Sunday 10 October 2021

Taliban won't work with US to get rid of Isis. No surprise there!

The Taliban want international recognition as the de facto government of Afghanistan but that doesn't mean they are going to suddenly cooperate with the US in eliminating the threat of Isis in the country. It seems this subject came up when US officials and Taliban "officials" met in their favourite place, Doha, capital of Qatar. I can't really believe that any American, official or otherwise, would either ask or expect the Taliban to side up with the US in tackling the one big security threat the insurgents/war winners face. I guess what the US had in mind was something along these lines: "We supply intelligence of Isis whereabouts and we decide together whether you, Oh Taliban, go in with your specialforce-type fighters and attack them or we, the Americans, bomb the hell out of them with your sayso, or we do it together in a combined operation with us providing close-air support while you do the ground stuff." That was never going to happen, not now and probaby not ever in the future. The Taliban will want to prove they can deal with Isis on their own, not by doing the US a favour by attacking a militant group that represents a threat to the US homeland wherever they are but because the fanatical extremists are screwing up their plan to develop an Islamic republic along their lines and persuade the Afghan people that they can take charge of security. If the US is lucky the Taliban will do a good enough job to dismantle Isis in Afghanistan to allow the Pentagon to cross this particular threat off their list of worries. They can then concentrate on eliminating any sign of a resurging al-Qaeda threat in Afghanistan and they know they can't ask for Taliban help in doing that because al-Qaeda generally speaking doesn't threaten Afghanistan or the Taliban Kabul regime and are ony interested in mounting terrorist attacks on the US and the West. American counter-terrorism objectives in Afghanistan are going to get sooo complicated, with or without Taliban acquiescence.

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