They have shed blood, treasure and public support for a distant and pointless war. Helmand’s atolĭuring the Taliban insurgency of the past 20 years, their leadership – which according to NATO, the US government and Kabul is backed by Pakistan – saw foreign forces get caught up in the Helmand quagmire.
They were old comrades, allowed to establish training camps and remain under Pashtunwali, a tradition of cultural law which, among others things things, protect the guests. Bin Laden and his followers had fought alongside the Afghan mujahideen, who had resisted the Soviet occupation after 1979.
Their support for al Qaeda was based on a shared history. September in the United States.īut the Taliban had never had an interest in international terror. Taliban appear inside the presidential palace 1:12īy killing him, the Taliban made bitter enemies at home, just as they became dangerous enemies to the rest of the Western world by providing al Qaeda with sanctuary before, during, and after Osama bin Laden ordered the attacks of 11 September. With a value of around US $ 4 billion a year, it was, and is, Afghanistan’s main export and a business that attracted rival bosses (khans), the police, the militia, Pakistani spies, truck mafias and the Kabul elite. In 2001, the taliban They were ousted from power by the Northern Alliance and other warlord groupings because many Afghans had grown tired of their medieval interpretation of Sharia law, tired also of being dominated by Southern Pashtuns and, above all, all very angry at the destruction of the extremely lucrative opium trade. So when the Afghan National Army was abruptly abandoned by the US and its allies earlier this year, the only question was: when will its commanders turn their own turbans? The antecedent of 2001 The government of Afghanistan has always been weak, intensely corrupt, dependent on foreign forces for its survival, divided by factional fighting, and tainted by warlords. The Taliban rose to its heart in 1994 and, within two years, were able to attack much of the rest of the country and seize power.Īnd now, 25 years later, they have done it again. With Afghanistan torn apart by warlords, corruption and hatred, that cult was seen by many in Kandahar as the harsh alternative of law and order to the horror they were living through. Driven by money from the Arabian Gulf and backed Through sponsors within Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, the Taliban distilled their version of Islam into a purist cult. The ideology originally grew among students, the Taliban, of Islamic schools largely in exile in Pakistan, where refugees sought refuge from the failed Soviet invasion of their country in 1979. Boris Johnson talks about the situation in Afghanistan 5:19 And so they surrendered, many choosing to join the opposition forces.īut this does not mean that the hard core have renounced the Deobandist interpretation of Islam that had helped bring them to power in 1996, which also fit comfortably with their largely ethnic Pashtun culture. Without the slightest shame, or doubt, their leaders had decided that they would rather be on the winning side than die senseless.
Immediately, long columns of combatants in black turbans began to walk peacefully towards their enemies and, entering their ranks, they were asked, “What happened?”Ī Taliban fighter smiled widely and explained, “We twirled our turbans.”
Then, as suddenly as thunder, there was silence on the battlefield. (CNN) – In late 2001, the hills west of Maidan Shahr in Afghanistan were marked by black eruptions of high explosives, while the last of the Taliban fighters were hit by Northern Alliance artillery and US bombers. The Taliban’s plan to take over Afghanistan 2:56