Time out from a siege

A battle-hardened mujahideen leader during the anti-Soviet resistance and now a Taliban field commander in the middle of a siege of a NATO base, Abdul Khaliq shares a sparse meal and a blanket with Syed Saleem Shahzad.He explains how divisions in Afghan society are being healed in the face of a common enemy: the occupation forces

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

".......These were the men on whom the resistance depended. Yet remarkably, after years of meritocracy, this year's spring offensive was a stunning success, extending Taliban control over vast swaths of the south and southwest and inflicting heavy casualties on foreign forces.

There is no doubt that increasing public disenchantment with the administration of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul helped the Taliban win popular support, but it does not explain their dramatic military success.

One might argue that the youthful Taliban leaders have matured into intelligent and savvy commanders. Not so. They remain about as blinkered and shortsighted as they have ever been.

What did happen was that around April, military operations were handed over to legendary mujahideen commander Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, a non-Taliban veteran of the campaign against the Soviets in the 1980s (see Taliban's new commander ready for a fight, Asia Times Online, May 20). In the mid-1990s, after the bloody civil war that followed the Soviets' withdrawal, Haqqani had surrendered to the Taliban when they reached Khost province.

In preparation for this year's spring offensive, Haqqani quickly replaced the highly dedicated but militarily naive Taliban field commanders with his team of battle-hardened mujahideen. His motto was, "Where there is no vision, there is no hope." Haqqani made an agreement with Mullah Omar under which once his men brought victory to a front, they would depart for a new one, leaving the Taliban behind to administer as they saw fit under their brand of Islam.

This arrangement can best be described as a marriage of convenience. On the one hand, it would be wrong to assume that the Taliban are the most popular movement in southwestern Afghanistan. Rather, they are seen as the best alternative to corrupt and inefficient local administrations.

On the other hand, the mujahideen certainly don't see themselves as subservient to the young Taliban. What they have in common is a hatred of the occupying forces.

Thus the Taliban movement acts as a unifying force for all anti-American forces in the country, while at the same time bringing discipline and order into local affairs......."

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It is sad to observe that the Iraqis do not display the unity and the sophistication of even the Taliban. I was hoping otherwise.