I was swimming in a luxury swimming pull in Vanishborg city of Sweden that suddenly my glances knotted with terrible pictures on the wall-hanged TV that was displaying the scenes of hitting a passenger Jet to the world trade center in the New York City. It was unbelievable for a moment to me, but when I concentrated my mind to what the reporter was explaining; the scintilla which crossed my mind that the reigns of Taliban in Afghanistan will be over soon. Yes, the 9/11 was an unexpected incident in the modern history that brought significant changes in the world’s policy it is considered a means of significant turnabout for the international diplomacy that created new literatures.
Under the unprecedented pressures of the United States, the Taliban regime collapsed, Islamabad that some days before was the secure sanctuary for the Taliban, turned to the hell where the ambassador of the Taliban in Islamabad was arrested and dispatched to the Guantanamo detention camp. It was an unexpected incident that opened a new front to combat the extremist groups that once had been used as an effective tool in the cold war era as well as flash of hope for Afghans who were the long-term victims of the Taliban’s relentless violence.
Sometimes later when I called one of my relatives in Kabul, a surge of joyfulness and hopefulness were recognizable from his voice tone in terms of building a peaceful future. At the moment that I am writing down this piece of my mind, I am in Kabul but the voice that I heard nineteen years ago, is now full of fear and panic concerning the current political turmoil in Afghanistan.
The person how I had called, is deeply concerned about his family and his future and thinks that the recent peace deal between the United States and the Taliban is something that would ease to cede the control of Afghanistan to the Taliban insurgents who have frequently demonstrated their contrast and animosity to the basic human rights principles in Afghanistan.
But he is not the only one who is concerned about his future. In fact there are millions of Afghans who are deeply concerned about the consequences of the recent peace deal between the United States and the Taliban. They say that there is an enormous gag between what the United States and international community had promised to do in Afghanistan and what they are demonstrating now in term of compromising with an insurgenct group that was recognized as part of the international terrorism.
They believe that current turmoil in Afghanistan is the consequence of the United States nonchalance as well as its non-commitment to the war against international terrorism. It is an unexpected development that the Taliban insurgency which once was par of the international terrorism, ris ecognized as the United States new partner in combating the extremist groups. All knew that the Taliban is the second generation of Mujahedeen who were designed to terminate the final stage of cold war and defeat the late USSR in Afghanistan.
It is also an incontrovertible fact that the most of insurgent groups including Al-Qaida and its late leader Bin Laden that later turned to the enemy of the United State were fighting in Afghanistan under the surveillance of the CIA. It means the phenomenon of terrorism is a multi-dimension reality that might be interpretable between partnership and animosity that depends to the time and rum.
The United States of America is a gigantic superpower that its enormous possibilities are almost unlimited. Therefore what is perplexing ones mined, is the United States really defeated in Afghanistan in the war against the Taliban? This is a multi-dimension question that the answer might be yes or might be no but it depends to the perspective from where we are looking to the episode. In retrospect to the official objective of the United States landing in Afghanistan and with respect to the human resources and cash lose to eliminate the extremist groups and put an end to the never ending war in Afghanistan, there exceedingly have done little.
It’s difficult to believe that the US is defeated by the Taliban but there are variety of reasons that demonstrate the United States consistently nonchalance which created an environment conducive to the reemergence of the Taliban insurgency. The insurgence is still a fragile entity which is designed based on a mixture of religious and tribal story that is easily breakable versus internationally recognized state called “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.”
The Taliban’s empowerment process obviously demonstrates the incapability of the Afghan government as well as the nonchalance of the US in term of creating a nation-wide narrative or a story that could energize the Afghan security forces to fight steadfast and dismantle the Taliban insurgency. In a broader picture it means that there was no serious plan and well-defined military strategy at government level to fight effectively against the Taliban insurgents. But on the other side of the front there were Pakistani and later Iranian military and intelligence experts who used to train the Taliban insurgents that how and where should be hit to magnify the insurgency in public opinion and undermine governmental forces.
The government’s incapability and negligence created a situation where military commanders easily could sell out their weapons, armored, ammunition and logistic materials to the Taliban insurgents or anyone else that its consequence was promoting the disbelief in the military ranks. There are many causes that the Afghan soldiers who were besieging by the Taliban insurgents, had rarely access to air support and even in cause of being killed, their bodies used to remain weeks long in the battle ground while the United States as the chief supporter and the main supplier of the Afghan army was monitoring every single incident without any serious repercussion.
While CIA Station in Islamabad was monitoring Pakistan’s commitment and sincerity to the fight against the international terrorism, Islamabad with constant temerity was busy in leading a three dimensional operation aiming to supply the Taliban insurgents with training and logistic means, lobbying to find more sympathizers rather than Pakistan and using any possible soft means to weaken the Afghan government internally as well as ignite the fire of animosity between different ethnic and religious groups.
Therefore, it is still an enigma that while the US had an overwhelming control over the situation, how Islamabad succeeded to lead a dualistic game at the same time? If it doesn’t make sense that how many Afghans lost their lives but it is of significant importance that how the US authorities could convince America’s public minds that thousands of Americans lost their lives in combat with an enemy that was easily breakable! It is an incontrovertible reality that Islamabad seeks its political survival in the continuation of crises in Afghanistan and it never wants to wind down its interference until Kabul is not capable of retaliation.
Therefore, it seems that the United States has intentionally lost the war to the Taliban insurgency and the White House Administration has finally come in a conclusion that the Taliban might serves the US’s interest much better than any other groups. The recent peace deal between the US envoy and the Taliban insurgent group interoperates as a prelude to the recognition of the insurgent group as the future states of Afghanistan. But the path mapped out by the United States for future of Afghanistan, will not lead to the peace and stability in the country. Off course it is of significant importance for Afghans to grasp every single opportunity for peace but the Taliban is an obscurantism group that is not designed to run a country with democratic needs.
The Taliban might curb Iran’s influence in Afghanistan but its practical reign might be a conducive environment for fostering extremist groups who poses potential threats to the United States interests throughout the world. The practical falls out of the Taliban reign is an imposed process that presages the failure of Afghanistan. If to mull over the fissure between the Taliban’s nature and the modern needs of life, it is not reconcilable. Therefore, any effort to enable the Taliban to return back, is an indelible mistake that might lead to another 9/11. The empowerment of the Taliban does not help to push the peace process towards its logical conclusion but peace will become a practical reality when the Taliban i respects the current constitution of Afghanistan.