America and its allies helped the Taliban on the road to victory – Middle East Monitor

Most Western media retailers are carrying headlines and hype in regards to the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan after the preventing pressure swept via the nation at a blistering tempo which has left army strategists gasping. Inside 24 hours of creating his “I’m staying” speech, President Ashraf Ghani fled from Kabul when the Taliban entered the town. Apparently, he has gone to Tajikstan whereas an interim authorities headed by Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar takes over.

Ghani did not wish to keep and struggle. Fortunately, the Afghan Nationwide Military agreed, in all probability as a result of he and his corrupt authorities weren’t value defending; the troops gave little or no resistance when Baradar arrived.

In lower than per week, the Taliban has seized ten provincial capitals, together with the motion’s religious dwelling of Kandahar. On Saturday morning, its forces surrounded the capital.

Since Western governments and media have spent three many years demonising the Taliban, the headlines over latest days had been fully predictable. “Return to the Darkish Ages”, screamed one alongside the face of an Afghan lady wanting extremely frightened and bewildered. I felt frightened for her, though a lot of the rising descriptions and scare tales lack actual substance. Not solely are Western media retailers promoting the general public brief they’re managing to scare the hell out of everybody else with tales of rape, compelled marriage, and faculties being closed, in addition to the standard tropes reminiscent of kite flying being banned.

What’s absent in all the hysteria is any significant evaluation, perception, and even easy info about how the Taliban forces have managed to brush via Afghanistan taking strategic cities reminiscent of Herat, Kandahar, and Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar province, in only a few days.

READ: Taliban management over Afghanistan will have an effect on Israel’s safety, warns official

Sure, there’s carnage on the bottom; and, sure, there have been atrocities, however they’re occurring on all sides. That’s what conflict appears to be like like. The our bodies of the youngsters pulled out of the rubble in Kabul when the US and Britain fired cruise missiles in opposition to the Afghans within the metropolis at the beginning of this battle in 2001 look no completely different to the our bodies of innocents caught up in final week’s crossfire. The one distinction is that nobody bothered to depend the lifeless and wounded again then in the event that they weren’t American, British or different NATO troopers.

How has the Taliban managed to grab management of Afghanistan? For a begin, it is value reminding ourselves that, regardless of what we learn within the media, the motion will not be a small band of insurrectionists who’ve lately re-emerged like some pop-up military after the US introduced the shock pull out of its troops. The Taliban is made up of Afghans with widespread assist in lots of elements of the nation; it by no means actually went away. These are folks preventing in and for their very own nation, not interlopers.

Though among the unique Taliban are nonetheless in its ranks, the motion is kind of completely different from that which fled from Kabul in 2001. The important thing strategists and decision-makers haven’t ditched or compromised their Islamic beliefs. They’ve, although, matured and developed and embraced a extra pragmatic outlook on world politics.

Simply because the then would-be president Hamid Karzai spent a lot of 2001 sneaking out and in of Afghanistan making strategic alliances with regional energy holders and tribal leaders, ever since 9/11 the Taliban leaders have accomplished precisely the identical. Nevertheless, as a substitute of relying solely on assist from throughout the nation, the Taliban negotiating staff has additionally realised that alliances with neighbours and regional powers are equally essential, particularly on the subject of commerce and creating jobs and wealth.

In line with my sources — they usually’ve not let me down to this point — top-level conferences have already taken place with China, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, and different neighbouring states. I am advised that the conferences have all been productive and constructive.

There might be very sensible causes for this. Tehran, for instance, doesn’t want any extra issues to take care of, particularly alongside its rugged 950km border with Afghanistan. Given the robust geographical situations within the area, it is nigh on unattainable to safe. Iran already has loads to take care of additional afield, as Israel retains threatening to assault and is goading the US into motion in opposition to the federal government in Tehran. The Israelis are already embroiled in a so-called shadow conflict with Iran within the Gulf.

Equally, Pakistan has an enormous job policing its 2,640km border with Afghanistan whereas keeping track of its doubtlessly hostile nuclear-armed neighbour India in occupied Kashmir. China has a lot greater issues to take care of as an rising superpower, so it too is not going to wish to be distracted by occasions within the Wakhan Hall, a sliver of land 350km lengthy however lower than 15km broad, ending in Afghanistan’s shortest border of simply 75km.

1000’s of displaced households endure hardships in a park in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 11, 2021 [Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency]

Russia additionally has its personal issues and would not wish to be sucked into checking out Afghanistan’s. Moscow has already been down that route as everyone knows; the previous USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979 till 1989, resulting in a 10-year conflict and occupation, and the emergence of Al-Qaeda. Soviet involvement was as disastrous because the American and British army misadventure within the “graveyard of empires”.

