Gideon Rachman poses an interesting and enlightening argument in his column about Ukraine and Gaza “War and the rise of identity geopolitics” (Opinion, March 26).
Yet there is another prominent case which surprisingly hasn’t been mentioned at all — Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has been one of the largest humanitarian crises. Besides an impoverished and hungry society, the Taliban wields repressive power and has instituted “gender apartheid”, shunning women and girls from public and business affairs, and denying them education, training and much more.
This affects half of Afghanistan’s population. But where is the international outcry and effective reaction? Since last November, neighbouring Iran and Pakistan have sent back nearly 2mn Afghan refugees — mostly women and children — with literally no international reaction due to the acute crisis overload in the areas Rachman describes.
One of the important reasons Afghanistan is not a matter of discussion in Washington might be the Biden administration’s desire not to be reminded of the horrific US withdrawal in August 2021 — which arguably inflicted serious damage to America’s reputation in the global south, and presumably emboldened the Kremlin to attack Ukraine in February 2022.
Continued ignorance about the plight of Afghans might actually beget further costs for the world. The Taliban must not be successful because this could encourage radical Islamic forces elsewhere and widen the use of Afghanistan as an incubator for terror groups — like al-Qaeda or Isis.
Wolfgang Danspeckgruber
Founding Director, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, US
