There is No “Black and White” in Afghanistan
Can the Taliban’s rise to power be considered a victory of the Afghan people over the US or a victory of the Islamic struggle in toppling the secular liberal regime?
In this image courtesy of the US Central Command Public Affairs, Red Cross members handout aid to Afghan evacuees at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on August 21, 2021. - US aircraft flew about 6,000 people, including a couple of hundred US citizens, out of Kabul in the 24 hours to early August 20, until flights had to be halted because of a lack of space at transit bases. Officials confirmed that evacuation operations stalled for several hours on Friday because a receiving base in Qatar was overflowing and could not take any more evacuees.
"Everything is expensive here. There is only one cheap thing: human life,” an Afghan once told me about their country\'s situation.
As a journalist who was on duty in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009, I experienced such a situation myself. In Kabul, bombs went off at least once every two days. People were gripped by terror amid showers of rockets, robbery, kidnapping and murder.
The horrible memories seem to be playing back now that Kabul is falling to the Taliban. It has raised shock and fear among many Afghans. Thousands of people, including women and children, have been flocking to the Kabul airport, the only escape route.
Sobs and screams are heard in the sea of people. Corpses are scattered around the airport, probably because of having been fatally trampled or having been shot. A number of men were seen desperately struggling to cling to the fuselage of a United States military plane about to take off. Some of them fell from the plane as it lifted off.
They looked so scared and desperate that they resorted to any means to flee.
They feared the Taliban might carry out door-to-door sweeps, killing anyone deemed an enemy.
Several fellow journalists in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif said they had not dared to go outside for the past few days. They feared the Taliban might carry out door-to-door sweeps, killing anyone deemed an enemy.
Can the Taliban’s rise to power be considered a victory of the Afghan people over the US or a victory of the Islamic struggle in toppling the secular liberal regime? The reality is not that simple. History shows that the US was once behind Islamic militant groups.
US role
The conflict in Afghanistan today is inseparable from the Cold War era, when the world was divided into two major ideologies with two centers of power at odds. In 1978, Afghanistan became a communist state, and the ruling party "invited" in the Soviet Union\'s military in 1979.
Irked at the prospect of Afghanistan becoming a new Soviet satellite, the US devised a strategy of training the country’s jihadis, who were willing to fight the invading Soviets. The US channeled funds and weapons through neighboring Pakistan. Madrasas became the bedrock of young militant jihadis.
The US-backed mujahideen eventually succeeded, with Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan in 1989. Two years later, the Soviet Union broke up into several new countries. Having no prominent enemy, the US pulled out of Afghanistan. What happened later in Afghanistan was fierce infighting among the Mujahideen factions for supremacy. Afghanistan was split into several small enclaves ruled by warlords who took the law into their own hands. Destruction ensued everywhere.
Out of this turbulent period, the Taliban emerged. Setting out from Kandahar, the group took control of Kabul in 1996 and then almost all of the country.
At first, the emergence of the Taliban was welcomed by the people because the Taliban restored the security and stability that Afghans, who had been battered by civil war, yearned for. The streets were again safe, free from the threat of robbers and murderers.
However, the Taliban implemented sharia law excessively tightly. Women were required to wear burqa that covered the entire body and face, including the eyes. They were not allowed to attend school or work and were forbidden to leave the house without being accompanied by a mahram (family member to whom marriage is forbidden).
Men were required to wear traditional clothes, hats or turbans, as well as grow beards. The Taliban also barred people from watching television, listening to music, dancing, flying kites and much more.
The Afghan people resisted the Taliban, and the movement gained a foothold, especially in the north of the country where minorities resided.
The Taliban imposed laws harshly Those who broke the rules were beaten, stoned, amputated or publicly executed. They massacred ethnic minorities. In Mazar-i-Sharif and Bamiyan in 1998, Taliban fighters scoured the houses to hunt down thousands of Hazara people, including women, children and infants. The Afghan people resisted the Taliban, and the movement gained a foothold, especially in the north of the country where minorities resided.
The world situation changed after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. The US was at odds with the Taliban, who were accused of protecting Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the movement held responsible for the terror attack on the World Trade Center in New York, among other locations. Through the "War on Terror", the US, under President George W. Bush, launched a massive offensive on Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, civilians prepare to board a plane during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021.
