How To Support The Anti-Taliban Opposition In Afghanistan
The title of this post is opposed to the mainstream view of Western media and politicians who are against arming non-terrorist anti-Taliban resistance fighters. Nonetheless, despite all these objections by MSM main arguments on why arms supply is the only method to bring back peace in Afghanistan are presented below.
Fighters of the Resistance Front
Pakistan is misleading the West and the World
Thus far Western media has adopted Pakistan’s point of view towards Afghanistan.
There are three main points that Western media consider being against arming or aiding the Resistance Front:
-Afghans are tired of war and want peace now
-arming the Resistance Front would create another civil war or worsen the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan
-Ahmad Massoud lacks political experience
etc.
The first two points are mainly brought up by Pakistani media, although Pakistani media and politicians abstain from mentioning 'resistance' to Taliban, in order to erase that word from Afghanistan's history. They want to make it appear as if the Taliban are accepted by Afghans and no Afghan is fighting them. For example, after the trilateral meeting between Pakistan, China and Taliban foreign minister in May 2023 the largest English newspaper in Pakistan Dawn wrote in an editorial:
"After decades of instability and war, the people of Afghanistan need an atmosphere free of militancy, where they can rebuild their country and bring prosperity to millions, who currently depend on the kindness of the international community to keep starvation at bay."
These claims are completely baseless as no survey has been conducted and should there be a survey it must be without fear from Taliban. On the contrary, the majority of the people in Afghanistan live under total hardship and many of them expect a radical change to happen. Dawn, like many other Pakistani media, seems to be biased towards Afghanistan and the Afghan people, at least concerning this mentioned statement. Therefore, this opinion of Dawn reflects Pakistan's official political stance towards Afghanistan, as has been the case for decades.
What surprises many, is that the West, namely the USA and the EU, has so far adopted Pakistan's entire political stances towards the Taliban and Afghanistan.
Why the Resistance Front must be armed to fight the Taliban
Currently the Resistance Front is the main group resisting the Taliban. It is a well-known fact that several thousands of fighters of the Resistance Front are currently (as in May 2023) in the Hindukush Mountains of Afghanistan. Therefore, the Resistance Front is not lacking manpower but advanced arms to fight the Taliban.
There are numerous convincing points on why to follow a different kind of politics and send advanced arms to the Resistance Front.
Four main points advocating the armament of the Resistance Front are listed below:
1) Taliban’s current strategic advantages
Although the Taliban regime has currently not been recognized by any country, it has several advantages in comparison to the Resistance Front.
The website of the government of the United States published on 23 September 2022 that the USA had provided more than $1.1 billion to Afghanistan since August 2021, when the Taliban takeover of that country took place.
UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) has published on its website the humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan and has estimated the necessary aid to Afghanistan for the year 2023 to $4.6 billion.
The following picture was retrieved from UNAMA's (UN mission's) website on 13 May 2023:
Unfortunately, all the aid that goes to Afghanistan to help Afghan people go through Taliban channels. The Taliban group have direct access to all fundings and aid and are advantaged through that help.
The evidence is delivered by Lynne O’Donnell, a columnist at Foreign Policy, who writes in her analysis 'The Taliban Are Abusing Western Aid':
"Tens of millions of dollars are flown into Kabul every week by the United States and the United Nations for distribution across the country as humanitarian catastrophe grips tighter with winter closing in. Sources inside and outside the country say much of the money never reaches those who need it. Instead, they say, unknown quantities are stolen by the Taliban and diverted to their own causes, keeping supporters onside with handouts of cash and food and funding the private operations of senior leaders. Some sources in the security and charity sectors say the Taliban use the informal hawala money transfer system to benefit from a global shortage of dollars.
The allegations are fueling concerns that the Taliban, who for decades have controlled global heroin production and supply, are still engaged in organized crime. The cash deliveries are deposited in the central bank, which is controlled by the Taliban, and the privately owned Afghanistan International Bank, where U.N. agencies hold accounts. There is no accountability for where any of the money ultimately ends up."
$40 million cash packages a week (or several $40 million cash packages a week):
According to reports the Taliban receive millions of dollars of cash each week. There is no overview on how much cash the Taliban have actually received since they have gained power.
Some reports are the following:
-Sep. 06, 2022 - report: "Afghanistan received a fresh batch of 40 million U.S. dollars in cash humanitarian aid and deposited to one of the country’s commercial banks, the central bank said in a statement on September 6."
package of U.S. dollars - Da Afghanistan Bank- Afghanistan
-Nov. 07, 2022: see below
-Nov. 08, 2022 - report: "Taliban-controlled Central Bank on Tuesday, November 8, announced that another package of 40 million dollars reached Kabul. The bank had announced on Monday that it had received a 40 million aid package in cash as well. After the Taliban’s takeover, there has been a regular pattern of delivery of cash to the Taliban’s Central Bank as humanitarian aid."
package of U.S. dollars - Da Afghanistan Bank- Afghanistan
-Dec. 12, 2022 - report: "A large package containing around $40 million in cash for "humanitarian aid" was seen on an airport tarmac in Afghanistan, officials there said last week.
