"They're calling it a cabinet, but these are designated terrorists, extremist scholars, ruthless warlords. You could fill a jail with these so-called ministers. If this is how the Taliban plan to rule, Afghanistan's fate is sealed. But do you know what's even more disappointing? The world's silence. . . . The world no longer has clarity. Who is bad? Who is good? Those lines are being blurred." - Palki Sharma, "Gravitas take on Taliban's acting cabinet" WION, September 7, 2021.
"But if anything stands in the way of resolving the AfPak conundrum it is Pakistan. Of all the regional interests invested in creating peace and prosperity for Afghanistan only Pakistan deserves the right to actively undermine any and all initiatives that don't serve its own interests. There are think tanks connected to Pakistan's friendly intelligence services that recommend favoring Pakistanization of the war.
But governing Afghanistan through acceptable dictators or reconciling unrepentant terrorists represents a bankrupt solution." - Elizabeth Gould, 'Crossing Zero' C-SPAN, March 30, 2011 (18:08 - 18:45).
The continuous betrayal of Afghanistan has been the story of Central Asia for the last half century.
In the "war on terror" Western powers, led by Washington and London, have chosen to defend Pakistan's interests and cover up its sponsorship of terrorism at the cost of Afghanistan's peace and security.
President Biden famously told former Afghan President Karzai, back when he was Vice President, that Pakistan is "fifty times more important than Afghanistan for the United States."
That quote perfectly sums up decades of U.S. policy in South Asia. Simply put, Washington cares more about Pakistan than Afghanistan.
American leaders never had any respect for Afghanistan's sovereignty. From Carter using Afghanistan as a trap to pull in the Soviets to Trump and Biden handing the country over to psychotic terrorists, Afghanistan's people were never considered.
Policy makers in Washington, London, and other Western capitals accept Taliban rule because they know the terrorist group poses no threat to them. They know there is no real danger of terrorism being exported from Afghanistan to America and the West. They know the Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11.
China and the West don't have anything to worry about. The spear of the Taliban is pointed towards India, Iran, the Central Asian states, and, ironically, Pakistan itself, which is the most vulnerable.
Pakistan has hijacked a nation and believes it can fly it smoothly. But there are signs of massive turbulence. Dissent from the passengers won't stop, even if there are massacres and mass executions.
The resistance to the Taliban has barely begun and they already look clueless. The world legitimized their terror, but the people of Afghanistan also have a say.
