better-to-engage-with-taliban-than-isolate-them

With Russia being the first and so far the only country to recognise the government in Afgh Talibananistan, the Cold War history has come a full circle in the war-torn country. Afghanistan, due to the curse of geography, being so strategically located, was probably the worst sufferer of the ‘Cold War Great Games’ between the Communist and the Capitalist blocks, and the country is still to recover from that troubled history.

 

Afghanistan is the only country that remained under the “military occupation” of both the blocs from time to time, eventually having been left completely destroyed and devastated.

 

While the Russians have their own strategic interests in mind to recognise the Taliban government, a stable Afghanistan no matter what worldview its rulers may hold, is always better than an unstable Afghanistan. Kashmir insurgency and the 9/11 terror attack had direct links with an unstable and isolated Afghanistan. It will always be better to engage than isolate the Taliban irrespective of the worldview they hold in governing their own country.

 

Russia by recognising the Taliban government may probably be atoning for the ‘cardinal sin’ that it committed 45 year ago, in its former Soviet avatar, by entering Afghanistan and triggering a long drawn civil war that lasted for over four decades.

 

In fact, the Communist Soviet Union had marked its presence in Afghanistan in 1978 when the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), supported and backed by it, staged a coup and seized power in that country. The Soviet troops formally landed in Afghanistan on December 24, 1979, which eventually led to a decades long Civil War in the country leaving over two million people dead. While the Soviet troops formally left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, following the Geneva Accord in 1988, peace never returned to that country.

As the Soviet troops remained stationed in Afghanistan for 10 years, the Capitalist bloc, led by the United States, fed and financed the Afghan insurgency, that time led by the ‘Mujahideen’ (those doing jihad or the holy warriors). The Mujahideen capture of Afghanistan would never have been possible without the financial and military support of the US, which it generously did using its ally Pakistan.

 

Pakistan got the ‘collateral’ advantage of simultaneously fomenting insurgency in Kashmir by diverting part of resources it got from the US for Afghan Mujahideen, to Kashmiri insurgents.

 

After the Soviets left, the regime that it had supported could barely survive for two years. The Mujahideen finally took control of Kabul in 1992, deposing and killing the Soviet supported President Mohammad Najibullah. His body was left hanging in public for several days.

 

Even after the ascendance of the Mujahideen to power, Afghanistan could not achieve political stability. The civil war continued between different factions of the Mujahideen. It eventually gave rise to yet another group of radical and ultra-orthodox ‘Taliban’ (literally the students). These Taliban were trained, both militarily and religiously, in Pakistan’s religious seminaries, which in turn were funded and financed by the United States. Later, after the 9/11 terror attack with the attackers having direct links with the Taliban, the Americans realised that they were actually financing a future war against themselves.

 

Those ‘Taliban’ who captured power in 1996 are different from the current day ‘Taliban’, although their worldview remains the same. The modern day ‘Taliban’, however, appear to be more pragmatic than their predecessors.

 

As the ill-luck would have it for the ‘Taliban’, the US found that the 9/11 terror attack masterminds had their roots in Afghanistan. Some of them were still hiding in that country. The US made a categorical demand asking the then Taliban chief Mullah Omar, to hand over all those suspects to the US, which he refused. Then began the US attack on Afghanistan that ousted the Mullah Omar-led Taliban from Afghanistan. The US troops, which landed in Afghanistan, using Pakistan air bases, “settled” there for two decades till 2021, double the time the Soviet troops remained there, when they finally left after Donald Trump in his first term made way for the US troops’ exit from the war -torn country.

 

The current ‘Taliban’ meted out almost the same treatment to the US troops, which their “ancestors”, first the Mujahideen and later the ‘earlier Taliban’ had meted out to the Soviet troops with the US support.

 

Now in a complete turn of events, Russia has recognised the ‘Taliban’ government in Afghanistan after about four years of its assuming power there. Although they retain the same ultra-orthodox and puritan worldview, which still confines women within four walls, like their earlier avatars, yet politically and diplomatically they appear to be more pragmatic.

 

Both the US and the Russians actually do owe a debt to the Afghans for the devastation the two countries have wrecked on their country. Before the “Communist Revolution” of 1978, Afghanistan was a stable country, although it was not a democracy.

 

The foundation for the devastation of Afghanistan was laid down when Zahir Shah, the last ruler of the Durani dynasty that ruled the country for over two centuries was deposed in a coup by a close relative Dawood Khan. Dawood was deposed and executed in the Communist Revolution led by PDPA.

 

It is certainly not for any remorse or penance that Russia has recognised the Taliban government, but for its own strategic interests. As long as the Taliban government does not allow its land to be used against any other country, be it the US, India or Iran, nobody should have any problem with it. After all, the Taliban are not the ‘only orthodox and puritanical regime’ in the world. There are many more. Just because others have massive financial heft and can gift the $200 million worth plane to a US President, they get away with everything.

 

Time has come for the world to recognise the Taliban government. It is better to engage them than to isolate them. Once engaged and involved they can open up which may, in all likelihood, lead to modern and progressive thinking there. Let us not forget that women were not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia till a few years ago. And Iran is not much different. The difference is only in degrees. If the world can engage with Iran and Saudi Arabia, why can’t it engage with the Taliban? They do deserve a chance.