The money was handed over to the Da Bank of Afghanistan, the Taliban-controlled central bank of Afghanistan, which is headquartered in Kabul. The bank tweeted several images of the cash.
One shows packages of U.S. $100 notes bound in plastic, boxed and bagged in an airport."Another package of humanitarian aid worth $40 million dollars arrived in Afghanistan and was handed over to a commercial bank in Kabul. This is the second package that has arrived in Afghanistan this week," the caption reads.
The bank did not say where the money came from. The bank has received several separate shipments of millions of dollars in recent weeks, according to several identical tweets it posted last month."
-Feb. 21, 2023 - report: "The Taliban-controlled Central Bank announced on Tuesday that Afghanistan has received another 40 million dollars cash package. The bank said in a statement that it welcomed any move that brings in money into Afghanistan. The Taliban have said that the cash package has been handed over to a commercial bank in Kabul."
-Mar. 14, 2023 - report: "Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) earlier today announced that a $40 million cash aid package arrived in Kabul, and the Afghan Central Bank will auction $17 million on Wednesday aimed at stabilizing Afghani."
There are other sources, which estimate that the amount of money the USA provides to the Taliban monthly is around $480 million. According to them the USA is not only giving 'humanitarian aid', which is done officially, but also supports the Taliban military according to those claims. The USA is said to be providing 'board and lodging' for the Taliban staff to prevent the Taliban regime from collapsing in all or parts of Afghanistan.
Moreover, the Taliban have access to the money from selling Afghanistan's resources and are supported militarily by Pakistan and probably by intelligence services of various Arab and non-Arab countries. It has to be added that the Taliban
Drug trade is a major factor, while the open border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is a plight for all Afghans. The Taliban retreat to Pakistan when they get attacked and return when their opponent has withdrawn. This area is called Waziristan or Pashtunistan.
That means that a big factor to the successful overthrow of the Taliban depends on arms supply and resources and therefore not merely on Afghan people's will to fight. As stated before, currently there are already several thousands of Afghan fighters in the Hindukush mountains facing the Taliban, in spite of not being as equally well equipped as are the Taliban.
The final big advantage worth mentioning is that while leaving Afghanistan the USA has left military equipment worth several billion to the Taliban according to US reports.
There are actually three differing numbers concerning the worth and amount of the weapons the USA has left for the Taliban. The two differing numbers are $7 Billion and $83 Billion.
1) The official number of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) - about $7 Billion
Forbes Magazine writes in an online article called 'U.S. Left $7.12 Billion In Military Hardware In Afghanistan As Taliban Took Over, DOD Reportedly Finds' on 27 April 2022:
"The equipment included aircraft, vehicles, weapons, ammunition and communications hardware that was given to the now-defunct U.S.-backed Afghan government (...)
As they returned to power following a 20-year war, Taliban fighters reportedly seized abandoned U.S weaponry including Black Hawk helicopters and A-29 Super Tucano light attack planes."
2) $83 Billion
There are estimates that unlike the claims of the U.S. government the USA has left weapons worth $83 Billion. This seems not so far-fetched. The website Snopes did a fact-check on the true numbers and denies this number. Nonetheless the fact-check seems a bit absurd, as it dates back to Aug. 31, 2021, just the day the last U.S. troops have left Afghanistan. It cites a Forbes article, which states: "The U.S. provided an estimated $83 billion worth of training and equipment to Afghan security forces since 2001. This year, alone, the U.S. military aid to Afghan forces was $3 billion."
Then it goes by citing SIGAR (which is a biased institution and very much pro-U.S. government): "According to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), about $18 billion was spent on equipment and transportation between 2005 and 2021."
On top of the amount of the weapons of the dismantled Afghan military, the the U.S. military seems to have left those weapons behind, which belonged to its own military for the Taliban. It left them for the Taliban, as it was crystal clear to everyone then that the Taliban would get those weapons.
Furthermore, the U.S. military not only left weapons for the Taliban. It additionally left military infrastructure hangars, military buildings, uniforms, non-military vehicles, police cars, spyware, computers etc. for the Taliban. The U.S. Government seems to hide the actual numbers of the weapons it has left for the Taliban.
Let's go back at the Forbes report mentioned before.
It states: "Not helping transparency, the Biden Administration is now hiding key audits on Afghan military equipment."
The U.S. military has been claiming that a lot of the equipment they left behind was destroyed or demilitarized. Among those items which were allegedly left inoperable were aircraft worth $923 million.
