Is America colluding with the Taliban - as President HamidKarzai
says? This Afghanistan
Times editorial asks, 'when haven't they been?'
Karzai is Right - the Taliban are in the Service
of America (Afghanistan Times, Afghanistan)
"Those who
have become angry with President Karzai should
appreciate his boldness. The entire nation backs his perceptions. The nation fully
understands this very stark fact: that Taliban have always been foreign proxies
and cannot be loyal to this land. ... Now
that the face of the Taliban has been fully exposed, everyone knows whose war
they have been fighting."
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on the ground in Kabul with the commander of the International Security Force, General Joseph Dunford, Mar. 11. Hagel, NATO and the Taliban have all strenuously denied charges by President Hamid Karzai that the U.S. and Taliban are 'colluding' to keep Americans in the country.
The Taliban are in the service of foreigners. There is not a
tinge of doubt about it. After all, they are the byproduct of the unholy
U.S.-Pakistan alliance. First the Mujahedeen were created to encounter the Soviet
threat, Then, after the USSR withdrew, Pakistan, with the intention of taming
warring Mujahedeen factions and securing its own nefarious ends, imposed
another group of hardliners called the Taliban.
Pakistan partially succeeded, but toward the end of 2001 things
took a turn for the worse, and Pakistan reaped the whirlwind. From Karachi to
Khyber, and from Quetta to Lahore, bloodshed was everywhere. This was the
blowback for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Since the American
onslaught, the situation has changed in radical and complicated ways. And despite
the murkiness, it is evident and well-established that the Taliban are foreign
proxies.
There was nothing new in President Karzai's
comments. So one wonders why certain elements of his own government have
criticized his candid statement that the Taliban are in the service of
foreigners, and that the United States has extensive contact with them.
In any event, Karzai hit the bull's
eye - and those who have become angry with him should appreciate his boldness.
The entire nation backs his perceptions. The nation fully understands this very
stark fact: that Taliban have always been foreign proxies and cannot be loyal
to this land. That is why, from the Andar district of
Ghazni to the Panjwai
district of Kandahar and from Paktia to Khost, there have been mass uprisings against the Taliban. Now
that the face of the Taliban has been fully exposed, everyone knows whose war
they have been fighting.
To kill your own Muslims and your own Afghans cannot be called
"jihad." Moreover, Pakistan President Asif
Ali Zardari, in an interview with NBC News in May of
last year, said that the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence worked
together to create the Taliban. When the president of a country like Pakistan
can reveal such a bitter truth, why can't the president of Afghanistan?
Zardari spoke his mind said what
he believed in the moment - just as Karzai did. So
there's no need to conjure up a political issue. On the contrary, this position
should be supported and the bloodshed should stop. With the withdrawal of
foreign forces, the Taliban will lose any excuse for prolonging their war.
Coordinated efforts between residents and police have forced the Taliban out of
several villages in Kandahar - the second largest province and the birthplace
of militant leader Mullah
Omar.
Fed up with the Taliban's militant tyranny and barbarism,
Afghans are doing something about it. Residents from Panjwai
district, and villages in Kandahar Province, Kakaran,
Mamakhto, Khogyani and
certain other parts of the country, have begun uprisings against the militants.
Similar uprisings have taken place in Paktia, Logar, Khost and in Laghman provinces. Can those who are perturbed by the
president's comments explain why these uprisings have been taking place?
All of this shows just how unpopular the Taliban have become
for being in service of foreigners - Americans and Pakistanis. 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 form of terrorism new to
Afghanistan: sectarian violence. At a shrine in Kabul during Ashura,
Hazaras
were targeted.
All this indicates that the Taliban are people who have been
installed and who work as foreign tools. People who are pro-Taliban sitting in the
incumbent government should rethink their stand and search their own consciences
about who the Taliban really are. When and if they get an answer, they should
inform the rest of us. We too would like to know at last.
