Taliban Victory

The long awaited and publicly-declared exit of Canadian troops from Afghanistan has now been officially declared done. The relative handful of Canadian troops still left in the country, apart from those who will remain to further the interests of NATO in training Afghan Armed Forces and National Police recruits, will very shortly embark for Canada.

And the Taliban is crowing with delighted satisfaction that it was their courage and determination that brought about this situation, with Canadian troops leaving their country, tails between their legs, defeated. The Taliban propaganda machine has churned out the triumphant message that Canada had "sustained heavy casualties ... at the hands of Mujahideen", leading to their departure.

This should hardly be a surprising turn of events. The Taliban knows the exit date of all NATO troops, for they have all been well publicized. They had simply to be patient and await the inevitable. At which time they would plan to seep back into their country from safe haven in Pakistan, to return to what they claim is rightfully theirs.

Hardly the way a war is fought, but then this is an highly unusual war in many respects where conventional armies have faced off against tribal warriors who shield themselves in another country, then foray occasionally for skirmishes, but generally depending on roadside-planted explosives to diminish the confidence of Afghan villagers in the presence of a foreign enemy.

And any kind of withdrawal or perceived hesitation has always been interpreted by Arab tribal and Muslim fighters as indication of an enemy's defeat. It's hard to say whether the Taliban really believe their assertions of victory, or whether the propaganda benefits them by skewing fact into fiction accepted by their homegrown audience, giving them greater legitimacy.

The language of triumphant victory seems a speciality of Eastern cultures with their tribal warring heritage: "...the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on the people of other invading countries to realize the ground realities of the illegitimate and worthless war of Afghanistan and oblige their governments to put an end to this aimless war".

As Western troops withdraw, leaving the Government of Afghanistan and its security forces to eventually cope with managing their own affairs, inclusive of the growing insurgency that has proven itself, despite countless defeats and withdrawals of their own into protective, encouraging Pakistan, the confidence levels of the Taliban have risen accordingly.

To the extent that increasingly bold attacks against government offices, hotels and civilians in supposedly secure zones are taking more lives than ever. Instilling more fear in the population of the country that the Taliban means to return with a vengeance. And the government of Hamid Karzai, having enriched itself with the purloined avails of international donations may just simply slip into exile.

Leaving the country to be restored to the vicious Taliban rule that victimized women and children within a "pure" Islamist state of utter coercion and hopeless misery.