In politics, there are no eternal friends or foes. Those who used to be allies might turn into enemies because of the dynamics in interest. The US and the Afghan insurgent movement that had originally fought against the infiltrating communists in the 21st century suddenly became mortal enemies.
Geopolitics
Peering through the lens of identity alone to understand a conflict can be misleading and risky. A conflict will be more comprehensible if we understand the interests harbored by the involved parties. China was among the first countries in 2021 to declare that it was ready to "build friendly relations" with the Taliban regime and "respect the aspirations of the Afghan people".
Chinese media is no longer calling the Taliban terrorists. This change of stance is difficult to accept ideologically but makes sense geopolitically.
Beijing is aiming to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a training center for Uighur Muslim separatists in Xinjiang. A stable regime in Kabul would also support Chinese investment in Central Asia and Pakistan. In addition, Afghanistan is rich in unexploited minerals. Conflict is never – again, never – just a matter of identity.
I first came to Afghanistan in 2003, two years after the Taliban were overthrown by the US invasion. It was the safest time to visit Afghanistan.
I found a growing passion among the citizens, who enthusiastically welcomed the arrival of foreigners. They were hugely hopeful that Afghanistan would soon become a "normal" country like the rest in the world.
In term of ethnicity, it was an inclusive regime that embraced all tribal peoples, encompassing Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks.
The regime of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which received the support of the US and the international community, was formed in 2004 with adherence to Islamic sharia law. The government staffers, from top to bottom, were Afghans and Muslims. In term of ethnicity, it was an inclusive regime that embraced all tribal peoples, encompassing Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks. Many women also occupied high positions.
This regime put in improved policies. Girls, who had been prohibited by the Taliban from going to school, were allowed access to higher education. The Afghan women\'s robotics team in 2017 won a silver medal at an international competition in the US.
A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty saloon with images of women defaced using a spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on August 18, 2021.
Foreign investment poured in, and the economy enjoyed a boom, testified to today by the tall and modern buildings in the capital city.
However, the administration was rife with corruption, which caused plenty of international aid to evaporate before reaching the community.
In the war against terrorism, the US military now and then launched indiscriminate offensives, which resulted in innocent people becoming victims. Persisting poverty and hardships cultivated antipathy toward the regime and caused some citizens to turn to the Taliban or other militant movements.
The militants always claimed that the target of their attacks were foreign troops operating in the country. In fact, the majority of the deaths were fellow citizens.
Community members became victims of explosions on the streets. Shiites fell prey to bomb blasts while celebrating religious festivals. Police were attacked and cruelly beheaded. Until 2020, the Taliban carried out premeditated killings that targeted journalists, peace movement activists, NGO workers, judges and government officials.
The Taliban’s ongoing rise to power, which took place almost without bloodshed, looks different from the 1990s. In an interview with CNN, a Taliban spokesperson assured viewers that the new government would be Islamic, moderate, inclusive and respectful of women.
Indeed, change is not impossible, but it\'s too early to tell whether the Taliban will carry out their promises and bring good things to Afghanistan.
A number of observers have suggested it will really be a new version of the Taliban, a moderate Taliban 2.0 that will bring positive changes to Afghanistan. Indeed, change is not impossible, but it\'s too early to tell whether the Taliban will carry out their promises and bring good things to Afghanistan.
The Taliban government has yet to be formed and it is yet to be known how they will run the administration. Conditions in Afghanistan are still very volatile, and the Afghans are still overwhelmed by uncertainty.
Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021. The Taliban celebrated Afghanistan\'s Independence Day on Thursday by declaring they beat the United States, but challenges to their rule ranging from running a country severely short on cash and bureaucrats to potentially facing an armed opposition began to emerge.
Instead of rushing to proclaim allegiance to one camp based only on identity, I think the most sensible attitude at this time is to keep a close watch on the unfolding development of situation. If a side is taken, it should be with the interests of the Afghan people and humanity.
Agustinus Wibowo, Roaming Journalist
(This article was translated by Musthofid)
