From Military.com:
“Taliban
Expect US Withdrawal, Vow to Restore Islamic Rule”
The Taliban
warned Washington on Friday against defying a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal
of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan, promising a “reaction,"
which could mean increased attacks by the insurgent group. The Taliban issued
their warning at a press conference in Moscow, the day after meeting with
senior Afghan government negotiators and international observers to try to
jumpstart a stalled peace process to end Afghanistan's decades of war. President
Joe Biden's administration says it is reviewing an agreement the Taliban signed
with the Trump administration. Biden told ABC in an interview Wednesday that
the May 1 deadline “could happen, but it is tough,” adding that if the deadline
is extended it won’t be by “a lot longer.” “They should go,” Suhail Shaheen, a
member of the Taliban negotiation team, told reporters, warning that staying
beyond May 1 would breach the deal. “After that, it will be a kind of violation
of the agreement. That violation would not be from our side. . . Their
violation will have a reaction.” He did not elaborate on what form the
“reaction” would take, but in keeping with the agreement they signed in
February 2020, the Taliban have not attacked U.S. or NATO forces, even as
unclaimed bombings and targeted killings have spiked in recent months. “We hope
that this will not happen, that they withdraw and we focus on the settlement,
peaceful settlement of the Afghan issue, in order to bring about a permanent
and comprehensive ceasefire at the end of reaching a political roadmap (for)
Afghanistan,” Shaheen said. He also reaffirmed that the Taliban were firm on
their demand for an Islamic government. Shaheen didn't elaborate on what an
Islamic government would look like or whether it would mean a return to their
repressive rules that denied girls education, barred women from working, and
imposed harsh punishments. Shaheen did not say whether the Taliban would accept
elections, but he emphasized that the government of President Ashraf Ghani
would not fit their definition of an Islamic government.
In previous
statements, the Taliban have said their vision of an Islamic government would
allow girls to attend school, and women to work or be in public life. But in
every conversation, they emphasized the need to follow Islamic injunctions
without specifying what that would mean. They have said they would not accept a
woman as president, and while women could be judges they could not take the job
of the Chief Justice. But even without the Taliban in government in
Afghanistan, The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Afghanistan
said Afghanistan was one of the worst places in the world to be a woman in
2020. Only one woman attended Thursday's talks in Moscow, and in the two
decades since the Taliban were ousted, successive governments in Kabul have
been unable to ratify a law outlawing violence against women. Meanwhile, the
Taliban refused to promise they would not launch a spring offensive despite
calls from the United States, Russia and China. “I started Jihad (holy war) to
remove foreign forces from my country and establish an Islamic government and
Jihad will continue until we reach that goal through a political agreement,”
said Khairullah Khairkhwa, a member of the negotiating team, who was one of
five Taliban freed from U.S. prison on Guantanamo Bay in 2013 in exchange for
the release of a captured U.S. soldier.
Washington has
been at war in Afghanistan for nearly two decades, since the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks masterminded by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden who was based
in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The invasion toppled the Taliban regime but the
20-year-war has made Afghanistan America’s longest conflict. The Taliban, who
during their rule imposed a harsh brand of Islam, now control about half of the
country. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that the insurgents
could make even more gains without U.S. and NATO troops on the ground. The
Moscow conference was attended by U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, Abdullah
Abdullah, head of Afghanistan’s National Reconciliation Council, and Taliban
co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who led a 10-member delegation.
Representatives of Pakistan, Iran, India and China also participated. In a
statement issued after the talks, Russia, the U.S., China and Pakistan called on
the warring parties to reduce the level of violence in the country — and
specifically urged the Taliban not to pursue a spring offensive. The joint
statement emphasized that the four countries do not support the restoration of
an Islamic emirate in Afghanistan similar to the Taliban's past rule. Shaheen
emphasized that the Taliban would stick to the goal of building an Islamic
state. He argued that the Afghans themselves should determine their government
order without outside meddling. He added that the talks in Doha should help
determine the future governance structure. The talks in Qatar between the
Afghan government and the Taliban have stalled, but Russia voiced hope that the
talks in Moscow could help reinvigorate them.
^ No one wants
the Taliban back in power or another Islamic Government in Afghanistan. The
world knows exactly what all of that means for both Afghanis and the rest of
the world and it is a deadly future. The same war-weariness happened in the US
in the 1970s with Vietnam. The US removed their last combat troops from South
Vietnam (and Cambodia) in April 1973 and expected the South Vietnamese to stop
the North Vietnamese themselves. The North Vietnamese Communists over-took
South Vietnam in April 1975 and waged an internal war to “re-educate”, torture
and kill anyone they wanted to for the next decade. That Domino Effect also
happened in Laos and Cambodia (leading to the Cambodian Genocide 1975-1979 by
the Khmer Rouge.) Many countries around the world today have just grown tired
of 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan and just want to leave. They hope whatever
death and violence the Taliban brings back will stay within Afghanistan and not
lead to terrorist attacks like 9-11. They would prefer what happened in
Cambodia and South Vietnam/Vietnam in the 1970s (internal fighting, violence
and death) to happen so they can stay out of it in Afghanistan as they did in
Cambodia and South Vietnam/Vietnam. ^
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