Afghanistan needs help, not bickering

One year after the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan, the country is facing a deepening humanitarian and economic crisis.

More than half of the Afghan population－some 24 million people－need assistance and close to 19 million are facing acute levels of food insecurity, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told a UN Security Council meeting on Monday. The situation will soon become worse as the onset of winter will send already high fuel and food prices skyrocketing. "The consequences of inaction on both the humanitarian and development fronts will be catastrophic and difficult to reverse," Griffiths warned.

The United States, which waged a 20-year "war on terror" in Afghanistan only to make a hasty and humiliating withdrawal after its failure to establish a viable, US-friendly regime, bears full responsibility for the dire situation Afghanistan finds itself in, given that the war has devastated its economy and upended people's livelihoods. While Washington's vindictive decision to freeze Afghanistan's overseas assets worth more than $9 billion as part of its sanctions against the new Taliban government has pushed the country's economy to the brink of collapse.