Will there be justice for the Afghan people for the travesty that the US-led war in Afghanistan has been? The answer becomes even more urgent after a new United Nations report confirmed that over 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured in the past decade. The leak of the Afghan papers has created renewed questions inside the US about the legitimacy of the war as well as the many US mistakes that have led to the country remaining in a state of war for almost two decades. Multiple promises have now been made to pull out US troops from Afghanistan, none of which have been fulfilled as yet.
As it stands, the Afghan war is the longest war the US has waged in a foreign country. Much like its previous experience in Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s, the Afghan war has continued at the greatest loss to the Afghan people themselves. It is also clear that we will never know the full cost of civilian lives lost in the Afghan war. The UN only started systematically documenting civilian casualties in the country a decade ago, when most of the intense battles had come to a close.
The UN has continued to insist that it is time to end the bloody 18-year war. However, the call itself remains an insignificant one. Who listens to UN officials anyway? On the ground, the US continues to hold talks with the Afghan Taliban. But the stop-start approach continues to set things back to zero repeatedly. This is not the first time this has happened. Previously, during a fairly robust set of talks, the US has decided to leak the death of Mullah Omar. Many feel that the US will continue to wage war in an illegally occupied land without punishment. It is ironic that the International Court of Justice refused to open a war crimes investigation against the US in Afghanistan this month. It is not just the war that needs to end; there also needs to be accountability to ensure that the US cannot declare war on another country. The Afghan people have suffered too long.
