From a Reader:

On the Revcom.us Orientation Points on Afghanistan

August 16, 2021 | revcom.us

 

Editors’ Note: We received the following email at revolution.reports@yahoo.com from a reader, regarding the article “U.S. Pullout from Afghanistan: Three Lessons and Two Basic Points of Orientation,” that was posted August 9.

This article has a good and important orientation. One thing that occurs to me is that the rapid Taliban advance which will probably lead to their victory very soon will sharpen contradictions in the U.S. Taliban victory is a real blow to U.S. interests and especially to its prestige in the world. It also will tend to create new situations of inter-imperialist rivalry. Part of the thinking behind the withdrawal may be to encourage Islamic fundamentalist insurgency targeting China in Xinjiang.

Taliban victory does and will involve a highly visible humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, especially affecting women and girls. This, along with the loss of prestige, is giving the fascist forces in the U.S. a huge opening to go after the bourgeois democrats, especially Biden. This will also likely strengthen fascists within the military.

My initial conclusion is that this moves society more deeply into a revolutionary situation as a defeat for the U.S. empire, but initially in a very bad direction in terms of political polarization (both in the U.S. and internationally).