Most importantly, a few of these Taliban members open to engagement didn’t help overseas fighters taking on residence of their nation. As I reported on the time, the Taliban’s then deputy inside minister, Mohammad Khaksar, instructed me that within the years earlier than the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strike on the US, he had reached out to a U.S. diplomat and a C.I.A. official in neighboring Pakistan for assist in expelling overseas fighters however was rebuffed. Gregory Marchese, on the time the vice consul on the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan’s northwestern metropolis of Peshawar, later corroborated to me that he’d had that assembly with Mr. Khaksar and a C.I.A. official, Peter McIllwain. Mr. McIllwain later confirmed what Mr. Khaksar had mentioned about it.
America didn’t give attention to Afghanistan within the years after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, when it closed its embassy. This left Washington blind to what was taking form there within the lead-up to Sept. 11. Over the previous two years, Washington has pursued an analogous coverage, shunning a diplomatic return to Kabul and believing it will possibly stress Taliban leaders into educating women and easing restrictions on girls with the promise of worldwide recognition. And as soon as once more, that notion is failing.
In my reporting on the Taliban motion since 2021, I’ve discovered that probably the most restrictive Taliban leaders have grown extra assertive, capitalizing on the nation’s isolation to tighten their grip, on the expense of those that advocate worldwide engagement and whose imaginative and prescient for his or her nation doesn’t exclude women from training or search to make girls invisible.
Financially, America has continued to be beneficiant to Afghanistan, offering vital humanitarian help for the reason that Taliban’s return to energy. The truth is, America stays one of many nation’s largest humanitarian donors — having spent about $2 billion on help since leaving the nation. (On the similar time, the US and European nations are holding greater than $9 billion in Afghan property, frozen for the reason that Taliban’s return.) However humanitarian help alone gained’t assist Afghanistan transfer ahead.
The general public face of the anti-Taliban motion in Afghanistan consists of a few of the similar discredited warlords accused of conflict crimes and former generals who took cost after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, a few of whom have additionally been accused of — and denied — crimes in opposition to Afghan civilians. America has been engaged with these leaders, however they’re a part of the issue, not an answer.
