Afghanistan is in quagmire and the nation’s security forces have surrendered after the Taliban assault. They were not even capable of a meaningful attempt to resist such a move.Americannationals were witnessed to rush towards Kabul airport to evacuate the countryafter approximately two decades of conflict. There is a ‘defacto’Taliban government in Afghanistan except a few places where resistance against Taliban was seen recently.
A fewquestions may help explain the current scenario in Afghanistan. Questions such as:What Taliban exactly want? What are the causes of such a shocking collapse of Afghan Armed Forces who were trained by US and provided with high tech equipment? Would Taliban be able to learn the art of statesmanship? And the most important question whether the international community would digest the idea that such a government is acceptable which was established under gunpoint? Let’s seek the answers to these questions.
It appears that Taliban supposedly want a resurrection of Islamic Emirate that ruled from 1996 to 2001.The Taliban were ousted from government as a result of the intervention of US and its allies in 2001 as a pretext of the incident of 9/11. Although, Taliban seem to have changed their idea of an Islamic State from the previous version but the fundamental essence remains the same and there seems to be no compromise on what they struggled for throughoutthe past two decades.
The world seems to be in an utter disbelief and especially the US is shockingly ashamed of how unbelievably the Afghan forces surrendered and completely collapsed within a blink of an eye. Unlike the former president Donald Trump, the current President all of a sudden announced in Doha Conferencethat by September, 2021, the US forces would leave Afghanistan. Afghan government was not prepared for that sudden announcement. That indeed did breed demoralization in Afghan troops. In their military operations, Afghan troops were accompanied by US forces but this sudden and abrupt decision to pull back resulted in the psychological defeat of the Afghan forces.
Almost with every 200 km, Afghan military check-posts existed and in case of Taliban’s attack, US air support also used to reach immediately for assistance to Afghan forces. Almost all military support (arms, ammunition, medicines, food) used to reach through US air force, and this also halted as a result. The salaries of Afghan forces were never paid on time and these were not smart salaries too. The military’s morale was too low to deal with the advance of the Taliban due to the attitude of Ashraf Ghani’s government which was quite confused to act in these changing circumstances. Instead of coping with Taliban invasion, Ghani preferred to leave Afghanistan without even addressing a baffled nation who put their trust in him. The Russian intelligence claims that Ghani took a lot of money with him while fleeing Afghanistan.
In their 20 years of exile, Taliban learned a great deal of statesmanship as they used to meet foreign officials from different countries during attempts of peace by the US. Meanwhile, they also learned political tactics inevitable for a government to survive. They alsodeveloped their political relations with different countries who could foresee a potential Taliban government in Afghanistan after the US left Afghans at the mercy of an incapable Afghan government.
The Taliban diligently offered general amnesty to the Afghan forces and the masses at large to have the confidence of not only the nation they were preparing to rule but also the international community as well. This tactic worked to an extent to boost the morale of the public to have faith in Taliban and helped ease the existing tension to some extent.
Abdullah Abudullah is negotiating with Taliban for the next set up. One Afghan delegation comprising Karim Khalili, Ustad Muhaqiq, Ahmed Wali met with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa regarding Afghan issue. Efforts are being made to reach to any acceptable point which may convince all Afghan factions.
It is expected that unlike their past government, Taliban will take all Afghan factions into confidence and will give appropriate share to all Afghans. This tactic of a national reconciliation within Islamic frame seems to work as the international community reluctantly seems to accept the Taliban government. The Chinese meeting Taliban and the Russians reflecting an intention to have relations with Taliban provided they respect the human rights as well as the US already having a deal point to a potential international agreement on accepting Taliban government with the condition that Taliban would respect the fundamental human rights of Afghan citizens as mentioned in the UN Charter.