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Across the Divide

The Taliban are moving towards power in Afghanistan. They realize the world
has changed and, this time around, the country they will govern must be
treated with more tolerance and open-mindedness.

By Major General Inam Ul Haque (R) | April 2020
Taliban leaders sitting in the hotel lobby before the signing of the Peace Agreement with the United States.

It is interesting to see the gloom and doom analyses and disappointing commentary on the 29th February 2020 US-Taliban peace deal. One is saddened by the subjectivity of the debate, as most analysts follow the Western talking points. Some go to the extent of accusing the Taliban of feigning peace; they are described as untrustworthy and would again brutalize society as they did before. It is important to resurrect the basics, as basics are generally forgotten in a debate without focus.

It is instructive to remember that it were the Taliban who brought a semblance of peace and stability to Afghanistan, after the era of the warlords of the 1990s, when they stood as guarantors of the most important human right - the right to life. The Taliban were driven from power by the US-led Western military might for crimes they had never committed. It were the Taliban who fought the war of liberation, nurturing it with their blood and sweat. Throughout the two decades of war, they remained steadfast and tethered to their fatherland without leaving for greener pastures, and then they returned to rule their country on the shoulders of invaders, like the present political elite did. They wrote the glorious chapters of contemporary military history by defeating two superpowers. They are still standing like a bulwark against the greater menace of ISIS. And, in reality, they are the only party who can make Afghanistan peaceful and protect its nationhood.

The foregoing is an undeniable fact check, so a little realism in analysis would help the war-weary Afghans, whose love causes the analyst community many a sleepless nights. Who has forgotten the CIA paramilitaries riding with the Shumali warlords to drive the Taliban from power through incessant intrigues and carpet bombing? Speaking of human rights, who can forget the Sheberghan fiasco and the errant bombings by US/NATO planes killing and maiming innocent civilians in marriage parties?

The incidents of US soldiers running amok killing any Afghan in sight - including women and children - and collective brutalization of a hapless people are still fresh memories. The US and the West conniving with the Shumali warlords and opportunists of all shades, under the coat and tie leadership of the imported expat community - with dual-nationalities - took upon itself to “modernize Afghanistan making it heaven on earth”. And for 19 long years, through social experimentation, shifting politico-strategic goals, humungous corruption and vacillation augmented by lack of sociological understanding, this enterprise failed and failed spectacularly. The US and its allies reeked with PTSD, suicides and other ailments as a result, and the agony goes on.

One might ask if after trillions in treasure and thousands in limb and life, is Afghanistan peaceful, democratic, freer and self-sustaining? If the answer is no, after failure by 49 countries under the sole superpower, shouldn’t the Taliban be given the power, snatched from them through the barrel of the gun in the first place. The smooth-talking, western attired, English speaking elite under the successive Afghan governments, who amassed staggering fortunes over the dead bodies of their compatriots, including women and children, are just an aberration on the Afghan soil. President Trump has understood this, hence his keenness to cut loose and get out. Ashraf Ghani and his cabal would do so at their peril. It is time the Taliban get what they deserve, what is agreed with them and they be taken on their words. The NYT op-ed by Sirajuddin Haqqani is their stated road map. The alternative is continued bloodshed.

The Afghan Taliban successfully fought a glorious war of liberation by any definition. The victor has it all, as military history would substantiate. Expecting them to share their hard-won victory on a platter with the sold-out elite who conspired with invaders against them and their country, would be naïve and outrightly unrealistic. The intra-Afghan dialogue is designed to iron out power sharing. But it would be useful to remember that what the military might of the whole industrialized world could not do should now be tried through just and realistic power sharing. America wants to get out irrespective, Abdullah Abdullah has announced his parallel government, Afghan donor countries are in turmoil due to corona virus, and Afghan security forces are in two - or three minds. In such a scenario, can the present Afghan government ever provide peace and governance and confront the Taliban and ISIS?

As a side note, when you renege on a commitment by refusing to release prisoners in a deal, signed by your banker, you do not help peace and your people … you, in fact, use prisoners as a human shield - an awkward leverage. If the sentiment of the Taliban rank and file and post-Soviet Afghan history is any guide, the regime should make peace at any cost while the US is still there. Without US troops, the regime would inevitably fall. Najeebullah was kept on the ventilator by the erstwhile USSR for two years; the Ghani-Abdullah dichotomy does not have that luxury with its depleted leverages. Indian support and resolve of the entrenched lobbies in Kabul are not enough and, in times of nervous disease-fighting and profound uncertainty, the Afghan regime would mostly be on its own. A compromise with the Taliban, the ascendant force, is smart, pragmatic and writing on the wall. The alternative may soon become a surrender.

The Afghan Constitution, women’s rights, greater than agreed share in power, madar-pidar azadi, etc. are all flimsy last cries of a minuscule urban elite, in a country where the first and foremost priority should be peace and protection of life. Yes, the Taliban are pragmatic people. They would need continuous financial aid to run the government, hence the leverage with the world. But expecting them to agree to a lop-sided power-sharing arrangement would be as futile as fighting them for two decades. The choice for the Afghan government is to “take it or leave it”. It has tried the hard way; let peace and compromise be the preferred course this time around.

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