A long history of one stupid decision after another.

"The speed and scope of the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan has prompted introspection in the West over what went wrong, and how, after billions of dollars spent on a 20-year war effort, it could all end so ignominiously. China though is looking forward. It is ready to step into the void left by a hasty US retreat to seize a golden opportunity," Economic Times (ET). "China appears to be eyeing to clinch lucrative projects to exploit mineral-rich Afghanistan, especially the trillions of dollars of rare-earth metals, as it calibrated its policy to recognise the Taliban government," Business Standard. "If China were able to extend the Belt-and-Road from Pakistan through to Afghanistan -- for example, with a Peshawar to Kabul motorway -- it would open up a shorter land route to gain markets in the Middle East." "It was in the waning days of November 2001 that Taliban leaders began to reach out to Hamid Karzai, who would soon become the interim president of Afghanistan: They wanted to make a deal," nytimes.com. "Mr Karzai envisioned a Taliban surrender that would keep the militants from playing any significant role in the country's future. But Washington, confident that the Taliban would be wiped out forever, was in no mood for a deal." The US wanted Mullah Omar captured or dead. That was not the only stupidity of the US. The real stupidity was in not imposing total sanctions on Pakistan. In fact, it did the opposite. "The 9/11 attacks renewed the military relationship between the US and Pakistan. Despite knowing of its duplicity - working with and for the US as well as sheltering and arming the Taliban - The US and its NATO allies have not sanctioned Pakistan," Macdonald-Laurier Institute. "Pakistan cannot tolerate an Afghanistan free of militancy with even an imperfect but stable central leadership." The US is responsible for starting the bloodshed in Afghanistan, wrote Nazes Afroz. President Jimmy Carter "approved clandestine CIA operations in Afghanistan on July 3, 1979, to aid the Mujahideen forces opposed to the communist government in Kabul". "Well, we've just held a very useful and, I might say, brief but also, I'll add, a very moving discussion with Chairman Younis Khalis of the Islamic Union of Mujahidin of Afghanistan and other members of his distinguished delegation," wrote President Ronald Reagan on November 12, 1987. "You are a nation of heroes. God bless you." The CIA also "facilitated the influx of uneducated, or little- educated youths from Muslim countries like Chechnya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Uzbekistan and North African states to fight a 'holy war' to 'save Islam' in Afghanistan against 'godless communists'," wrote Afroz. The Soviet Union did collapse in 1991, history.com, but the US managed to wring defeat out of that victory as well. President Boris Yeltsin was a drunkard and weak. Instead of helping Russia economically and making it a friend of the US, President Bill Clinton "began an eastward expansion of NATO and bombed the former Yugoslavia. American economic experts flew to Moscow to provide advice on democracy and economics, pressing for 'shock therapy' in the Russian economy that delivered painful jolts but little gain," Politico. The economy collapsed in 1998, with high inflation, devaluation of the ruble and default on its debt, rabobank. Instead of imposing sanctions on Pakistan the US has imposed sanctions on Russia. "Moscow pledged retaliatory measures after a new set of sanctions imposed on a Russian ship and two companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline," Reuters. President Joe Biden is worried that China might win economically and militarily against the US, Brookings. If the US keeps converting victory into defeat, China will surely win. It will be disaster for India.