Taliban at the table
What this article seems to ignore is that the Taliban is a hideously oppressive organisation. Allowing them to resume governance of Afghanistan would be to say, “We’re happy for governments to terrorise and kill and harm their citizens, just so long as they don’t bother us.”
Is that really what we want to do? Do we really want to keep to that non-interventionist line and allow other human beings to suffer through that? Personally, I don’t. If I were a world leader, I’d keep fighting the Taliban until they were utterly annihilated.
Which is not to say that I think the Western world is being very clever with their strategy. Air strikes that kill civilians… yeah, that’ll totally shore up support. Supporting corrupt governments? Yep, yep, same. Excellent strategy, guys. Clearly it’s only a matter of time before that one works out.
I think this article overestimates support for the Taliban. Admittedly I must qualify this statement by pointing out that I have never been to Afghanistan nor spoken to anyone from there, and this person probably has, and while I know other people have discussed just how unpopular the Taliban really is, they’re going to be biased by the fact that they want the Taliban to be unpopular. As human beings we tend to jump on evidence that confirms our view and blank out the rest.
But.
I do not see any reason why the Taliban in and of themselves would be popular. We remember the intensity of oppression in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, don’t we? We remember the public executions, the frequent beatings, the oppression of women, the banning of most forms of entertainment (like sport)… don’t we? Do we really, truly believe that that kind of governance is popular with the people of Afghanistan?
That said, I can see that nationalist movements — ones which want an Afghanistan free from foreign control — would be popular. The solution is not to legitimise the Taliban as a “nationalist movement”, but to (firstly) respect the Afghans as an independent group of peoples, and (secondly) to allow them to take over the running of their own country, and assist them in this (rather than dictating terms). What do the people of Afghanistan really want? I am guessing they want the violence to end, and a better standard of living.
And I also think that if improvements were made towards those goals — independence, an end to violence, better living conditions — support for the Taliban would melt away. They have the support they have because they seem to be the only group that cares about the Afghan people, despite their unsavoury side, and people feel they have no choice.
That means there has to be an Afghan government that makes progress this way — not foreign troops (although they could support a government that did so). Which means that Hamid Karzai’s regime is probably not the best one for Taliban-beating purposes.
Anyway, I am rambling. The main thing I wanted to get across was that just because the Taliban has suggested they wouldn’t shelter al-Qaeda if restored to power in Afghanistan, does NOT mean it should be counted as a possibility.
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