There is a dangerous perception perpetrated by mainstream media and woefully ignorant Biden and his minions that the Taliban are a homogenous legally constituted government, and a unified entity. That they definitely are not.
The predominantly Pashtun Taliban are deadly terrorist thugs skilled with small arms and explosives. They are motivated by the opportunity for personal enrichment and power over women and young boys by coercion and intimidation of otherwise peaceful farms and goat herders. They extort the populace in their immediate areas of control for “taxes” on crops, principally opium from poppies. Afghanistan has for years produced more than 90% of the world’s source of opiates for the west, primarily the USA.
The Taliban “leaders” or Amirs now fly Islamic banners from the U.S. Embassy and former coalition base flag poles. They have raised those banners of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) at the former Afghanistan Presidential Palace. Those Taliban are just the most currently overt and temporarily powerful localized leaders. They are only one of the multitudes of Taliban cells who are now in control of Kabul. External to Kabul numerous local warlords autonomous, by threat of arms, control most all the balance of Afghanistan.
You should realize that the leaders who claim to be Taliban in Kandahar, Masar-e-Sharif, Ghazni, Herat, the Bamiyan Valley, and other literally thousands of enclaves in Afghanistan are, in reality, independent fiefdoms. These limited enclaves are controlled by Taliban Amirs by force of arms, intimidation, thuggery, and killings. Those Taliban leaders outside of Kabul are not beholding to any central Taliban authority or “government.” They are only local armed warlords exploiting their authority until someone stronger and better armed takes their place and kills them and their families.
As award-winning journalist Daniel Greenfield in candor and truth wrote recently in
Frontpage Magazine:
"Afghanistan doesn’t belong to anyone. It’s its own forever war of quarreling tribes…The forever war will continue whether or not we’re there."
Only secondarily are the Taliban actually motivated by Islamic principles, the Qur’an and adherence to oppressive and primitive Sharia law. They espouse these principles when it suits their purposes to maintain power and camouflages their real motives. To their Afghan people the Taliban hide behind Islamic doctrine and the mission of jahad to cover their much more nefarious personal agendas. This should be quite familiar to us. Many of our own politicians tout Equality, Diversity and Inclusion along with charges of ubiquitous racism to mask their true agendas.
The US government and media reported and touted "negotiation" with Taliban in Qatar, UAE, Kabul with only a handful of supposed "leaders" of the Taliban. Yes, those "leaders'' may be respected religious leaders (mullahs), elders and warlords of factions of some of the Taliban "gangs." What the Taliban is are hundreds of "street gangs'' analogous to those gangs in US urban centers. These gangs are also quite similar to Native American war parties of the 19th Century with temporary, consensus leadership. Taliban also have much in common with the Mexican drug cartels in leadership and modis operandi. Those entities are led by "chiefs'' who have limited, formally unspecified powers temporarily ascribed by their voluntary group of followers who choose to follow their leadership. When those leaders fail or cannot any longer sustain their followers' confidence, or fear, or assure their minions money from extortion and opium deals for their respective personal agendas, then those leaders are brutally replaced. In the Taliban, as with US street gangs, and drug cartels, “replaced” often means killed.
Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada is named as the Taliban’s supreme leader this week by the disreputable and political Voice of America. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was anointed as the chief for Taliban political affairs, He was also the chief negotiator with Sec. State Pompeo in Qatar in September 2020. Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob is the son of deceased Taliban founder Mullah Omar, is touted as the military operations chief of the Taliban and deputy leader. Sirajuddin Haqqani leads the Haqqani network, only one element of the Taliban and a powerful one.
None of these “leaders” have governance experience on a national or international level or any education related to those tasks. Most attended the highly limited, high school-level strictly Islamic education in Madrasas. None of these leaders are necessarily acknowledged, followed or inherently respected outside of their own Taliban enclaves. It is ironic the Taliban lack of education of any note because the very word Taliban means “The Student.” For successful modern governance education is essential. For thuggery, terrorism, and oppression Taliban are well educated and highly experienced.
No, the Taliban are not a homogenous government in control of all of Afghanistan now nor will they be in the future. Remember the Taliban are primarily Pashtun who are radically tribal and racist. The Taliban have constantly and for many years persecuted, oppressed and killed Afghan minorities such as the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Hazaras, Turkmen and others who largely oppose the Taliban.
In the north of Afghanistan, reported August 20th, Baghlan, Panjsheer and one other Afghan Province broke away from the Taliban initiative in Kabul and elsewhere to resist in the name of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. A marginal, but telling resistance soon most likely to be squashed by other better supported larger ethnic factions. Such dissenting actions to Taliban attempted centralized “governmental control” will pop up periodically. Such local uprisings were common for the last 20 years resisting the Coalition-supported Afghan National government in Kabul.
Just one current local Kabul example: There are probably 10 to 15 Taliban "gangs" in control of the area immediately around the Kabul airport, which is a vast area. There are perhaps hundreds of Taliban separately led and actioned by cells of terrorist thugs in control of the 4.5 million people in Kabul.
All these misconceptions of what the Taliban is dramatically emphasize the ignorance of Biden and his administration, particularly the incompetent US UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield “strongly worded press statement” that the Taliban must, “respect women’s rights.” Even more naïve and impotent is Biden pleading with the Taliban for safe passage of Americans to the besieged Hamid Karzai International Airport. To think the Taliban actually would and could care about women’s rights or the safe passage of evacuees is astonishing stupidity.
These are blatant and erroneous media “facts”, well known to anyone who ever negotiated in shuras with, was unknowingly infiltrated by, or fought and killed the Taliban. To believe in the organizational homogeneity and governmental viability of the Taliban with any ability to negotiate and agree to control or restraint of those that loosely adhere to any edicts by the Taliban “leaders” is at best ignorant and at worst exceptionally dangerous. Take it from one who fought them for years, the only negotiation they understand is with a gun to their heads…and then pull the trigger.
Bill Wenger is a retired commercial real estate executive and U.S. Army Infantry Airborne Ranger colonel. He voluntarily served four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan after initial military retirement. He earned five Master’s Degrees and has taught National Strategic Planning, the Operational Level of Warfare, business, leadership and U.S. History. His latest book is on Amazon: The Key to American Independence: Quantifying Foreign Assistance to the American Revolution.
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