Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”
The United Nations just confirmed what most Western officials won’t admit.
Afghanistan is not in recovery. It’s collapsing, economically, socially, and morally. Entire provinces are nearing famine conditions:
- 90% of Afghan households are skipping meals, selling what little they own, or surviving on loans they can’t repay
- 4.5 million people have been pushed back into the country since 2023, most of them forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan
- Average monthly income is around $100, while rent has tripled
- Unemployment among returnees is over 90%
- 30% of Afghan children now work instead of going to school
- Women’s participation in the workforce is down to 6%, among the lowest on Earth
And yet the world barely blinks.
But this isn’t just the aftermath of war. It’s the collapse of a 20-year Western project, now replaced by a regime enforcing theological law, funded by the very nations that promised Afghan citizens they’d never be abandoned.
From 2001 to 2021, the United States and its NATO allies spent over $2.3 trillion in Afghanistan. This wasn’t just military expenditure.
Over $145 billion of that total was explicitly earmarked for reconstruction: civilian governance, elections, legal reform, media, education, job creation, and the protection of women’s rights.
Billions were routed through USAID and the State Department into programs aimed at reshaping Afghanistan into a functioning secular republic. Schools were built. Local TV and radio stations were created.
NGOs and civil society groups were funded and staffed. Women were trained to become judges, journalists, lawyers, professors, and physicians. Entire bureaucracies were constructed with Western guidance. And a whole generation came of age believing that Taliban rule was part of history, not the future.
Yet throughout this period, the West looked away from the cracks: the growing influence of Islamist ideology inside supposedly secular ministries, the corruption within Afghan government ranks, and the quiet survival of Taliban leadership across the border in Pakistan.
Even while American troops were on the ground, foreign-funded madrassas were operating openly. Parallel Sharia courts were tolerated in rural areas. U.S. officials routinely avoided confrontation with religious powerbrokers. And still, the messaging stayed the same, Afghanistan was being “rebuilt,” and the Taliban were “on the run.”
That lie was sustained for 20 years.
And then it ended with one handshake.
In 2020, under the Trump administration, the United States signed the Doha Agreement, a deal that essentially legitimized the Taliban as a negotiating partner. The Taliban promised not to attack American troops. The U.S. pledged to a complete withdrawal. The agreement also forced the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, many of whom returned straight to the battlefield.
What the agreement did not include was any real guarantee for the Afghan people. It made no demands for disarmament, no requirement for power-sharing, no framework for elections, and no commitment to preserve the rights of women. The message was clear: the U.S. would leave, and the Taliban? They’d do whatever they wanted.
They didn’t.
By the time the Biden administration executed the disastrous withdrawal in August 2021, the Taliban had already encircled most major cities. With no plan to evacuate civilians, no enforcement mechanism, and no resistance left from a government abandoned by its international backers, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was reinstated. The republic was gone. The Constitution was dissolved. And Sharia became the only law that mattered.
Girls are banned from attending school beyond the sixth grade. Women are banned from most employment sectors, including healthcare and education.
They cannot travel or access hospitals without a male escort. In some provinces, women who do not wear the full-body burqa are refused treatment at emergency rooms.
Female NGO staff have been systematically removed from their jobs. The United Nations now estimates that removing women from the workforce has cut Afghanistan’s productive labor force in half.
When women are banned from work, families, communities, and nations suffer.
— Kanni Wignaraja, UN Assistant Secretary-General
In a country where women had become doctors, professors, and cabinet members, they are now banned from even walking alone.
And while millions suffer under these restrictions, the regime imposing them is not struggling. It’s governing.
Afghanistan’s current rulers have power, territory, infrastructure, and access to money.
Every border crossing, airport, customs checkpoint, and permit office is under Taliban control.
They impose taxes on businesses, civilians, and even foreign NGOs. They’ve signed mineral extraction deals with China, offering up access to copper, lithium, and rare earths. They maintain financial and strategic ties with Russia, Iran, Qatar, and Pakistan. Taliban revenue has doubled since 2021, according to UN estimates.
Since the U.S. withdrawal in 2021:
- The United States has pledged $2.9 billion in aid to Afghanistan. Over $1 billion of that has already been delivered, primarily through USAID.
- The United Nations is requesting another $3.2 billion for 2024 operations.
- In early 2024, the U.S. proposed an additional $470 million for humanitarian and development programs inside Afghanistan.
There are no conditions tied to these funds. There are no mechanisms to prevent Taliban taxation. No laws are stopping the regime from skimming aid, blocking female workers, or enforcing ideological compliance on NGOs. Even the World Bank has resumed assistance for health and education sectors that are collapsing in real time due to the Taliban’s own policies.
And there is no outrage.
No congressional investigations. No hearings. No media exposés. No political speeches. No international sanctions tied to ideological oppression.
The world keeps sending money. The regime keeps consolidating power. And the Afghan people are left to starve under the system we said we’d never let return.
There are no global protests for Afghan women or refugee children. There are no celebrity statements, no campus encampments, no flood of humanitarian influencers posting flags, and no “Free Afghanistan”.
Why?
Because in this world:
Muslim regimes are treated as victims. Islamic leaders are “misunderstood.” And Sharia? Untouchable.
Because “Islamophobia” holds more political weight than millions of Afghan lives.
Because Trump’s deal with the Taliban can’t be criticized without triggering partisan loyalty.
Because the collapse of Afghanistan under U.S. and NATO hands can’t be admitted without exposing the lie of our foreign policy.
And most importantly, because there’s no way to shift the blame onto Jews or Israel.
Afghanistan doesn’t fit the narrative, so it’s erased.
Afghanistan Is Starving by design, by abandonment, by theocrats. And starved by the cowards who still won’t name the system killing them.
We funded the war. We funded the republic. Now we’re funding the regime that buried both.
And not one of the architects is being held accountable.
