“9/11 is just an excuse. Afghanistan is the base. Pakistan is the target.”

By: Razaullah Farooqi

Note: Before you comment, remember — the author fought in the Soviet–Afghan war long before you were even born. He knows Afghan soil and society like few others can, because he himself is a Pashtun.

People are not just surprised — they’re stunned. They had heard that Afghans had defeated everyone from the Mongols to NATO. Then how, on the night between October 11th and 12th, did they abandon their posts and run?

But we’re not surprised. We’re actually smiling — because we know the current Afghanistan from within, and we’ve studied its history very carefully.

We won’t go too deep into the distant past, just one mountain-sized clue should suffice:

If Afghans truly defeated everyone, then where did the Durand Line come from? That same Durand Line across which 18.3 million Pashtuns live on the Afghan side and over 40 million on the Pakistani side. You can see how brutally the British Army distorted the demographic balance of Pashtuns.

Let’s remove people’s confusion by looking at the most recent Afghan war — the War on Terror.

That war lasted 20 years. At its peak, the U.S. had 120,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. Add forces from 44 other countries, including the U.K., Canada, France, and Germany. Anyone with even a surface-level understanding of guerrilla warfare would say this was the ideal situation for a guerrilla fighter — because the more widespread the occupying force, the easier it is to inflict damage on them.

Why?

Because the occupier has to be lucky every single day at every post he occupies, while the guerrilla only has to be lucky once in a while. That means the occupier suffers casualties somewhere almost every day.

Now comes the million-dollar question — or rather, since the dollar’s value has fallen, the million-yuan question:

Did the U.S. and its allies even lose one soldier a day in Afghanistan?

Let’s look at the numbers.

The U.S. stayed in Afghanistan for 20 years — that’s 7,300 days.

According to official records, 2,459 American soldiers were killed.

Divide that by 7,300 — you get one American death every four days.

Now compare that with Iraq:

The Iraq war lasted 8 years — about 3,200 days. In that time, 4,431 American soldiers were killed — that’s one every 17 hours.

So in Iraq, the U.S. was losing roughly one soldier a day.

Not only that — look at how many locals the U.S. killed in both wars:

In Afghanistan: 176,000 deaths in 20 years.

In Iraq: 500,000 to 1,000,000 deaths in 8 years.

Even if we take the smaller figure — 500,000 — the contrast screams for attention.

Let’s get to the truth behind that scream.

Afghans often taunt Pakistan for siding with the U.S. in that war.

But the Americans themselves have admitted in countless documentaries that Pakistan double-crossed them, and that they lost the war not to the Taliban, but to Pakistan.

Still, let’s assume Pakistan did side with America against the “pure” Afghans.

Now let’s rewind to the Soviet invasion.

When over 100,000 Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, did they fight any fierce border battle before entering? No. It was Afghans themselves who invited them in. The Red Army marched all the way to Kabul without resistance — and was welcomed with open arms and the words “Pakhair Raghlay” (“Welcome”).

Fast-forward to 2001 — when America wanted to enter after 9/11, it came through northern Afghanistan. Yes, the Taliban resisted — but who facilitated America’s entry into Kabul? Who danced and broke their anklets in celebration as American tanks rolled into Kabul? Were those Pakistanis?

Who accepted U.S. dominance and agreed to become its puppet government? Just Hamid Karzai?

What about the Soviet-era “mujahideen” leaders — Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, Ismail Khan of Herat, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar — didn’t they all align with the U.S.? Were they Pakistanis too?

Now, back to the “screaming” difference between Afghan and Iraqi casualty figures.

Why did the U.S., which fled Iraq in just 8 years, stay 20 years in Afghanistan and lose as few troops as a police department loses in peacetime?

Because Afghans were taking money from both sides.

Karzai and his circle received aid, and the Taliban took protection money for not targeting them.

Most of the 2,459 Americans killed were in the early years — before the “bribe system” was fully in place. Once it was set up, U.S. soldiers were only attacked if the payment was delayed.

Now, let’s connect the dots.

We know that both Islamic law and international war laws forbid killing civilians of enemy nations. The Taliban claim to be strict followers of Islam — the kind who need antivirus software if they so much as see a non-mahram woman. Yet, they killed over 1,800 civilian contractors working on U.S.-funded development projects — all civilians. Why? Because they refused or delayed paying extortion money.

And that “Amir” who was killed by a drone strike in Balochistan — when he bought a house in Gulshan-e-Maymar (Karachi), he gave the real estate agent 60,000 rupees in cash as “sweet gift money.” That “sweetness” says everything.

Now, the second link:

Throughout the War on Terror, the U.S. only complained about two entities — Pakistan and the Haqqani Network.

Go ask anyone in Miranshah — the Haqqani family had lived there even before the Soviet war. Their famous seminary, Manba al-Uloom, wasn’t in Afghanistan but in Miranshah. They were Pakistani residents, though of the Zadran tribe, whose range spans both sides of the border — Paktia, Paktika, and Khost in Afghanistan, and Waziristan and Kurram Agency in Pakistan. That’s why the Haqqanis remain loyal to Pakistan even today.

So the U.S. grievances weren’t against any Afghan leader from Ghazni or Kandahar — but from Pakistan’s tribal belt.

Now the third link:

When the U.S. finally left Afghanistan, why did it leave behind billions of dollars worth of brand-new weaponry?

And for whom?

If you think that was an accident, remember Mosul, Iraq (2014) — when brand-new American arms, tanks, Humvees, trucks, and missiles were conveniently “left” in the city, followed by a $500 million delivery to the central bank — and within a week, ISIS walked in without a fight.

America repeated the same playbook in Afghanistan in 2021.

Now, for the final link:

Remember General Hamid Gul’s famous words:

“9/11 is just an excuse. Afghanistan is the base. Pakistan is the target.”

That one line explains it all.

Why did the U.S., which fled Iraq in 8 years, sit comfortably in Afghanistan for 20 years — losing on average just one soldier every four days?

Because this wasn’t really a war.

Real war is what happens on nights like May 7th, when seven Indian fighter jets are shot down.

Or on October 12th, when in just four hours, over 200 Taliban terrorists were killed and 23 Pakistani soldiers martyred.

If Afghans were truly capable of defeating NATO or global superpowers, would they have abandoned their trenches that night?

Afghans have only ever known guerrilla warfare — the kind fought from the shadows.

Strike from behind, and when the enemy turns, flee.

That’s their level.

The last time Afghans fought a regular war was about 130 years ago — and they lost much of what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to the British.

And when, 130 years later, a similar battle came again for just a few hours, they fled their 21 posts — leaving Pakistan’s flag flying there.

And then — the ultimate irony — those who fled the battlefield rushed to conquer Facebook posts instead.

What a disgrace.