by Henry Buzar August 19, 2021 Avenue in Faizabad, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan (Photo from Jrheinlaender) Like in Vietnam, after two de...
August 19, 2021
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| Avenue in Faizabad, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan (Photo from Jrheinlaender) |
Like in Vietnam, after two decades of military intervention and bankrolling friendly South Vietnamese regime in the tune of US$170B (close to $1 trillion), the US now turns its back away from Afghanistan after a leaked report of a government collapsed within 90 days and a pending Taleban victory.
The US government and its NATO allies have spent 20 years training and equipping the Afghan Security forces with American and British Generals claiming to have created a more powerful and capable Afghan army, promised that today appear pretty empty said Jonathan Beale, a BBC Defense Correspondent.
Now, like South Vietnam then, the US blames desertions and corruption among the Afghan Security Forces. SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan) expressed in their report “serious concern about the corrosive effects of corruption” yet the US government spent billions of dollars (SIGAR said more than $88B) on Afghan Security in terms of salaries and equipment and who cannot even fly the 211-fighter aircraft in their disposal.
With our group’s visit to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), I happen to interview some Vietnamese who linger in the Palace now open to tourists. One Vietnamese narrated that on that fateful day of April 30, 1975, at dawn, tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace while the last chopper ferrying the palace keeper people fly out to the waiting US Aircraft Carrier. This signals the end of the Vietnam war. In the transfer of power between North Vietnam Col Bui Tin and South Vietnam General Duong Van Minh, Tin explained to Minh, between Vietnamese there are no victors and no vanquished, “only the Americans have been beaten.”
The Philippines had been in the US wings for a long time but alas and alack, we were not able to modernize our military structure and armaments but like Vietnam and Afghanistan rely heavily on American military aid. With the “palamurang Digong” we were able to at least improve and add some gains in our pursuit for military independence and self-reliance. We were able to procure advanced military warships with our meager budget under the AFP Modernization Program. Dependence on Uncle Sam would just exacerbate our posture in this part of the South Pacific. If the next administration can be pressured by the US against China by dangling military aid and any other form of assistance and give-in, we might be the next Vietnam or Afghanistan in the making.
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