Between the storming of the Capitol and the retreat from Kabul: the eerie end of an era
The withdrawal from Afghanistan is not what it seems. It is not a short-lived international news story, nor a distant event encapsulated 8,000 kilometres away. Nor should it be another opportunity for politicians to kick our foreign policy asses again. This one-sided, hasty and chaotic end should rather be seen as the end of an era. An ending that in the case of the United States is framed between the storming of the Capitol and the take-off of the last Pentagon troop plane from the besieged Kabul airport.
Afghanistan's incorporation into the post-American world is comparable to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979, the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the Cuban revolution of 1959. This time, however, the international retreat of the US may prove as irrevocable as it is profitable for all those who rejoice in the demise of the liberal international order formulated after the Second World War. Not to mention the consequent damage to the grand alliance that the Western democracies have built since 1949.
During another traumatic transatlantic divergence provoked by the questionable invasion of Iraq, Romano Prodi as President of the European Commission participated in 2003 in a Washington summit aimed at overcoming the 'axis of misunderstanding' generated among allies by Saddam Hussein and his non-existent weapons of mass destruction. As the Italian leader warned: 'When Europe and the US unite, no problem or enemy resists. If we divide, every problem can become a crisis and every enemy a gigantic monster.
The great irony is that, under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty invoked in the aftermath of 9/11, the US and its allies have gone into Afghanistan together, sharing enormous sacrifices. However, in exiting in this disastrous fashion - as the brilliant historian Niall Ferguson argues, comparing the decline of American hegemony to that suffered by Britain a century ago - the risks of a conflict that pales in comparison to Afghanistan's 'longer war' are multiplied.
Pedro Rodríguez: Associate Professor of International Relations at the Comillas Pontifical University-ICADE. Teaching and research collaborator of American University-Madrid, Villanueva University, ABC-UCM Master's Degree and the Franklin Institute. As a journalist, he has worked for twenty years as a correspondent for the daily newspaper ABC in Washington. He is now an international columnist and analyst for different audiovisual media. Extraordinary end-of-degree award, scholarship holder Fulbright y Master in International Relations and Mass Media by the Georgetown Universityhis doctoral thesis is dedicated to the political communication of the White House.
Text published in the newspaper ABC.