Even if those claims are true, which many experts doubt, there were $6.5 million in artillery, 300,000 weapons, and thousands of armored vehicles (even captured on propaganda videos of the Taliban) left behind according to the same report. Those are military equipment still used by the Taliban and which can be seen on propaganda videos of the Taliban on YouTube and other social media sites. The following is a screenshot of one of those Taliban propaganda videos on YouTube taken on 14 May 2023 (armoured vehicles of the USA can be seen used by the Taliban in the screenshot of the video called 'Terrorist Taliban Fight With U.S. Weapons Against Afghans'):
Sky News has published at least two videos on YouTube presenting U.S. weapons used by Taliban.
Moreover, the YouTube channel The Buzz has published a more detailed video called 'List of All US Weapons Left Behind In Afghanistan' naming many of the weapons left by the USA in Afghanistan and which are used by the Taliban.
Two lists were presented in that mentioned video:
Following weapons used by Taliban are specified in differing amounts:
Helicopters
UH-60 Black Hawk U.S. helicopter
MD 530F U.S. helicopter
CH-46 Sea Knight U.S. helicopter
Mi-17 Soviet helicopter
Military Planes
A-29 Super Tucano
Cessna 208 Caravan
Pilatus PC-12
Military Vehicles
Humvee
M923A2
M113A2
M577A2
Navistar International 7000
Oshkosh ATV Mine Resistant Vehicle
Ford Ranger Truck
Guns
M24 Sniper Weapon System
M240 Model
M4 Carbine
M18 Assault Rifle
M16 Rifle
specialty munitions
common small arms ammunition
Elite Combat Gear
Uniform
Helmet
Night Vision Goggles
Scan Eagle Drone
MK-19 Grenade Launcher
Spyware
The U.S. army also left high tech devices to collect biometric data, which can reveal information on former government employees and track them down.
German security researchers of Chaos Computer Club purchased U.S. biometric capture devices for $68 on eBay. The device’s memory card held the names, nationalities, photographs, fingerprints and iris scans of 2,632 people, including people who had worked with the U.S. government or simply been stopped at checkpoints, according to a New York Times article.
There are videos showing Black Hawk helicopters being used by the Taliban against resistance forces in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. The New York Post writes in an online article: "“Everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban’s now,” one US official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity."
Regardless of what the actual amount and worth of the weapons left by the USA are, it seems as if all the U.S. military equipment left had to ensure that the Taliban remained in power and the slightest resistance against the Taliban should thus have been prevented from the beginning. And since the anti-Taliban resistance evolved just when the Taliban came to power, the plan was successful at the beginning, as the resistance forces were not prepared for such overwhelming military equipment left for the Taliban. U.S. weapons and the transport of thousands of Taliban fighters in U.S. armored vehicles to the front, prevented the success of the armed anti-Taliban resistance in Panjshir province in September 2021.
At least two armed uprisings against the Taliban were suppressed with the help of US weapons following the US withdrawal:
1. initial armed uprising in Panjshir from 17 August 2021 - 10 September
2. Armed uprising in Balkhab from 23 June 2022 – 17 August 2022
Both times the Taliban used US armored vehicles to transport hundreds of their fighters, Pashtun and allegedly many Pakistani and foreign fighters as well, to fight the uprising. Furthermore, in both battles US weapons, including guns, helmets, armored vehicles and even helicopters, were reportedly used.
In any case, all those advantages of the Taliban can be compensated anytime through advanced military equipment for for fighters of the Resistance Front, as they are superior to Taliban fighters in warfare. This could be seen following the terror attacks on 9/11 in the USA, when the Northern Alliance won over the Taliban in just a few months.
2) Severe violations against human rights and women’s rights by the Taliban regime
Sever human rights abuses and violations against women's rights have been documented by various organizations, as for example can be read in the following link: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1122892
Whether in Balkhab against Hazara Afghans or in Panjsher and Andarab against Tajik Afghans, the mainly Pashtun Taliban have committed severe human rights abuses since they have gained power in August 2021.
Afghan Women were banned from working and Afghan girls were banned from education. Taliban are the only regime imposing such laws. And the situation of Afghanistan deteriorates day by day. This again is a sign that foreign intelligence agencies like that of Pakistani ISI are behind those bans by the Taliban, as these laws halt the development of Afghanistan.
3) Racist behavior of the Pashtun Taliban towards other ethnicities of Afghanistan
The Taliban leadership consists of a bunch of men belonging to just a few Pashtun tribes. In all this time since their regaining power, they have failed to include into their government people of other ethnicities and religions or religious denominations. They even ignored numerous people's calls, from inside and outside of Afghanistan to establish an all-inclusive government. More information about religious persecution by the Taliban is presented in another article.
