Trying to articulate my commemoration for #September11 but at loss of words after 20 years of what followed 9/11 & especially all what happened in last 1 month.
But here are a few thoughts from a Pakistani that takes D.C. as a 2nd home & can empathise with Americans [Thread]
But here are a few thoughts from a Pakistani that takes D.C. as a 2nd home & can empathise with Americans [Thread]
1. 9/11 was a great tragedy to hit the US. But what followed was an even greater tragedy that the US inflicted upon itself along with the rest of the world - the price so many had to pay without even knowing why.
The US had the options, it chose the most catastrophic one.
The US had the options, it chose the most catastrophic one.
2. The US had all the right intentions & reasons to wage war but the way it pursued the war which along the way got hijacked by competing interests & lobbies was a turning point for the US fate in #Afghanistan.
Pakistan saw it, warned about it & was instead shunned for it.
Pakistan saw it, warned about it & was instead shunned for it.
It was no more a US war. Naively, the US fought for someone else's agenda that benefitted from the forever US stay in Afghanistan & destabilisation of the region.
Not hard to guess who the beneficiary was for 20 years - same country now playing a spoiler role in #Afghanistan
Not hard to guess who the beneficiary was for 20 years - same country now playing a spoiler role in #Afghanistan
3. A war that was supposed to be against extremists somehow turned into a war against Islam, Muslims Arabs, Pakistani's & anyone with a beard.
The systemic racism within the US policy, academia & media framed the war as "Us against Them".
The systemic racism within the US policy, academia & media framed the war as "Us against Them".
As a 17 y/o landing in US for college,I felt every bit of it, placed into a separate room under NSEERS with immigration officers asking every time if I was linked to a terrorist org.
For a country that was a front line defense in WoT, I never understood why we got humiliated?
For a country that was a front line defense in WoT, I never understood why we got humiliated?
4. Lastly, The last 1 month proves only one thing that the US war in Afghanistan was less of a military but more of an intellectual failure.
It wasn't Taliban or Pakistan but the confirmation bias that led to an eventual US failure.
It wasn't Taliban or Pakistan but the confirmation bias that led to an eventual US failure.
Unfortunately, the US never even treated Afg as significant enough to be studied seriously.
Lazy intellectual work & outright lies on Afg while scapegoating Pakistan for all the failures blinded the US closing any space to diagnose & perhaps change the US fate in Afghanistan.
Lazy intellectual work & outright lies on Afg while scapegoating Pakistan for all the failures blinded the US closing any space to diagnose & perhaps change the US fate in Afghanistan.
Therefore, Taliban didn't just take over Afghanistan overnight. It took the US good 20 years with 2 trillion dollars and countless lives to make it happen.
Hope the world doesn't see another 9/11 ever again and the madness that follows with it.
Hope the world doesn't see another 9/11 ever again and the madness that follows with it.
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