Between the blackmail of "Al-Yadoumi" and the lies of "Al-Iryani"... the legitimacy of the Brotherhood and the facts of the Afghan lesson
English - Monday 16 August 2021 الساعة 09:16 am
Taiz, NewsYemen, special:
"The Afghan army was built over 20 years...how did it collapse so quickly?" .
The newspaper's report and its title reflected the extent of the shock in the West over the scenes of the accelerated collapse of the Afghan army during the past days in front of the Taliban fighters who are today on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and are close to encircling it from all four sides.
In less than a month, Taliban fighters took control of more than half of the state capitals in the country and the most important cities such as Helmand, Kandahar, and most recently Mazar-i-Sharif, the last major city in northern Afghanistan that was still under government control.
What made the scene shocking was that this control took place without major battles, after the Afghan army surrendered to Taliban fighters in 15 Afghan provinces, despite the large difference in number and armament in favor of the Afghan army. By Sunday evening, the Taliban had controlled 21 out of 34 provinces. And about 65% of the country's area came under its control, and all that in less than two months.
The American newspaper "New York Times" says in its report that the Taliban's rapid progress resulted in wholesale surrender of the army, the seizure of helicopters, and military equipment worth millions of dollars provided by the United States, all of which fell into the hands of the Taliban movement.
The scenes of collapse, as described by the newspaper, came despite the United States pumping more than 83 billion dollars in weapons, equipment and training for the security and army forces in the country over the past two decades, while the annual budget of the army is about 4 billion dollars.
The newspaper is trying to search for reasons for this collapse, as it quoted US officials that the number of Afghan security forces and the army was on paper about 300,000 people, but events revealed that those on the ground are only one-sixth of that number.
said that officials were turning a blind eye to what was happening, despite realizing that the true number of Afghan forces was much lower than the number listed in official records, which was manipulated due to corruption and secrecy, which they quietly accepted.
The newspaper lists other reasons to explain this collapse. Its summary reveals mismanagement of the battle by the military or political leadership of President Ashraf Ghani, who has been running the country for seven years.
The newspaper says, that the fall of the Afghan army began in isolated outposts in rural areas, where the Taliban surrounded police units and hungry soldiers who ran out of ammunition, and promised them safe passage if they surrendered and left their equipment, which gave the movement elements gradually more control over the roads, and then control of entire areas.
With the collapse of positions in the hands of the Taliban, the complaint was almost the same on the part of the Afghan army forces, "there was no air support or supplies and food ran out", increasing the belief among the army and security elements that the government of President Ashraf Ghani "does not deserve to die for."
Rather, the futility of Ashraf Ghani’s government led to the abandonment of the pro-government tribal militias, which emerged as a force capable of strengthening the army in the face of the Taliban’s advance, in addition to a feeling of betrayal among the movement’s opponents after America went to negotiate with the Taliban for withdrawal.
What the American newspaper narrates almost coincides with the scene in Yemen, with the failure to resolve the battle against the Houthi group for the sixth year of the war due to the tampering and corruption of the legitimacy in the leadership of the battle, despite the massive support provided by the coalition militarily to it, which prompted Saudi Arabia recently to search for political solutions to stop the war, Prior to that, the Brotherhood’s control over the legitimacy decision created hostility with the most important partner in the coalition, the UAE, which prompted it to withdraw from the battle two years ago.
This congruence prompted the symbols of legitimacy to try to cover up the facts of the Afghan scene and the reasons for the collapse in front of an extremist movement despite international support, to present another vision of the scene that serves it and covers its failure.
According to the Minister of Information in the government, Muammar Al-Eryani, what is happening in Afghanistan from the fall of cities and regions to the hands of the Taliban movement is “a natural result of the state of division and differences between the Afghan political and social forces, the failure to close ranks and unify efforts under the framework of the official leadership, and to miss the international consensus in supporting the Afghan government and people to resolve the issue.” The battle since 2001.
In the language of the Brotherhood, what the minister says is that the freezing of the legitimate fronts against al-Houthi for years in the north and their subsequent handing over to him, as happened in Nihm, al-Jawf, and recently in al-Bayda, is not because of our corruption, but because of the opposition to this corruption, the failure of the Transitional Council and the forces of the West Coast to obey us and we messed around.
Before al-Iryani, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, Muhammad al-Yadoumi, had rushed in mid-July to present a picture of the scene in Afghanistan in line with his group’s vision, and for another goal, which is to blackmail the coalition, specifically Saudi Arabia, with implicit messages, and preemptively holding it responsible for repeating the Afghan scene, by comparing it to the advance of militias Al-Houthi towards the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
Al-Yadoumi tried, by comparing this attack on Saudi Arabia, the coalition countries and his political opponents at home, and repeating the old cylinder that they were the ones who made the Houthis and brought him to Sanaa to eliminate Al-Islah, and that “magic turned against the magician” later, according to the Brotherhood’s narrative.
Al-Yadoumi believes that America’s failure to defeat the Taliban is similar to the coalition’s failure to eliminate the Houthi group after seven years. His publication also contained a clear blackmail message that Saudi Arabia’s abandonment of the group or its withdrawal from Yemen means handing over the country to the Houthi group, as is happening in Afghanistan.
