Afghanistan's cursed legacy: 20 years of US war and the return of the Taliban.
In 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban regime, in response to the September 11 attacks, organized by al-Qaeda (a terrorist organization banned in Russia and several other countries), which was the country's main refuge. Twenty years later, and trillions of dollars spent on the war over two decades, the Americans left and the Taliban returned to power.
International and professor at ESAMC Laíshel Cavalin reminded Sputnik Brazil's international podcast that the Taliban has not ceased to exist. The group retreated only to neighboring Pakistan and rural areas of the country after the invasion. For her, the major strategic mistake of the American intervention was to concentrate efforts in the capital Kabul and large provinces, while ignoring rural areas, which concentrate more than 70% of the population.
Also in an interview with Mundioka, professor of international relations at Unilasalle Marcello Freitas explains that the result highlights the limits of the American strategy of imposing its influence through military force and is part of a wider process of relative decline in Washington's hegemony.
The professor emphasized the contradiction of investing in destruction and then allocating resources to reconstruction, while local populations remain exposed to violence and a problematic situation. For the researcher, the case proves that military superiority is not enough to ensure lasting political influence.