Chaos at the Kabul Airport: American Incompetence or Perception Management Plot?

Comparing Russia’s assessment of the situation with the perception being propagated by the Western Mainstream Media, it becomes clear that the chaos at the Kabul Airport is a combination of American incompetence and a perception management plot against the Taliban.

The world is gripped by the dramatic images coming out of the US-controlled Kabul Airport where thousands of people connected to the foreign occupation of Afghanistan swarmed from Sunday onward in a desperate attempt to escape their country. They hope to escape any possible acts of retribution by the Taliban despite the group promising not to harm those collaborators. At least seven people have been killed in unclear circumstances after US troops fired into the air (if not into the crowd too according to some rumors) and helicopters attempted to control the riotous crowd. Nevertheless, American forces couldn’t stop some Afghans from sadly clinging to the wings of departing jets, getting caught in the landing gear, and even falling to their deaths from mid-air.

Many average Americans are disgusted that their government is treating their local allies in such a shameful way. This includes forcing them to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding planes out of the country (which is a difficult requirement to meet considering how challenging it is to find such centers in Kabul especially in the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover), prioritizing the rescue of left-wing American journalists over the arguably much more threatened Afghan collaborators, and even saving military K-9s over local civilians. All told, the chaotic American evacuation from Kabul is many magnitudes of order more embarrassing than the iconic evacuation from Saigon almost half a century ago. The epic scale of this unfolding disaster has made many wonder whether it’s due to American incompetence or is a perception management plot against the Taliban.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the US for its blatant double standards in ignoring the rampant human rights violations taking place in the airport under its control while obsessing over comparatively less major alleged ones elsewhere in the world. She also accused America of provoking this chaos whether directly or indirectly though she didn’t elaborate any further. Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov clarified that the chaos at the Kabul Airport has no relation to the situation in the capital, which he denied is disorderly right now. Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov also said that “Now the situation in Kabul is better than it was under Ashraf Ghani.” These statements lead to the conclusion that “Russia’s Pragmatic Stance Towards The Taliban Debunks Western Fearmongering”.

Comparing Russia’s assessment of the situation with the perception being propagated by the Western Mainstream Media, it becomes clear that the chaos at the Kabul Airport is a combination of American incompetence and a perception management plot against the Taliban. To explain, the US simply lost control of the situation but is now attempting to exploit its own incompetence for soft power purposes related to misportraying the Taliban as being responsible for all this chaos. Even though this is self-effacing for the Biden Administration, it’s the only realistic backup plan that America’s perception managers have in trying to cushion the blow to their country’s irreparably damaged reputation. It’s also intended to make it seem like none of this would have happened had the Taliban been “civilized people” instead of the “savages” they’re misportrayed as.

The takeaway from this travesty is that the US will never accept full responsibility for its failures. It’ll always try to pass the blame onto someone else in order to distract others from rightly laying the blame squarely in its own lap where it belongs. “The US Withdrawal Was Such A Spectacular Failure” because America failed to establish military tripwires to deter Taliban attacks in parallel with promoting meaningful diplomatic progress towards a transitional government, the latter approach of which was sabotaged by its political proxy Ashraf Ghani who refused to compromise with the Taliban due to his ego. “America Is Responsible For Afghanistan Falling Apart”, but the Taliban – which are still designated as a terrorist group by Russia despite Moscow’s pragmatic interactions with them – will be responsible for bringing it all back together with time.


By Andrew Korybko
Source: OneWorld

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