Who is the taliban
Afghanistan: why the Taliban can't be defeated | The Economist
Afghanistan is the longest war in
American history
after the terrorist attacks on September
11 2001 America in its allies invaded
the country the Taliban the hardline
Islamist group that ruled over
Afghanistan had sheltered al Qaeda and
its leader Osama bin Laden nearly 20
years later the conflict has achieved
very little it's a country in ruin the
Taliban still controls much of it and
the war is showing no signs of slowing
down
so levels of violence are enormous in
2018 25,000 people died in Afghanistan
so what has made America's war in
Afghanistan unwinnable Afghanistan has
been mired in conflict for over 40 years
in 1979 the Soviet Union invaded the
country to support the Afghan communist
regime in response America funded
Mujahideen rebels to fight the Soviet
forces as part of an American proxy war
in 1989 Soviet forces withdrew from
Afghanistan which sparked years of
infighting among tribal warlords
the chaos created fertile ground for the
Taliban to grab power and in 1996 they
took control of Kabul Afghanistan's
capital and established themselves as
the government in much of the country
three years after the American invasion
in 2001 democratic elections were held
in the country but neither military
reinforcements nor peace talks have
ended the fighting so every president in
their own way has tried to win the war
in Afghanistan they've put troops in
they've taken troops out none of them
have really managed to fundamentally
change the course of the war itself my
fellow citizens events in Iraq have now
reached the final days of decision
President George W Bush pulled resources
away from Afghanistan to focus on his
war in Iraq and one of the most
difficult decisions that I've made as
president I ordered an additional 30,000
American troops in Afghanistan President
Barack Obama put huge amounts of troops
into Afghanistan to try and knock the
Taliban into a deal to try and win the
war there and the American presence
hasn't been all bad for all the good
they've done allowing girls to go back
to school creating a democratic
government there's no real sense in
which much of that can survive beyond
the period in which the Americans leave
and the farms dry up that's because the
Taliban are now in control of more of
Afghanistan since 2001 today
almost 18 percent of all Afghan
districts are under Taliban control and
48% are contested
how have they been able to extend their
power
the Taliban don't have military might
they don't have warplanes or tanks or
advanced equipment what they do have is
local legitimacy they have persuaded
many people that their version of Swift
Islamic justice is more legitimate than
the corrupt Afghan government and
they've been propped up by neighboring
Pakistan some people will say Pakistan
which helped form the Taliban in the
early 1990s was too committed to helping
their Islamist allies survive they
sheltered the Taliban leadership in
Pakistan they gave arms and weapons to
the Taliban to help them gain support in
Afghanistan there is also drug money 90%
of the world's heroin comes from
Afghanistan and this is a strong source
of funding for the Taliban opium has
been a big part of the war it's been a
part of the conflict economy the profits
help fund them making the Taliban one of
the wealthiest armed non-state groups in
the world efforts to destroy the opium
crop effectively destroyed the
livelihoods of farmers and in some cases
made them more sympathetic to the
Taliban and more hostile to the
government the Americans installed after
2001 people will say that the West
created an overly centralized
domineering state in Afghanistan run by
an overly powerful president who didn't
pay attention to the ethnic tribal
social heterogeneity of the country I
think all of these were reasons but I
think it's also the case that no big
counterinsurgency campaign with lots of
troops has ever really worked in a
society like Afghanistan in recent years
is it time for America to leave
president Donald Trump has been trying
to strike a deal with the Taliban to
reduce the amount of American troops in
Afghanistan Donald Trump kicked off the
most serious negotiations between
America and the Taliban that have ever
occurred only two have decided to walk
away at the last minute as both parties
were about to meet in September 2019 a
Taliban attack killed an American
soldier Donald Trump doesn't want to go
into his election with 14,000 troops in
Afghanistan if America is seen to be in
a rush the Taliban will simply count
down the clock until everyone leaves and
they can take over Afghanistan if and
when the Trump administration and the
Taliban strike a deal the worry is that
mr. Trump will quickly reduce troops in
Afghanistan without securing lasting
peace absolutely important is that the
Americans and the international
community of patient and they encourage
a power-sharing agreement in Afghanistan
between the Afghans between the Taliban
that isn't cobbled together at a few
months but does the Trump administration
have the will to do it
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