Afghanistan is a living example of US belligerence, Wenbin said on August 19, 2022 as the remarks released on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.
The US two-decade invasion of Afghanistan has reduced the country to rubble, ruined the future of an entire generation of Afghans, killed 174,000 people including more than 30,000 civilians, and made tens of millions of refugees, he added.
Even though the US troops have left, Afghanistan is yet to emerge from the long shadow of the invasion. Millions of Afghans are struggling on the verge of death. About three million Afghan children are too poor to go to school. And 18.9 million people face acute food shortages, he further noted.
The US must take responsibility for all of this, he pointed out.
Afghanistan is a living proof of the failure of the US program of “democratic transformation”, he said, adding that the two-decade war in Afghanistan has cost the US more than US$2 trillion, claimed over 2,400 US soldiers’ lives, and injured more than 20,000 US soldiers, only to end with the biggest US military debacle since the Vietnam War.
People compare the “Kabul moment” to the “Saigon moment”, he said, noting that the US public also paid a dear price. According to US non-profit organizations, since 2001, 114,000 US veterans, or 18 per day, have taken their own lives, and nearly 40,000 veterans have become homeless.
The “Kabul moment” put on full display the US’s hypocrisy on democracy and human rights and its true colors of relying on power politics and bullying practices, he underscored.
The US has failed in Afghanistan, but it has yet to abandon its policy of interference, Wenbin said, noting that it still frequently meddles in other countries’ internal affairs in the name of democracy and human rights, and continues to peddle the so-called “democracy versus authoritarianism” narrative to stoke division and confrontation around the world. This would only lead the US to new and greater failures.
The international community needs to be highly vigilant, jointly reject the US’s recklessness of creating chaos and turbulence in the name of democracy and human rights, and prevent another tragedy of Afghanistan in our world, he stated.
AMK/PR