“Who are the Taliban and whose war they have been fighting” is a question that has been storming headlines in Afghan media. The question popped up after the Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a diatribe against the US and international forces over the alleged collusion of Americans and the Taliban. Karzai said the Taliban operate at the hands of foreigners. He also said that the US and the Taliban are in collusion against Afghanistan, and seen together travelling abroad. The White House has sternly rejected the remarks of Karzai while terming it too contentious and totally unfounded.
However, since the recent tug-of-war between Kabul and Washington over the much awaited handover of the US-run Bagram prison, and Karzai latest remarks, there has been a hot debate in Afghan media about why Hamid Karzai issued such a hard-to-digest remark when his term as a president is going to end next year and whether the Taliban and Americans have some covert relations. Many believe that what Karzai said is the eleventh-hour truth and he knows it will do no damage to his government, and given his rule in the past few years he couldn’t have said what he unleashed recently.
It could be termed a gambit of legacy as Karzai wants a nobler ending. Karzai’s comments have been much more forceful since the US triggered the issue of the Durand Line when its special envoy Marc Grossman said that his country considers the line as internationally recognized boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The issue of Bagram prison transfer from US to Afghan control has also added to the anger of Karzai. The Afghan president had been quoted that he can switch sides if the prison is not transferred to Afghan control. There are a hundred interpretations of Karzai’s recent remarks in international press but many Afghan journalists hold this same popular belief that the Taliban are the product of a US – Pakistan unholy alliance, which they had formed to kick out the then Soviets from Afghanistan.
First they created the Mujahideen to confront the Soviets, however after the withdrawal of the USSR, Pakistan imposed another group of hardliners—the Taliban, with the aim of taming warring Mujahideen factions and securing its own nefarious ends. Partially Pakistan succeeded but towards the end of 2001 many things took a sharp U-turn. From 1996 to 2001, the US played a role of just ‘wait and see’. 9/11 provided a reason for the United States to invade Afghanistan although it could have killed Osama bin Laden in a quick raid like it did eventually in Abbottabad—the garrison city of Pakistan. When the US invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, Pakistan had to reap the whirlwind.
Now the situation on ground has really become very complex. But despite all the murky affairs, it is well evident and well established that the Taliban are foreign proxies. The words of Afghan President Hamid Karzai carry no new information and it is surprising for some elements in his own government to unwelcome this candid statement that the Taliban operate at the hands of foreigners. It is strange to see the president being held in contempt for issuing such a rare and candid remark. Karzai has hit the bull’s eye and it remains to be seen whether he is going to deliver or back down on his words as he has has done in past while producing deadlines. His words are no surprise for his nation as this war-weary nation knows who is backing the Taliban and what for? The Taliban have been considered foreign protégés and they cannot be loyal to this land.
This is the reason that from Andar district of Ghazni to Panjwai district of Kandahar, from Paktia to Khost there have been mass uprisings against the Taliban. Why? Because now the Taliban’s faces have become bare and everyone knows whose’ war they have been fighting. It cannot be termed jihad to kill your own Muslims and your own Afghans.
Coordinated efforts between residents and police have forced the Taliban out of several villages in Kandahar—the second largest province in the country and the birthplace of militant leader Mullah Omar. Being fed up with the Taliban’s militant tyranny and barbarism, the Afghans are doing something about it. in February 2013 about 60 residents from the Panjwai district and three villages in Kandahar province started uprisings against the militants in Kakaran, Mamakhto, Khogyani and certain other parts of the country. Can those who are perturbed at the statement of the president that why these uprisings have been taking place?
Over the past year, the first and biggest blow to the Taliban came in Ghazni. Similar uprisings have taken place in Paktia, Logar, Khost and in Laghman provinces. All these events show that Taliban are very unpopular for acting in service of foreigners—the US and Pakistan. The villagers are fed up with the Taliban’s brutal atrocities—such as roadside bombings that kill more civilians than troops. The nation is also fed up with their suicide bombings.
And recently the Taliban brought a new disease of terror — sectarian violence, where Hazaras were targeted in a shrine in Kabul during Ashura days. All these developments are indicators that the Taliban are installed guys who are in a broader foreign policy game.
Moreover, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari in an interview to NBC news channel in May 2012 said that CIA and ISI worked together to create the Taliban. When a president of a country like Pakistan can reveal such a bitter truth, why can a president of a country like Afghanistan not? Zardari spoke firmly believing to be right at that moment and Karzai spoke what his conscience believed to be right. So there is no need to make it a political issue at home as a number of members of the Afghan parliament have hit back at Karzai, accusing him of deliberately undermining Washington-Kabul ties.
His standpoint needs to be backed up as there has been too much bloodshed and the foreign forces should withdraw. With their withdrawal the Taliban will loss the reason and excuse to prolong their war. Once their propaganda is undermined no one will be there to join their ranks. This peace-thirsty nation needs calm, prosperity, development, and education.
These goals are difficult enough to be achieved at war times, but yes they can be once foreign forces leave Afghanistan and room for an intra-Afghan political way out of the deadly stalemate. There may have been some pro-Taliban people sitting in the incumbent government but they should at least rethink their standpoint and ask their very conscience who the Taliban are. When they have the answer, they should inform the nation, as this war-hit nation also wants to know — at last who they are.
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