Thought #30
June 2009
Author: Bill Thurston
The Taliban
The Taliban was formed in 1994. It began with only a few followers, mostly
religious students who fought for Afghanistan in the war against the Soviets.
These students wanted to rid Afghanistan of the instability, violence, and
warlords that had been plaguing the country since the defeat and withdrawal of
the Soviets in 1989.
The departure of the Soviets, while welcomed by Afghans and the United States,
left a political vacuum in Afghanistan. Because of the many factions within
Afghanistan, and intervention of the international community, a peaceful or
military solution was difficult. As a result, civil war continued.
Afghanistan tried supporting several commanders from previous conflicts before,
in 1996, they supported a new movement known as the Taliban. Pakistan also
supported the Taliban, not just to restore order to Afghan roads, which would
open the way for a possible Trans-Afghan gas pipeline, but because they also saw
the Taliban as a faction that might provide a strategic lever for Pakistan
against India.
As it
turned out, the Taliban were not only uncontrollable, but unpredictable as well.
In certain instances the Taliban would declare their desire for peace,
willingness to work with the UN, and desire for a non-military solution for
Afghanistan, then state that "anyone who gets in our way will be crushed."
Taliban rule was characterized by a strict form of Islamic law, requiring women
to wear head-to-toe veils, banning television, and jailing men whose beards were
deemed too short. The feared Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and
Suppression of Vice authorized the use of force to uphold bans on un-Islamic
activities.
Before its ouster by U.S. led forces in 2001, the Taliban controlled some 90
percent of Afghanistan's territory, although it was never officially recognized
by the United Nations.
The
U.S. made tremendous efforts to obtain a political solution for Afghanistan, not
just because of the desire for American companies to take advantage of business
opportunities with the Trans-Afghan gas pipeline, but also due to other key
concerns like human rights, narcotics, and terrorism.
The
Taliban power and influence became shockingly clear on September 11, 2001.
Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, a US,
Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban
that same year.
Afghanistan
then established a process for political reconstruction that included the
adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National
Assembly elections in 2005. In December 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first
democratically elected president of Afghanistan and the National Assembly was
inaugurated the following December. Despite gains toward building a stable
central government, a resurgent Taliban, particularly in the south and the east,
remain a serious challenge for the Afghan Government.
Clashes between Taliban and coalition forces have increased in the first half of
2008, highlighting the Taliban's resurgence and complicating efforts by NATO and
U.S. forces to stabilize the country. The Pakistani army, meanwhile, is tackling
its own Taliban insurgency.
It is difficult to gauge the number of Taliban fighters under arms in
Afghanistan. In October 2007, the New York Times reported the group might
field as many as ten thousand fighters, but a much smaller fraction, less than
three thousand, are full-time insurgents.
The whereabouts of Afghanistan's exiled Taliban leaders are not fully known.
Some have been captured and detained by U.S. forces as enemy combatants in the
"war on terror." Experts say many of the Taliban were able to melt back into
Afghanistan in the south and east. They occasionally mount attacks, and some are
working to overthrow the current government. Many others have reassembled in
neighboring Pakistan, where the Taliban movement was born, and launch attacks
from there. Yet not all former Taliban members have joined this fight. Many
heeded a call by President Karzai to disarm and have assumed normal lives as
members of Afghan society.
You can find much more information at:
The Taliban File:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB97/index2.htm
C.I.A. World Fact Book on
Afghanistan:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/AF.html
The Taliban's War Against Women:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/6185.htm
Pakistan: "The Taliban's Godfather"?:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB227/index.htm
International Religious Freedom Report:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2001/5533.htm
American business opportunities in
Afghanistan:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB97/tal16.pdf
U.S. key concerns with the Taliban:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB97/tal17.pdf
How many Taliban are there?:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/world/asia/30afghan.html?_r=2
Final Thought
The next Thought will be on al-Qaeda. It will also include a comparison of
al-Qaeda to the Taliban.
Send this Thought to someone you know.
Get a Free Subscription
Go to the Archived Thoughts
Submit a Thought for Publication
Unsubscribe
Contact us by mail:
Thurston Group Incorporated, PMB #111,
2880 Bicentennial, Ste 100, Henderson, Nevada, 89044-4484 Contact us by email:
aboutthisUS@cox.net