[War & Business] Clocks and Time

On May 2nd, U.S. troops stationed at the Enternik base in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, held a flag-lowering ceremony as they withdrew.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

"You have clocks, but we have time."

This was a phrase often repeated by Taliban commanders of the Afghanistan armed faction, who were on the brink of collapse in 2011, during interviews with American media. Even the U.S. military, equipped with the world's most powerful weapons and overwhelming combat capabilities, would watch the clock and wait for the day of withdrawal considering the cost of deployment, but the Taliban expressed their determination that as time passed, they would rebuild and grow stronger. However, at that time, such remarks were dismissed as vain hopes of defeated Islamic fundamentalists.

At that time, the U.S. forces stationed in Afghanistan numbered 120,000, occupying the entire country. Even al-Qaeda, which fought alongside the Taliban against U.S. forces, was collapsing after its leader Osama bin Laden was captured and executed by the U.S. The U.S. predicted that the name Taliban would be erased forever from Afghan history.

However, the U.S. prediction was completely wrong. As the Taliban said, the U.S. began to run out of time. After the 2008 financial crisis, with the economy worsening day by day, Afghanistan, which consumed more than $1 trillion annually (about 1,170 trillion won), became a heavy burden on the U.S. economy. Conversely, the Taliban rebuilt over 20 years and once again dominated the entire country.

What accelerated the hands of the U.S. military clock was the incompetence and corruption of the Afghan government. The pro-American government, a coalition mainly composed of northern warlords, left almost all security matters to the U.S. military during the 20 years of their deployment, focusing only on internal political struggles. Even as more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers died, they showed no signs of improvement. In 2013, the Barack Obama administration finally began peace negotiations with the Taliban, including prisoner exchanges, excluding the Afghan government and discussing withdrawal issues.

Russia, whose economy had collapsed due to the Afghan war, also gave painful advice and urged the U.S. to withdraw. Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet Communist Party Secretary, upon hearing in 2010 that the Obama administration was considering sending additional troops to Afghanistan, said in an interview, "Even if the U.S. sends 500,000 more troops to Afghanistan, additional deployment is meaningless in a country that has no will to rebuild itself."

Subsequently, the U.S. withdrawal process was carried out in earnest starting from the Donald Trump administration and continues to this day. Meeting the COVID-19 pandemic, the Joe Biden administration officially declared no regrets about the withdrawal despite criticism calling it the 'second South Vietnam.' If the Afghan government had shown stronger will, the hands of the U.S. military clock might have moved more slowly than they do now.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.