8月21日，阿富汗哈米德·卡尔扎伊国际机场，美军协调相关人员撤离。
刘文龙
By Liu Wenlong
随着美军仓皇撤离阿富汗，美国持续近20年的阿富汗战争沦为世人笑柄。一方面，美在阿20年耗资超过2万亿美元，号称要“推翻塔利班政权，消灭基地组织，使阿富汗不再成为恐怖主义滋生的土壤”，自以为给阿富汗带去了希望，不料自己却成为阿富汗的敌人。另一方面，美军自认为帮助阿富汗政权建立了强大的武力基础，足够其应对国内一切危机，不料在美撤军之际，阿富汗政权就被塔利班以迅雷不及掩耳之势摧毁，这标志着美在阿政治军事行动彻底宣告失败。
The US-waged Afghan war that has lasted nearly 20 years ended up a global laughing stick with the scrambled withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. On the one hand, the US has spent more than USD 2 trillion in Afghanistan in the past 20 years for the claimed goal of “overthrowing the Taliban regime, eradicating al-Qaeda, and making Afghanistan no longer a hotbed for terrorism”. The USthought it was bringing hope to the country, only to find itself becoming theenemy. On the other hand, the US military thought it had helped the Afghan government build a powerful armed force that was sufficiently capable of handling any domestic crisis, but found to their astonishment that the minute the US troops started withdrawing, the Afghan government was swiftly overwhelmed by Taliban forces, announcing a total failure of America’s political and military operations in the country.
这并不是美国军事干预史上的首次失败。纵观历史，20世纪六七十年代的越南战争，美国凭借自身力量优势强势入侵越南，却深陷“战争泥潭”，最终以死伤20多万人的代价，逃离越南。2003年，美国借反恐之机，以反对伊拉克研发化学武器为由发动伊拉克战争，历时近10年，投入军费达7500亿美元，最终使中东局势越反越恐，极端组织“伊斯兰国”迅速壮大。2011年，利比亚爆发武装冲突，以美国为首的西方国家介入其中，至今该国仍处于混乱之中……
This was not the first debacle in America’s history of external military interference. During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, the overwhelmingly strong American forceinvaded Vietnam, only to find itself deeply bogged in a quagmire of war, and had to leave the country in disgrace after causing more than 200,000 casualties. In 2003, the US, taking the opportunity of counter-terrorism, launched the war against Iraq on the pretextthat it developed chemical weapons, and spent nearly 10 years and up to USD 750 billion there, only to aggravate the terrorist situation in the Middle East and drive the quick expansion of the extremist organization,Islamic State (IS). In 2011, armed conflicts broke out in Libya and the US-led western countries stepped in, but the country is still in turmoil today…
可以说，美国近几十年的对外军事干预，名义上为了世界局势的稳定与发展，实际上却打造出一个接一个问题丛生的局面。美国对外军事干预，失败并非历史偶然，是美国恃强凌弱、穷兵黩武霸权行径的必然结果。
In the past decades, America’s external military interference ostensibly launched for world stability and development has actually created one big trouble after another. It’s not by accident that these military interference operations have failed – it’s the inevitable outcome of the superpower’s bullying, militant and hegemonistic actions.
首先，恃强凌弱的霸权思维根深蒂固。第二次世界大战结束后，美国入侵他国、打“代理人战争”、扶持亲美政权等一系列行动从未停止。例如，1991年的海湾战争、1999年的科索沃战争、2001年的阿富汗战争等。美国入侵他国只是想凭借自身庞大军事力量获取战略利益，并不在乎这个国家的状况变好或变坏。
First of all, the mindset of bullyism and hegemony is too ingrained in the US. After the end of WWII, the US has never stopped invading other countries, fighting “proxy wars” and supporting pro-America regimes, such as the Gulf War in 1991, the Kosovo War in 1999 and the Afghan War in 2001. By invading others, the US only wanted to secure its strategic interests leveraged on its military superiority but did not care about the situation in those countries at all.
其次，穷兵黩武的军事行动不得人心。放眼世界，凡是局势动荡、战乱频发的地区都可以看到美国的身影，它要么打“代理人战争”，要么亲自下场干预。美试图将本就脆弱的地区平衡敲碎重组，无疑会放大干预国的矛盾，使其战乱频发、民不聊生。据统计，美在阿富汗20年的军事行动导致10多万阿民众死亡、1000多万人流离失所，失业率超过40%。而美军行动进一步加剧了阿富汗人民对外来入侵者的仇视和敌对心态。受美军训练和全副美式装备的30万阿政府军，在美军撤退之后遭不足8万人的塔利班武装重创，在数日之内土崩瓦解。由此可见，美在阿军事行动并未得到阿民众认同。
Second, America’s wanton military operations find no support in the world. If we take a look around the world, we’d see that wherever there are turmoil, unrest and constant wars, there is America either fighting a “proxy war” or getting involved itself. Washington intends to break and restorebalance in those already fragile regions, but that will unavoidably escalate the conflicts in the host country, leading to constant battles and throwing the local people into endless misery. Statistics show that America’s 20-year-long military operations in Afghanistan have left more than 100,000 Afghans dead, more than 10 million homeless and over 40% of the working population jobless. They have also aggravated the Afghan’s hostility and hatred toward intruders. The 300,000-strong Afghan government forces trained by the US and armed to the teeth with American equipment couldn’t put up an effective defense in face of less than 80,000 Taliban troops after the American forces pulled out and toppled within a few days, which proved how unpopular America’s military presence was in Afghanistan.
最后，基于现实的反思意识极度缺失。美国常年对外军事输出，所到之处满目疮痍，却从未想过这些军事行动为何招致世界范围内的广泛批评。正如英国《卫报》专栏作家波莉·汤因比所言：阿富汗战争的结局再次将西方的傲慢和自大暴露无遗。事实上，正是这种傲慢和自大导致美国从未对其发动的军事行动进行过真正的反思和纠正，从未意识到美式民主在阿富汗、伊拉克以及其他地区只是“空中楼阁”，更未正视过美国军事援助的“水土不服”。
At last, the US is incapable of reflecting on its mistakes. The US has been making military output all these years and wreaked havoc wherever its troops go, but it never takes a minute to think why these military operations have been so widely criticized around the world. As Polly Toynbee, a columnistfor The Guardian, said, the ending chapter of the Afghan war once again exposed the hubris and arrogance of the West. It is because of such hubris and arrogance that the US has never reflected on the military operations it waged, not to mention rectify them, never realized that its American-style democracy is nothing but “castle in the air” in Afghanistan, Iraq and other regions it rocked, and never seriously thought why its military assistance was “out of place” everywhere it was provided.
一位经济学家曾表示，对于手拿锤子的人来说，看什么都像是钉子。美国军事干涉就像是拿着锤子“满世界找钉子”，却从未想过自己眼中为何存在那么多“钉子”。
An economist once said, everything looks like a nail to a man holding up a hammer. By imposing military interference all over the world, the US is like a hammer-wielding giant looking for nails wide and far, but it never thinks why there are so many nails wherever it turns its eyes.
（作者单位：对外经济贸易大学国际关系学院）
(The author is from the School of International Relations, University of International Business and Economics)
