/17). Weakened by a split with the isolationist, “America First” bosses who’ve hijacked the Republican Party, the liberal U.S. ruling class must reserve their forces for potential flashpoints like Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Republicans and Democrats are equally responsible for the U.S. fiasco in Afghanistan. It was no surprise that Bomber-in-Chief Barack Obama backed the deal that Donald Trump initiated with the Taliban and that Biden ultimately implemented. Relying on NATO intelligence, the imperialists under Trump proposed an 18-month peace process and a transitional coalition government that would include exiled ex-president Ashraf Ghani. But as Afghan forces collapsed without a fight, the plan never had a chance. As the date of the U.S. military exit neared, Afghan National Army units disintegrated. Thousands of underpaid soldiers deserted or joined a budding insurgency. In just three days the Taliban captured five provincial capitals. Finding no resistance, they kept on going until they reached Kabul. All of the Afghan Army’s modern weapons and tanks and helicopters could not overcome their troops’ lack of commitment (La Jornada, 8/19).
Over 20 years and the last four U.S. administrations, this futile war directly took the lives of more than 241,000 people, including more than 70,000 civilians in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan (Costs of War project, Brown University). Along with the similarly disastrous Iraq War, it will wind up costing the U.S. more than $2 trillion—plus another $6.5 trillion in debt payments (abcnews.go.com, 8/14). These obligations will weigh heavily on the working class.
U.S. rivals fill the vacuum
The U.S. loss of Afghanistan creates a void that rival imperialists are eager to fill. Both the Chinese and Russian bosses announced that they would seek agreements with the Taliban and keep their embassies functioning normally amid the crisis, giving Taliban leaders international legitimacy. Central Asia is the “belt” of the Chinese rulers’ Belt and Road Initiative.  One prime target for Chinese investment in Afghanistan, according to Forbes Magazine, is the mining of 1.4 million tons of “rare earth elements,” which are crucial for renewable energy technology: “America needs rare earths, and China controls 90 percent of processing capacity” (8/17).
Russia, which endured its own devastating retreat from Afghanistan in 1989, may benefit most of all. “For Moscow,” observed the New York Times, “the chaotic American withdrawal...was a propaganda victory on a global scale....Russia's security presence [in Central Asia] is predominant” (8/19).
As the U.S. ruling class grows more vulnerable and isolated, their new, stripped-down plan for Afghanistan is to maintain an espionage network to destabilize the border with China. While leaving Afghanistan is a step backward for the U.S. bosses in terms of their global influence and stature, it also represents a step forward in their strategic plan for imperialist war and the fascism they will need to force the working class to fight for them. This is the danger workers must recognize and organize into a fight to smash capitalism.
From one exploiter to the next
When the U.S. bosses’ propaganda mouthpieces recount the history of the Afghanistan invasion, they cite the attacks of 9/11 and the need to wipe out terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. They neglect to mention the U.S.-backed TAPI pipeline that was designed to transport natural gas through Afghanistan to India and Pakistan without going through U.S. enemies Russia or Iran.
Despite their promises to bring “democracy” to Afghanistan, the U.S. bosses installed a narco-government that skimmed tens of billions of dollars a year by supplying opium and heroin to the West (El País, 11/19/09). Opium production during the invasion multiplied by more than 40 times, effectively turning the country into a drug lab that spawned deadly opioid addictions throughout the world (actuality.rt.com, 8/19).
The reformist illusion that a U.S. invasion would end terrorism and improve life for masses of workers in Afghanistan has disintegrated. Twenty years of occupation left nearly half the population under the poverty line (rebelion.org, 8/17) and generated 5.5 million refugees (La Jornada, 8/19). Tens of thousands more are now trying to flee the country. By abandoning political opponents of the Taliban and others who served the occupation, the U.S. has earned the hostility of the working class in Afghanistan and the entire world.
The capitalist media drama over an anticipated loss of "human rights" under the Taliban obscures the boundless hypocrisy of the U.S. ruling class. Sexism and racism are the ideological pillars that sustain the rulers’ system. Under capitalism, millions of women workers are super-exploited, raped, and murdered each day around the world.
The last 20 years of indiscriminate bombings and dronings, which claimed the lives of  countless women and children, is a testament to the sexist, traumatizing force that is the U.S military for millions of Afghan women.
But the Taliban are also enemies of the workers. They oppress the working class, particularly women. They’re essentially a rival opium cartel that will negotiate with any imperialist that promises to enrich them. The Taliban use religion to cloak their fascist control and to guarantee a disciplined working class, ready for exploitation by Chinese and Russian bosses (La Jornada, 8/23).
The working class around the world needs to rebuild the communist movement to confront and defeat capitalism. Only communism can guide the working class in building a new society without capitalists, exploitation, or imperialist war. That is the goal of Progressive Labor Party. Join us!