Again the reason behind the extremely rigid Taliban ideology might lie in Pakistan, as Pashtuns traditionally have good ties with Pakistan and Pakistan wants to prevent other ethnicities from being powerful in Afghanistan. The Taliban madrassas, religious schools, where Pashtun boys and men are radicalized, have been located in Pakistan prior to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. A significant number of Taliban are still taught in those religious schools in Pakistan. The number of madrassas is even on the rise since August 2021 according to reports.
As mentioned before some media raise concerns over the possibility of a civil war in case of weapons supply. But the possibility of war only rises the longer the Taliban stay in power. Some kind of a silent civil war, or Apartheid, is already taking place with the Taliban discriminating people of non-Pashtun ethnicities.
4) Taliban and Terrorism
Taliban leaders and representatives as well as Taliban lobbyists in the West repeatedly claim that the Taliban are not allied to terrorist organizations like al-Qaida and ISIS.
Believing such assertion by the Taliban and their lobbyists and supporters would be naivety. Everyone familiar with Afghanistan's politics still remembers the killing of former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on the night of 1 August 2022 with US drones.
Since then, pro-Taliban supporters have been lobbying in the West and have even started collecting donations for the Taliban long time ago. For further information read this article.
This assertion of the Taliban that they don't support terrorism can be refuted easily, as it is completely wrong and an obvious attempt of deception. The Taliban ideology is well known to every person familiar with them. According to experts another terrorist attack prepared on Afghan soil is just a matter of time, if it isn't prevented on time.
Hazrat Ali, retired commander of famous Battle of Tora Bora has confirmed in May 2023 that the Taliban are working together with international terrorists.
Dozens of pro-Taliban propaganda videos with Nasheed-songs on YouTube and other social media sites confirm Ali's information. The Nasheeds in those videos are mainly in Arabic, Pashto or Urdu and show masked Taliban fighters get through various acrobatic exercises. They resemble al-Qaeda style propaganda videos, which were wide-spread following the 2001 attacks, as can be seen on the following screenshot from 14 May 2023 on YouTube depicting Taliban terrorists:
5) Conclusion - No Alternative to Arms Supply
There is no more humane alternative to the supply of arms to the Resistance Front. The alternative would be that the rule of the Taliban over Afghanistan would continue for decades and with it the suffering of the people of Afghanistan. The instability of Afghanistan will only end when the Taliban lose their power.
Following the Vienna meeting in April 2023, Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front NRF), replied to the question, posed by a German online paper, whether military force against Taliban would be the only solution for Afghanistan:
"The Taliban are extremely aggressive, yes. It will take guns to drive them out. But at the same time it is needed to accept the truth: I keep hearing that the Taliban are not as dangerous as the Islamic State (ISIS). Simply because, unlike the Islamic State, the Taliban would be limited to Afghanistan. But believe me, the Taliban are just smarter, they hide their real intentions. We all should really fear them."
The Taliban is a dangerous terrorist organization and will never improve or dissolve without force. The only means to bring change to Afghanistan and to the people of Afghanistan is by force in the form of resistance.
Dr. Fawad Poya writes in an article with the title 'Under Taliban Rule, Afghanistan Will Never Have an Inclusive Government':
"However, given that the Taliban did not seize power through a popular mandate, do not even seek it, and their rejection of elections, the prospects of such a process are extremely poor under the prevailing circumstances."
Supply of advanced weapons like drones would be a game changer, as Pakistan is helping the Taliban by locating the position of Afghan resistance fighters through its intelligence services and military equipment.
The Afghan resistance is the only group that can push the Taliban back and eventually be victorious over that terrorist group in the north of Afghanistan and perhaps even lead to the collapsing of the Taliban rule throughout Afghanistan. It is the only groups that has enough manpower and experience to fight the Taliban. Arms supply of resistance forces must take place immediately because the Taliban are expanding their madrassas from Afghanistan-Pakistani border to central and north Afghanistan.
The German newspaper article cited previously, asks Ahmad Massoud two questions concerning the urgency of weapons supply:
Question: How deep is the support of the Taliban in the population?
Ahmad Massoud: "They are getting stronger and stronger as they found more and more madrasas, schools where their ideology is taught. It's a huge brainwashing exercise that the Taliban hope will increase recruitment."
Question: In accordance with this ideology, the Taliban, despite all the promises, cannot be satisfied with just Afghanistan.
Ahmad Massoud: "That's how it is. The jihad (in this context, violent struggle in the sense of a "holy war" is meant, editor's note) never ends for them. This is how the Taliban assure other terrorist groups of their support, the procedure is always the same. An extremist group should conquer a country's capital and then it will be recognised. At the same time, from this state, the ideology is extended to others. And so on and so on. Take a look at what is currently happening in Mali. And before that in Syria and Iraq, where the Islamic State has raged."
The inhumane alternative to arming the Resistance Front would be the continuation of just watching, while severe human rights abuses will be continuing to take place against majority of all the peoples of Afghanistan.
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