The Taliban As “Protectors”…and other self-destructive jokes

 

"Guarding" ...with a bomb stuck to his gut. 

So here’s a tale of protectors…who are suicide bombers. 

As you know, I am perhaps weirdly fixated on the Taliban and Afghanistan. I’m convinced that the new regime is so unstable that it is only a matter of time before things get very nasty, indeed. Worse, I think that the rest of the world will be very, very lucky not to get drawn into the mess that the Talibani are making.

Well, here’s an update on that. And it involves a guy in an explosive vest.

I was reading an interesting article on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Gandhara site. That’s where the RE/RL folks post news and views on Central Asia in general and Afghanistan in particular. The piece in question was “Cash-Strapped Taliban Uses Foreign Aid Intended For Starving Afghans To Pay State Employees,” by Ron Synovitz.(1)

The article was about how the Taliban has been quietly funneling foreign aid meant to feed Afghanistan’s starving population (and they are starving, BTW. Children are being particularly affected) to pay its own bills and reward its own followers…while everyone else goes hungry. If anyone is surprised by that, I cordially invite them to step outside and sober up. You’ve had one too many. Or maybe a dozen too many.

Anyway, I read the article and was interested in it. But, then, I happened to notice one of the photographs that illustrated the piece. Way down past the fold (as they say) was a photo of two armed men. According to the caption, they were Talibani fighters who were guarding a “protest where demonstrators demanded the unfreezing of central banks assets abroad to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.”(2)

Okay, fine. But, then, I looked at the picture a second time. One of the men was armed with an automatic rifle—looked like an AK-47 variant, or maybe a clone. Either way, a rifle. 

The other man also had an AK, but…

Around his stomach was what looked to me like an explosive belt — a suicide bomber’s vest, in other words.

Now, the Taliban used suicide bombers extensively in their war against the US and the Afghan government. And, since their triumph, they have apparently begun to try to incorporate their Kamikaze brigades into their regular armed forces. But…

Here was a man who was a suicide bomber on “guard” duty. 

That would seem to indicate that the Taliban are having a difficult time transitioning from an insurgency, where suicide bombers have a role, to a government supported by legitimizing security forces. Or, maybe, the Taliban government doesn’t know how to make that transition. Or, maybe, it doesn’t really care to do so. Or… and perhaps this is most of likely of all… it doesn’t care whether it does or not.

And I wonder how the "demonstrators" felt being "guarded" by a man whose chief function was to blow himself up, taking along with him as many bystanders as possible.

For that matter, I wonder how Afghanistan’s neighbors — Pakistan, Iran, China — feel about the fact that their newest “friend” has so obviously failed to make the transition to a peace-time regime, and so obviously continues to rely on suicide bombers, and on a military strategy which is not the least bit defensive, but rather meant to slaughter the many and murder the innocent. 

Personally…it would make me very nervous indeed.

1. “Cash-Strapped Taliban Uses Foreign Aid Intended For Starving Afghans To Pay State Employees,” by Ron Synovitz, Gandhara, Jan 25, 2022, https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/taliban-foreign-aid-starving-afghans/31670691.html

2. The photo: https://gdb.rferl.org/08ef0000-0a00-0242-ccd4-08d9ceb72b0c_w650_r0_s.jpg

Copyright©2022 Michael Jay Tucker