Thursday, 22 July 2021

What are the Taliban talking about in Doha?

Peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government have been going on in Doha, capital of Qatar. But to what end? Even General Mark Milley, the poor chap gettting so much flak these days as he tries to do his job as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has admitted that the Taliban are strategically heading for victory and might take control of Afghanistan once again. So, I say again, what on earth are they talking about in Doha? Unless it's total surrender by the Kabul government. I simply don't believe that with their "army" marching across the country and scooping up more districts by the day the Taliban are remotely interested in sharing power with the people they hate in Kabul. They want power and the strictest of Islamic sharia law enforced and no half measures. So the negotiations, if that is the right word for it, in Doha must be totally one-sided. General Milley's depressing summing-up of the situation in Afghanistan, delivered at a press conference at the Pentagon yesterday, was about as sobre and sombre as you could get. Theoretically the last US soldier is not due to leave Afghanistan until August 31 but the Americans lost all influence on the future of Afghanistan once the "retrogade" programme began and the C-17s started to ship troops and equipment out of the country. The Taliban are on a high, rampaging through the provinces. In some places they don't even need to fire a shot. The communities are so scared of them they only have to turn up in the markets with their grim faces and AK47s and they vanish into their homes. The Afghan national forces are retreating allegedly to protect the cities but for how long? So the Doha talks are presumably getting nowhere. Depressing or what!

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