One of the most shocking images to come out of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre was that of the Falling Man. Shot by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, the image showed a nameless male plummeting through the air, set against the metallic backdrop of one of the towers. Not unlike the inhabitant of the Tomb of the Unknown Solder, the Falling Man was in a way representative of all the victims of that day. It invited us to ask ourselves what we would do in that situation, when the flames get so close and the only exit is certain death. Just like the attack itself, it was almost unthinkable.
That 9/11 changed the world is a truism that only becomes more apparent as time goes on. In response America’s neoconservatives sought to right the wrongs of the Gulf War and get rid of Saddam Hussein; liberal interventionists sought to extend democracy to those living under the yoke of despots. A muscular, righteous America was going to put things right – so the story went.
But while attempting to extend its values to the world, the US struggled to hold true to those values. They fudged the evidence on Saddam’s WMDs, collaborated with Afghan warlords when it suited them, tortured enemies or presumed enemies, extended surveillance of citizens, and got around the tricky problem of judicial due process by setting up a prison at Guantanamo Bay. Tales of war crimes, human rights abuses, and civil rights violations abound.
The Iraq War ended with no plan for the aftermath, giving rise to an even more megalomaniacal terrorist organisation, Isis. George W. Bush had said that “I believe that democracy will prevail, so long as the United States stays with these young democracies to help them.” But far from promoting democracy abroad, America was losing faith in it at home. Enter: Donald Trump.
This summer, as the last American troops began heading home from its longest war, it didn’t take long for the Taliban to sweep across Afghanistan. Unsupported Afghan troops had enough experience to know that it was not worth fighting. As the Taliban surrounded Kabul, the president fled, a transition was agreed, and everyday citizens, including many who had some kind of connection with the West’s mission there, tried to escape.
This long chapter of the War on Terror ended with another spectacle of men falling from great heights – not from collapsing, smoke-filled buildings, but from aeroplanes. Instead of flames, the danger was Taliban militants rearmed with abandoned US hardware. Instead of being missiles, these planes were the last hope of desperate people.
Importantly from an American perspective, these were Afghan bodies falling into Afghan soil. Whether it’s just the political reality, or whether Joe Biden is more similar to Trump than he’d like to admit, America First is the guiding principle of the White House. It is a lesson which America’s NATO allies – and Taiwan – will have learned, and was summed up by Biden bemoaning the Afghan Army’s supposed refusal to fight: “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.” Would the same logic not have applied for the British and French in World War 2?
America’s War on Terror was never going to prevent terrorism per se, but its leaders could hope that its spectacles would occur elsewhere. In a way that mission is complete – but for how long? Islamists around the world are now cheering a job well done, vindicated that God is smiling upon them. Hard won democratic freedoms have been lost, and we could be at the beginning of another wave of attacks. It’s easy to conclude that, for all the lost lives, we’ve come full circle.
But in fact we are not back where we started, because the wider picture has changed. America on the world stage has been damaged perhaps beyond repair in the years since 9/11, starting with the illegal and botched Iraq War. Barack Obama’s statesmanship was undermined by his hollow words on Syrian chemical weapons and the Russian annexation of Crimea, and Trump’s lack of statesmanship alienated allies and emboldened enemies. It was, after all, Trump who gave Kim Jong-un international legitimacy, who got Iran enriching uranium again, who withdrew troops from Syria, enabling Isis terrorists to escape from prison en masse. And, yes, it was he who warmly agreed a deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the great game of global influence ramps up. Russian whataboutism has portrayed America as hypocrites as the Kremlin engages in its campaigns of division, assassination, and sometimes outright invasion. China has presented itself as the adult in the room, refusing to lecture other countries on their domestic situation, expecting the same in return, and buying loyalty through investment. China will extend that attitude towards Afghanistan’s new rulers, and cement their authority in the region.
If Karl Marx was correct that historical events occur twice – first as tragedy, then as farce – then the American withdrawal of Afghanistan is surely the farce that we’ve been waiting for. But it’s not only a retreat from Afghanistan; America is withdrawing from the world stage. The falling men – one at home and one abroad – represent America’s 21st century malaise, its domestic convulsions as it comes to terms with its relative decline.
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