If even a month ago anyone said that an UN-listed terrorist would take over as the head of a country’s government, or that a US-designated terrorist with a bounty of $5 million on his head would be the interior minister of that government, and that the world would debate whether or not to give them diplomatic recognition, no one would have believed it. But that’s what’s unfolding in front of our eyes.
In a case of “Taliban redux”, the hardline old guard has made a comeback with their government in Kabul. Mullah Akhund, the head of the government, is an UN-listed terrorist, who presided over the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. He is also allegedly responsible for several killings. His defence minister, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, is the son of the infamous Mullah Omar, who had struck terror in the hearts of Afghan civilians by implementing barbarities like stoning women to death for what the Taliban perceived to be “misconduct”. Akhund’s interior minister is even more “illustrious”—Sirajuddin Haqqani of the Haqqani network, considered one of the most lethal terrorist groups in the world—a US-designated terrorist organization—and a man with a $5 million US bounty on his head. There are many such UN-sanctioned militants, nay, terrorists in the new Afghan government, waiting to impose their brand of Islam on a hapless population, apart from preparing the ground for becoming an extension of Pakistan as a nursery of global terrorism. It’s a government comprising Taliban elements only and does not give representation to ethnic groups or women. As if this were not enough, there is news that the Taliban government may take “oath of office” on 9/11—11 September—the date when terrorists had downed New York’s twin towers in 2001, killing around 3,000 people.
With their brazen moves, the radical militia could not have mocked the Pakistani-inspired Western narrative of a “reformed Taliban” any better. US President Joe Biden’s and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s governments have taken the lead in whitewashing the Taliban. According to Mr Biden, the Taliban are “bad”, but not as bad the ISIS-Khorasan, which bombed the Kabul airport last week, killing hundreds of people, including 13 US service personnel. His chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mike Milley is not discounting the possibility of working with the Taliban to carry out strikes on Islamic State terrorists and others in Afghanistan. On the other side of the pond, UK’s Chief of Defence Staff, Nick Carter—the man who advises the British government on defence related matters—has been finding virtues in a “changed” Taliban, who according to him are a “group of country boys who live by a code of honour” and want an “inclusive” Afghanistan. Now that the Taliban have named their ministers, all that the US State Department can do is issue a mildly admonitory statement that the new government is not inclusive enough—it is as if the Taliban care for such a reprimand.
Frankly, this must be one of the world’s biggest “you have to be kidding” moments.
What explains this absurdity? Surely the western powers are not so gullible that they will swallow every narrative that the Pakistani masters of the Taliban want them to. Or is it a case of the US, in particular, choosing to be blind to serve its own interests, including a safe troops-pullout? Looking back, this exercise to legitimise the Taliban have been going on for some time, a case in point being the platform given to “Mr Sirajuddin Haqqani” in February 2020 to use American media space to write an opinion piece on what the Taliban want—the media space that is still being used to say that the Taliban want to forget the past and begin a new chapter. From there to becoming Afghanistan’s interior minister is a short step up for “Mr Haqqani”.
As for the “theory” that everything happening is part of Joe Biden’s grand strategy to shift focus from Afghanistan to the Indo-Pacific to counter China, it is looking more like a “conspiracy theory” given the trust deficit that has come to hobble US ties with allies and strategic partners, post Afghanistan.
The Taliban have changed, but only to the extent of becoming more PR savvy. And now the lack of international opprobrium is making them believe that they can get away with their crimes. Sadly, they just might.