The current developments unfolding in Afghanistan carry huge lessons for many on the African continent. After 9/11, the USA and its European allies went all out accusing the Taliban of harbouring and supporting al-Qaeda whom they accused as having bombed the World Trade Centre twin towers.
The USA and its NATO allies denied the Taliban any legal recourse to defend themselves from ridiculous allegations. The use of false intelligence by the USA and its western allies, added fuel to the whole issue. In a few months, the war against Afghanistan had started, and the bombing of the country continued for the next 20 years unabated.
The result of the war is, millions of Afghans were killed and many more wounded, their country destroyed to rubble by the allied bombing, the Talibans continued to profess their innocence and denial that they never attacked the world trade centre.
When the imposed war started, the Talibans continued to defend their motherland from what they perceived as an invasion on their territorial integrity and sovereignty. They continued to defend their values in the midst of all the demonization that was directed at them by western media.
The western countries managed to overthrow the Taliban in the end and installed a puppet government subservient to them and started a cycle of fake democracy in the country which never worked anyway.
The USA and its western allies representing some of the most powerful armies in the world, trained and equipped the Afghan National Army with some of their advanced weapon systems. The Taliban army remained a small rag tag guerrilla movement with no superior arms to talk about.
After 20 years, the USA decides to withdraw after suffering much defeat at the hands of the Taliban and in a matter of weeks, the Taliban overruns the whole country culminating in the capture of Kabul the seat of government. The puppet President Ashraf Ghani run into exile with bags suspected to carry loads of cash as the Taliban were closing in on the capital.
What Africa can learn from this whole development is that we should remain steadfast in the face of tribulations and demonization. African leaders should refuse to be used by any of these foreign powers to turn against their own people. They should instead remain close to the people always because their power is with the people.
Even when they promise to arm you with the latest weaponry, do not think that that is all what is needed to rule over and stay in power for long. When the people see through the façade, they will expose and deny you.
Remember that no amount of weaponry will keep the puppets in power when the people have decided to turn against those who would have sold out. Our leaders need to be people with integrity, incorruptible and principled, not like the Hamid Karzai’s and Ashraf Ghanis who thought that they will rule forever just because they had the imperial USA and Europe power behind them.
It is a shame that we have a lot of people on our continent who are like these two Afghan leaders. They choose to be on the side of the powers that be instead of the people where their real power lies. The end result has been humiliation befalling them and a life into exile perhaps for the rest of their life.
Let this be a warning to those of our leaders who think that they are destined to rule just because they are aligned or have been put into power by the superpowers. They think that by smuggling the Zionist-colonialists using the back door into the AU observer status in exchange of the Pegasus spyware, will keep them in power forever, then they are mistaken.
The time is coming when all of them one by one will be chased from power and follow their masters into exile. We hope that sense will prevail, and they learn from the Afghan example.
Here on the continent of Africa, we have numerous examples of this kind of development happening before, and Libya and Somalia come to mind. Look at how Libya was systematically destroyed to being a shadow of its former self, by the same western countries.
Today Libya is still wallowing in war, destruction, and anarchy left behind by the USA and its European NATO allies who don’t seem to care what happens when they are gone.
The same is true of Somalia, a very resourceful country which is being stripped naked of its resources in day light. While the world is busy talking about al-Shabaab and how bad it is, they are busy stealing marine life on the Here on the continent of Africa, we have numerous examples of this kind of development that happened before, and Libya and Somalia come to mind. Look at how Libya was systematically destroyed to being a shadow of its former self, by the same western countries.
Today Libya is still wallowing in war, destruction, and anarchy left behind by the USA and its European NATO allies who don’t seem to care what happens when they are gone. The same is true of Somalia, a very resourceful country which is being stripped naked of its resources in daily light. While the world is busy talking about al-Shabaab and how bad it is, they are busy stealing marine life on the coastline of Somalia.
coastline of Somalia.
What surprises us is the silence of those who are leading us at the AU, they fail to draw lessons from developments such as the one happening in Afghanistan, instead, continue with their mission of allowing the Zionist-colonialists to come closer and destroy us instead.
This will soon be no longer tolerated, and the people of Africa will rise up against such leaders who are not mindful of the aspirations of the African people. Our leaders must pay attention to what we want.
By:
Dr. Mustafa Mheta
Senior researcher/Head of Africa Desk
Media Review Network
South Africa
Johannesburg
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