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Let’s cease all of the hand wringing and angst over Afghanistan. Now. It is fooling nobody. America, Britain and their NATO allies have had 20 years to assist put the nation again on its ft, ship human rights, feminine equality and a democratic authorities freed from corruption. They’ve failed.
Regardless of the return of main charities again in 2002 and billions of {dollars} later, ladies’s rights have barely improved past Kabul. The capital is the seat of arguably essentially the most corrupt authorities on this planet unable to progress as a result of grasping politicians are extra involved about lining their very own pockets than good governance and improvement.
Little marvel then that the Taliban is making large inroads to regain management throughout the nation, and at such a fast tempo that it’s leaving many navy strategists breathless. In some provinces, it’s being welcomed again and assembly no resistance. The motion now controls greater than half of Afghanistan.
After all this leaves Western governments and their compliant media in a clumsy place after 20 years of demonising the Taliban. We have been instructed day by day after the horrific occasions of 9/11 that it ran essentially the most brutal, ruthless regime on this planet. However there was no Taliban involvement in 9/11. That was a story pushed out by the then US President George W Bush and his keen sidekick, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
They talked about women’ faculties being closed and youngsters banned from flying kites. As is commonly the case in such scare tales there was a grain of fact of their phrases. Nevertheless, if journalists had investigated additional they might have found that faculties have been deserted and closed for everybody as a result of there was no cash, a part of the nation was within the grip of famine and all of it was affected by the after-effects of a devastating civil struggle.
OPINION: Twenty years on from 9/11, the Taliban returns to the forefront in Afghanistan
Kite flying was certainly banned in main cities and cities, as a result of the razor-thin wires have been slicing into and thru overhead energy cables, killing the unlucky kite flyer and leaving main areas with out electrical energy. Think about making an attempt to fly a kite in London’s Oxford Road and you may see why such a observe was stopped.
Once I went again to Afghanistan in February 2002, the yr after my seize by the Taliban a lot was made by the media that Kabul College was re-opening its gates after the motion’s fall and that women would be capable of return to high school. Many believed that the struggle was all however over and the long run regarded shiny. Certainly it did, however after I requested at a press convention how extra women than boys had handed the doorway examination if women weren’t educated beneath the Taliban, there was a stony silence.
As a substitute of a response, I used to be undermined, sidelined and silenced; written off as a sufferer of Stockholm syndrome just because I might survived a terrifying ordeal after I’d been captured and held by the Taliban for ten days within the earlier September. Removed from being compliant or bonding with my captors, nonetheless, I used to be the prisoner from hell. Actually, I am undecided who was happiest to see me return safely to Britain, the Taliban, or me.
“She is a really unhealthy lady with a really unhealthy mouth,” mentioned Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef throughout a press convention asserting my launch from captivity. I didn’t just like the Taliban they usually definitely didn’t like me. Nevertheless, as a journalist, I’ve all the time felt it my responsibility to ship the reality and the reality is that my jailers handled me with kindness and respect that I had not anticipated. Moreover, I might see that they liked their nation and would by no means surrender the battle to take it again from the US-led invaders.
READ: Fleeing the Taliban, Afghans stroll by Iran to succeed in Turkey
Prefer it or detest it, the Taliban has neither wavered from its objectives nor pursued any hidden agenda. We within the West may not like its mind-set, ideology, or beliefs, and would baulk on the very thought of introducing Taliban methods into our international locations, and with good motive. However why on earth ought to we count on the motion and its supporters to undertake and embrace our cultures, habits and beliefs which they discover equally unpalatable?
As I write this, the US — which was purported to have withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan earlier this month — is bombing Taliban positions. Sufficient is sufficient. The time has come for the West to take an enormous step again and cease interfering in Afghanistan apart from to offer no-strings humanitarian assist and assist to make up for 20 years of devastation. If the Afghan folks wish to eliminate the federal government imposed on them by the US, then that is their enterprise, not ours.
Sure, persons are nonetheless dying on this battle, as they’ve been for the previous 20 years. It is solely now, although, that the variety of civilian casualties reported within the Western media are deemed to be essential. Once I left Afghanistan after being launched by the Taliban in October 2001 the struggle had already begun. Through the journey from Kabul to the Pakistan border, I noticed what regarded like robust proof that civilian areas had been bombed by the US-led coalition, together with hospitals. No person was within the variety of Afghan civilian casualties again then.
I usually refer in my columns to the hypocrisy and double requirements deployed by the West and a few of my colleagues within the media. By no means has it been extra blatant than of their protection of Western interference in Afghanistan.
Prefer it or not the Taliban is coming again to energy. I do know from my very own contacts inside the motion that the popular choice is a diplomatic settlement, however there’s little belief between the management and the federal government of President Ashraf Ghani. The reality is that he might have reached a peaceable settlement with the Taliban months in the past, however he all the time thought that the US could be there to again him, so it wasn’t mandatory to take action.
He clearly hasn’t been paying consideration. The listing of dictators and leaders who’ve been put in by the West through the years is lengthy, as is the listing of those that have been betrayed by their fickle mates in Washington and Europe. Presidents Saddam Hussein (Iraq, 1979-2003) Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (Libya, 1969-2011) and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia, 1987-2011) are three who spring to thoughts. All have been at one time supported by the West. They’d verify what I say if that they had lived to inform the story.
Ghani could be clever to chop a cope with the Taliban within the subsequent few days earlier than it’s too late. He can not depend on his personal Afghan safety forces who he expects to battle with out pay, such because the extent of the corruption in his authorities. The US put aside billions of {dollars} to prop up the Afghan navy however the cash has by no means reached the troopers on the bottom. Little marvel, then, that the troops have misplaced momentum in latest weeks, with some fleeing for his or her lives and others becoming a member of the Taliban. Combating to your nation is one factor, however placing your life on the road to maintain the people who find themselves pocketing your hard-earned wages in energy is one thing else.
Afghanistan is a basic instance of what occurs when Western intervention goes incorrect. Nonetheless, as a substitute of sitting again and agreeing, it’s time for different overseas gamers to step into the breach for the sake of the Afghan folks. Qatar has performed a vital and optimistic position. In February final yr, the US and the Taliban have been within the capital Doha after they signed the Settlement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan. One other equally trusted Muslim regional energy is Turkey, which has already prevented the bloodbath of civilians in war-torn Libya and Syria.
READ: Turkey ought to ship engineers not troops to Afghanistan, Taliban spokesperson says
Turkey is taking on safety at Kabul Worldwide Airport after the withdrawal of US troops. Observers say that that is key to sustaining stability. Importantly for the Taliban, optimistic assist from Muslim international locations in the direction of a political answer to finish the struggle could be welcome. Istanbul might effectively host an Afghan peace convention within the coming months.
In that case, it might set a precedent for different troubled Muslim lands, together with Libya, Syria, and Yemen, for instance. And even Western Sahara, Morocco, and Algeria. On the very least, although, the West ought to hold out. Its monitor document is appalling, and it must be taught from historical past. Afghanistan just isn’t referred to as the “graveyard of empires” for nothing.
The views expressed on this article belong to the writer and don’t essentially replicate the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.
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