The Taliban indirectly plunged Afghanistan into Western occupation.
Author: Nurulla Valizade, analyst, especially for Sangar
Those who consider the Taliban an anti-occupation movement, intentionally or unintentionally, ignore the platforms of the group's formation.
The formation of the Taliban dates back to the Cold War between the Eastern and Western blocs. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union led to a hot war in Afghanistan. The intensification of competition between the East and the West disrupted political stability in Afghanistan and led to the overthrow of the monarchy.
With the fall of the monarchy, political stability in Afghanistan was never restored. Daoud's attempts to restore stability cost him his life, and Afghanistan's neutrality was disrupted by the presence of the Red Army. The communists thought that by forcibly introducing communism through the Soviet system, they would restore stability, but they failed to do so. Increased repressive measures strengthened the ranks of the mujahideen, and the Soviet military presence provided their military legitimacy. From this perspective, the Mujahideen were also born out of the competition between East and West, but with the difference from the Taliban that the Mujahideen were not a creation of foreigners but groups formed on religious grounds to fight occupation and defend the homeland, but were used as a means to achieve the goals of the colonialists. The Taliban movement was created by the colonialists and tyrants of the Western bloc to prevent the return of the defeated Eastern power to Afghanistan.
Thus, the Taliban is a group of three dangerous "isms": Radical Islamism/terrorism; Proxy Imperialism/means to achieve Western development goals; and wounded Pashtunism/Pashtuns who resort to any means to return to power.
But the Taliban is not the same for all the people of Afghanistan. This group is an occupying force for non-Pashtuns. On the one hand, they have indirectly plunged the country into Western occupation, and on the other hand, they are occupying non-Pashtun ethnic groups to implement Pashtun agendas. In a word, internal occupation forces.
Here, of course, it is necessary to pay attention to the concept of occupation and consider it in a broad sense. Many friends believe that occupation has only one definition: when foreign troops invade another country, that is occupation.
In a broader sense, occupation includes any act committed against the will and consent of an individual or a mass of people to usurp land, aggression, and encroachment on their personality, dignity, and freedom. That is, we have an internal occupation, and the Taliban are a clear example of this. For the people of Panjshir, the presence of more than 20,000 southern Pashtun forces in their homes and villages is an occupation, and this occupation is worse than the Soviet occupation of the valley.
The US and Pakistan created the Taliban for their expansionist purposes, to provide ground for the occupation of Afghanistan, and they succeeded. How can the Taliban be called against occupation? If we consider the war between the US and the Taliban as a war against occupation, we can deny it, but in this case, we have only looked at the external side and neglected to reflect on the complex dimensions of politics, war, and occupation.
