All Is Forgiven

"The Afghan government will continue to fight those Taliban who are against the peace, security and prosperity of the Afghan people."
Janan Mosazai, director of strategic communications, Afghanistan High Peace Council

They are most definitely not those Talibs whom Afghan President Hamid Karzai so often tenderly calls his "brothers", fellow Pashtuns, their common tribal heritage. He has made it clear that those Taliban willing to divorce themselves from the jihadist ideology of the "students of Islam" will be welcomed by him into the governing fold as fellow Afghans concerned for the welfare of their country and its people.

(That the Taliban were celebrated for their lack of corruption while administering the country, even while they were horribly oppressing the population, was a pale point in their favour. The current government is not an brutally oppressive one, it is merely hopelessly incapable and ridden with corruption. But with pride completely intact, and prepared to take offence when required.)

They must commit to peace, national unity, constitutional democracy, "and the historic achievements of the past decade, including the rights and freedoms of all Afghans, men and women", according to the statements issuing from the executive of the High Peace Council. A reasonable enough declaration of accommodation, taking into account that the current government of Afghanistan may not be the exemplar of equality it speaks of, itself.

The true test will come with the departure of NATO forces, although some will remain after 2014. The true test would be seen to occur should foreign NGOs, the committed, practical and determined humanitarian groups who dedicate themselves to hauling the social mores of the country, mired in ancient religious and cultural biases against female equality ever depart. As they most surely would be forced to do if and when the Taliban return to power.

The United States administration appears to have given a puzzling clean bill of health to the Taliban, a group currently on the terrorist list of most Western countries, including the United States. Pakistan thoroughly approves -- of the Afghan Taliban, that is, not the Pakistan Taliban. The Pakistan Taliban is Pakistan's headache and destined to become an ever bigger one, which will continue to concern, as it must, the global community viewing the future of the world's only Muslim nuclear power.

It was, in a way, the confluence of events when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan leading to Pakistan and the U.S. CIA conniving to train and arm Afghan mujahadeen to confront and fight the Soviets, that eventually led to the creation of the Taliban and their battles with Afghan war lords and the Northern Alliance for domination of Afghanistan. The U.S. has come full circle; seeking accommodation "for peace" with the Taliban, originally created "for battle".

Canada is one NATO ally of the U.S. that has not signed on to the quasi-legitimization of the Taliban, preferring to keep it securely within its listing of confirmed terrorists. A dozen years of keeping them at bay, giving breathing space to war-weary Afghans, and sacrificing Canadian lives and treasury to the effort has not gone so deep into the past that it cannot be recalled that the Taliban are frantically fundamentalist religious thugs.

Last month Ottawa announced Mullah Omar Talibs, the Haqanni Taliban were securely on the list of proscribed entities under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act. Becoming the first NATO country to complete the circle of criminalizing the Taliban unequivocally. In contrast to the American position amounting to a complete turn-about, despite their own years of sacrifice to defang the Taliban.

But the menace of the Taliban, their vicious intent to reclaim the governance of the country lost with the invasion post 9-11 to eradicate al-Qaeda and render it and its hopefully captured leader incapable of further attacks, has no intention of fading into history. Violently jihadist Islamism continues to grow; there is no shortage of recruits for the Taliban. And there is no intention within its leadership of failing to fulfill its destiny.

Now, with the kindly assistance of the United States, the Taliban has re-assumed a measure of civil acceptability. A newly-opened office in Qatar under the auspices of the United Nations and Qatar, allowing it legitimacy in the pretext of bargaining for peace with the Government of Afghanistan. Truly, the Taliban must be beside themselves with disbelief and glee at the incredible trust given them by their most detested enemy.

No, not the Government of Afghanistan, which fully understands what motivates the Taliban and just how lethal and unforgivingly implacable they are, but the United States, so given to forgetfulness.
"What the United States has done by allowing the Taliban to raise their flag is the Taliban have re-established their name and their identity through that office. This is what the Taliban has been hoping to get all this time, for these 11 or 12 years.
"With the opening of that office, they have also been given easy access to do their fundraising and collect money from these Arab states to sustain the war inside Afghanistan. All the work that has been done in the past to prevent this kind of fundraising, that is gone, too."
Sanjar Sohail, editor, Afghan daily Hasht-e-Sohb