I’ll start this by saying for anyone who does not know my writing that I despise religious fundamentalism, but I am also a pragmatist. As things and the Taliban are no longer the bad guys, but more importantly are protecting the country from far worse extremists.
You truly know a regime has gained legitimacy when tour companies start doing “tourism” to despotic regimes, and that is what is happening with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan right now.
To read about tours to Afghanistan click here.
And while this has caused uproar among many, the sad truth of the matter is that the resurgence of the Taliban was a western made product.
Be Careful What You Wish For – The Afghan – Soviet War
While often called the Afghan – Soviet War, it was in fact a western backed insurgency where the west supported Islamic Extremists, such as Osama Bin-Laden inter holy war against the legitimate communist government of Afghanistan.
Communism might be almost a curse word now, but communist Afghanistan was to many of Afghanistan the best the country has ever been. Religion was kept in check, women had rights, sodomy of young boys was illegal and there was next to no ethnic strife.
Cue a proxy war fuelled the US Military Industrial Complex, with a poor 3rd party being used as cannon fodder, sound familiar? History truly does always repeat itself.
To read why the Ukrainian war is an imperialist one click here.
40 years of kicking hornets nests
And if there were to be any doubt that NATO were behind fuelling the Military Industrial Complex then the last 40 years of utter destruction in the Middle-East and beyond can surely leave no sane person with any doubt.
Iraq was encouraged to invade Kuwait, after which the US got to invade and place troops next to the oil in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, before later invading, fucking off without fixing anything, which lead toe creation of the Islamic State.
Then there was the “no fly” zone over Libya, a sheer pretext to overthrow Gaddafi. Libya thus went from one of the richest most educated states not just in Africa, but the world into what is now the very definition of a failed state, again dominated by Islamic Fundamentalists. And lets not forget the current migrant crisis where western governments would rather people drown that let people in from wars they created. At least with this mess France and the UK can be blamed just as much as the United States.
And of course there is Syria, which was thankfully saved by Russia. Syria might not be a perfect revolutionary state, but at least it has equality for women and secularism. That the west can support Saudi Araboia while strangling Syria through sanctions shows that geo-politics, oil and the sale of arms always outweighs shamocracy.
To read about Syria 11 years on click here
And last, but by no means least we have Afghanistan, where the aforementioned Mujahideen were and Osama Bin-Laden were financed by the west until the first brutal rule of the Taliban came about.
If you kick hornets nests you get stung badly.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Cue 9-11 and the hunt for Osama Bin-Laden and “regime change” was again on the cards. Its replacement was a deeply flawed system of not just corruption and cronyism, but even the regular rape and tolerance of rape of young boys.
I knew a serving soldier in Afghanistan forced to listen to the screams of a young boy, only to be told it was “the culture” and not to interfere.
And it was in a situation like this that Taliban again started to rise, and rise they did from a rag-tag rebel army into one that kicked out the pro-American government within weeks of the US army leaving. And what did they leave? Twenty years of bloodshed only to be replaced by the same government they came into overthrow. The kind of bloody nose not seen since the Vietnam war.
Why the Taliban are no longer the bad guys
The Taliban may have taken over by force and they may be undemocratic, but they beat the strongest military in the world through a popular revolution against a corrupt regime. They may not be recognised by the west, but recognition by the west is hardly a seal of approval.
Many compared the US exit to them leaving Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge, but one should also remember that the US then spent 12 years funding and supporting them against the legitimate Peoples Republic of Kampuchea.
To read if the Americans supported the Khmer Rouge click here.
And as for the Taliban 2.0? While I personally ashore any fundamentalist religious regime, particularly one that dies rights to women and homosexuals, they are still the lesser of a whole heap of worse evils. There is Al Qaida and ISIS branches in Afghanistan, who by all accounts are being kept at bey by the slightly more moderate Taliban.
Yes, the regime is not perfect, in fact its as far from perfect as you can get, it is still better than the alternative and more clear proof than NATIO and the west should simply stay the hell out of other countries business.
So, why they may not be the good guys, the Taliban certainly are no longer the bad guys.