The Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan: the fall of an Empire

The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban is just the tip of the iceberg of what is to come for the American military industrial complex.

Over the past two weeks, the world has been abuzz with talk over the end of America's longest war. In just a few short months, the Taliban, an underfunded, CIA trained guerilla group beat an American lead and American equipped army of over 300,000.

The world woke up in horror to the images of Afghans clinging onto American military jets with bodies falling out of the sky. After 2 trillion dollars, thousands of American troops dead and hundreds of thousands of Afghan government forces in the dirt, the 'progress' and 'democracy' painstakingly created for over 20 years evaporated like a puff of smoke.

The Taliban are undeniably a fanatical religious group, hell-bent on enforcing the most draconian interpretations of the Quran. They are well known for a fascistic enforcement of Sharia Law which includes banning women from going outside without full headgear or a hijab. Afghanistan will be entering a less-than-ideal political reality in the coming decades because of them.

So what created this new status quo in the country? Joe Biden directly blamed the quick fall on the Afghani government and their 'lack of willingness to fight' as one of the primary reasons behind the quick folding of the security forces.

And this is true to a certain extent. The government of Afghanistan was so bloated with corruption, graft and byzantine bureaucracy that made it incredibly difficult to run a coordinated military operation. But what was buried under all the press of their lack of fighting spirit was the truth: the original government was simply not something that people of Afghanistan wanted.

In every American foreign conflict, U.S. military official search high and low for people willing to betray their own for cash.

In every American foreign conflict, U.S. military official search high and low for people willing to betray their own for cash. In incredibly impoverished countries, there is no end to applicants who are willing to say anything against their government for a stable living.

But what if money isn't enough? What if the fact that the government is foreign force can make a people apathetic to the whole venture? That is what happened in Afghanistan. The U.S. was overextended in a mission amongst a people that would always treat the occupying force as unwanted and hated foreigners.

The funding wasn't the issue, but rather it was the people's weak resolve to function in a government that they recognized as non-representative of who they actually are.

This is why the U.S. government is destined to fail in its escapades. Like Rome, the country is overextended a number of unfruitful conflicts overseas. Like Rome, there is intense internal strife that is being overlooked in favor of military conquest.

The capital attack, Afghanistan, Black Lives Matter, those are only the beginning of a much larger wave of instability to come.