Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Who are Taliban if not Enemies?

Taliban have been the main insurgent groups fighting Afghan government and international community over the last ten years since they were overthrown in late 2001 after refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda Network that orchestrated and plotted 9/11 attacks. Osama Bin Laden is dead but Taliban remain the chief destructive force in Afghanistan to be dealt with.

Backed by elements in the region, the Taliban militants, along with Hezb-e-Islami Hekmatyar and Haqqani network, have been involved in destruction of roads, bridges and schools built with international assistance, carrying out terrorist assaults to kill security forces and civilians alike.

While Taliban have continued and continue to destroy things and kill people, Afghan government and international community have been talking about talks with them and other insurgent groups. Without any results, the reconciliation and negotiation with Taliban has led to some victimization.

For instance, the so-far useless and abortive efforts took the life of Professor Rabbani, a prominent Jihadi leader and the chief of High Peace Council. In the meanwhile, talk about talks with Taliban kept the attention diverted from being focused on the Taliban as enemy to Taliban as "unhappy brothers" who deserve to return to the fold and embrace an open society where all human beings living on this soil coexist peacefully and with sufficient level of tolerance.

But over the course of last few years, Taliban never tried to prove that they are the brothers that remain upset with other brothers. What they really did was to prove their desire to continue the battle and inflict suffering on Afghan people.

But the US Vice President Joe Biden message expressed in an interview with the Newsweek magazine is interesting as he said, "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That's critical." He stated, "There is not a single statement that the (US) President has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens US interests.

If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us. So there's a dual track here."

It should be mentioned that as long as the Taliban remain allied with terrorists and forces of evil in the region and beyond, they will pose threats to human life in Afghanistan and to security in the world by exercising violence in the country and by networking with terrorists regionally and globally.