Afghanistan: More Troubles For The Taliban


Afghanistan's suffering, the Taliban's fault


I continue to be fascinated by the troubles of the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as of the Taliban’s supposed “Friends.” Their “victory” looks ever more like a textbook example of how it is sometimes much easier to win a war than to win the subsequent peace.

For example, consider the following: the country is now on the verge of losing its light and heat because the Taliban won’t or can’t pay the nations around it which previously provided its electricity.(1) This has the earmarks of a disaster given that winter is coming, and in a mountainous country like Afghanistan, that’s a serious thing. 


As if that weren’t bad enough, Afghanistan’s economy is in free fall. Quite simply, the nation’s business is at a halt.(2) That’s partly because the international community, which pumped a lot of cash into the country before, has pulled out in a great hurry. But, it is also surely the case that the Taliban may know how to use guns and bombs, but managing an economy, much less a modern, technologically developed economy, is flatly beyond them. 


And, finally, there’s the Islamic State, or more precisely, the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K). This is a dissident group of Afghani Jihadists which identifies with the genocidal and psychopathic Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. ISIS-K regards the Taliban as being far too moderate (in a word…yikes) and continues to wage war against the Talibani. In fact, it seems to be able to launch bomb attacks against the Taliban, and against innocent civilians, more or less as it pleases.(3)


What does all this mean? Quite simply, it means the Taliban regime faces one of two futures. Either it fails, or it will come to some sort of agreement with the international community to obtain the support, money, and technology it needs to survive. Should it pick the latter, though, it will have to moderate its demands on its people, and on the world. Or, to put it another way, it will betray, to some degree, its core principles. 


The question, of course, is whether the Taliban regime will be able to make that hard, hard choice …even if the alternative is its own destruction. 


~mjt



Sources: 


  1. “Kabul faces blackouts because the Taliban stopped paying foreign companies that generate most of Afghanistan's electricity,” Mia Jankowicz, Business Insider,  Oct 4, 2021, https://www.businessinsider.com/kabul-faces-blackouts-if-foreign-electricity-suppliers-go-unpaid-wsj-2021-10
  2. “Across Kabul, evidence of Afghanistan’s fast-unraveling economy under the Taliban is everywhere,” by Pamela Constable, Washington Post, Oct 4, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghanistan-economy-taliban/2021/10/02/be142044-214b-11ec-a8d9-0827a2a4b915_story.html
  3. “Bomb at Kabul mosque kills 5 civilians, Taliban say,” Samya Kullab, AP, Oct 3, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/religion-afghanistan-kabul-taliban-zabihullah-mujahid-c35d601f5d05066a11b0b8978b218643




Copyright©2021 Michael Jay Tucker

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