The truth that the Sunni Taliban have been speaking with Shia Iran is an indication that poisonous sectarian points may lastly be resolved. Not everybody can be blissful at this, not least Israel’s new greatest buddies and strategic companions within the Gulf, together with Saudi Arabia. The 2 have a mutual loathing for Shia-dominated Iran, as does the dominion’s influential Wahhabi non secular institution.

Turkey may show to be a superb ally since it’s already making its weight felt within the Muslim world with its troops in Syria, Libya, and Qatar, the place the Taliban’s negotiating staff is predicated. The Qataris are already selling themselves as companions for peace in different arenas; once more, its rivals in Riyadh will not be blissful.

Taking all of this into consideration, it’s extremely unlikely that Afghanistan will develop into a playground for jihadists or a magnet for terrorists. Removed from being remoted, Afghanistan may as soon as once more develop into a key buying and selling route with vital enterprise companions. The important thing factor, as I wrote a few weeks in the past, is that “The time has come for the West to take an enormous step again and cease interfering in Afghanistan apart from to supply no-strings humanitarian help and assist to make up for 20 years of devastation.” I stand by this declare.

READ: Iran units up camps alongside Afghanistan border as Taliban advance

I keep in mind asking my Taliban interrogators throughout my well-documented captivity in Afghanistan in 2001 in regards to the motion’s relationship with Al Qaeda. “They got here in as our friends and now act as our masters,” they replied bluntly. If that was consultant of the overall feeling again then, I believe that the Taliban management could also be extra selective over who it hosts sooner or later.

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Taking into account that the Taliban has by no means exported terrorism or carried out army strikes past its personal nation, I believe it is extremely unlikely it can tolerate these with plans to export terrorism to the West. It is value repeating that there have been no Taliban fighters on board any of the hijacked plane on 9/11, one thing which many People neglect; the terrorists had been practically all Saudis.

This may come as a shock to some journalists who’re incapable of viewing the Taliban as something apart from “terrorists”. They see the beards, turbans, and distinct clothes and lazy journalism outcomes; Islamophobia and racism comply with.

I believe that the Taliban’s priorities will embrace expunging any traces of Daesh from its territory. If any politicians and journalists can’t — or is not going to — distinguish between the 2 teams, they should think about if they’re in the proper job. As they provide this some thought, allow them to additionally think about the truth that Western efforts to prop up one of the vital corrupt governments on the planet helped the Taliban significantly.

The US has thrown three trillion {dollars} at its failed army marketing campaign in Afghanistan; billions extra have been given as help, a lot of which has been siphoned off by unsavoury parts inside Ashraf Ghani’s regime. Now numerous the American weapons and tools provided to the Afghan Nationwide Military and different forces are within the palms of the Taliban. Britain and the EU have additionally spent big quantities of cash in Afghanistan.

Astonishingly, Europe has threatened to isolate Afghanistan on the worldwide stage if the Taliban takes energy once more. Why? It was a catastrophe the final time spherical and by isolating the Taliban, the EU created much more fertile situations for Al-Qaeda and different teams to flourish. It has been mentioned that the definition of insanity is to do the identical factor again and again and count on completely different outcomes. European racism is clouding its judgment.

Maybe probably the most stunning response of all has come from US President Joe Biden, who dropped a bombshell earlier than heading off to his Camp David retreat for the weekend. The Afghan folks, he advised journalists, need to “struggle for themselves” and “struggle for his or her nation.”

READ: Pakistan has important function to deliver peace, stability to Afghanistan

Let this be a lesson to all who look to America to police the world. The US message is obvious: We bombed, invaded, and occupied your nation and now we now have stop, leaving another person to kind out the mess that we made. What a propaganda instrument for the Taliban. Is it any marvel that the motion has encountered little resistance on the highway to Kabul?

I mentioned a few years in the past that America and its allies weren’t the options for Afghanistan, however the issue. Submit-captivity I have been again to Afghanistan many instances and I can let you know that shifting across the nation within the all-enveloping blue burqa enabled me to watch America’s smug imperialism at shut quarters. It was repugnant.

As we have a look at what is going on now, let’s keep in mind this: It isn’t the fast withdrawal of the US forces that enabled the Taliban’s speedy energy seize, it was their presence in Afghanistan within the first place.

The views expressed on this article belong to the writer and don’t essentially replicate the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.