As much as i want to simplify matters, there is no simple answer.
Do you mean to say that all Germans should have been killed after WW2 for the Jewish holocaust?
For bombing Japan should all of US citizens be called mass murderers for eternity?
Oversimplification is not something good in the long run...
You guys discuss Afghanistan as if it was land of peace and Taliban attacked it and tortured and butchered everyone...care to read about the atrocities inflicted upon Afghans by the very Mujahidden commanders that fought off the soviets and only then will you have the real perspective of why people supported Taliban for most part in the days of their phenomenal growth in Afghanistan.
Not all Taliban were terrorists who wanted to bomb and kill...as opposed to Al Qaeda and their fatwas Taliban ideology was different...terrorism would have been if Afghanistan was a land of relative peace and Taliban started a civil war to impose their views on the land...that would have been unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective and also from religious perspective...no one has the right to shatter peaceful existence of innocents for power...anyone who does so is a terrorist of some sort...but what happening in Afghanistan after the soviets were kicked out?
The Taliban did at least have a reason for their campaign and this was what they projected to the masses.
They did not land from mars, they were Afghans and they were not agents of ISI...they were students in madrassas who for good or for bad claimed that the civil war in the Afghan land had to end even if it was via an armed struggle...the killings, rapes, torture etc. at the hands of the scores of warring factions was claiming hundreds of thousands of victims and Taliban promised the population to deliver them from this all...
This is the reason for tremendous support they got initially...Afghan War lords quickly bent their knee to Taliban not because of goodwill but because the power of the people was with Taliban at that time or if you find that hard to believe then i shall rephrase it as the hate of the people was so much for the warring factions that they accepted Taliban promise of peace, stability and justice.
Now the real problems started when Taliban got the power...they did provide peace from civil war and unification but at a cost...they imposed certain views on the masses which were against the spirit of Islam and the local sentiments.
Condemning the females to a life without prospects of job etc. was a cruel thing to do and entirely unacceptable to me...in a society where so many men had perished this meant condemning many families to absolute poverty and desperation...not to mention that speaking from Islamic perspective, women have a lot more rights than protect them rather than such restrictions.
Yes this was cruel and entirely unacceptable and something not at all with any justification.
To top it there was the issue of Mr. Osama landing in Afghanistan...again something not right but then Taliban did not view him as a terrorist but as an Afghan was veteran who did play a very major role...the Al Khidmat foundation run by Bin Laden was active in US as well so should we say US was supporting terrorism?
No will be the answer by many and the reason will be because Osama did not show such tendency at that point in time.
Osama sought shelter in Afghanistan and had the finances to assist Taliban...this was a marriage of necessity for Taliban and had terrible results for them....
The Taliban became more and more strict and this was also due to the influence of Osama, his anti Shia views were clearly reflected in the anti Hazara actions of Taliban and this was also entirely cruel and unacceptable thing to do.
The difference between Taliban and Al Qaeda is that Al Qaeda has no nationalistic ambitions whereas the Taliban are Afghans and their movement was started to save Afghanistan, Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization from the start whereas Taliban was a local militant movement which lost track...due to their bad decisions and war crimes one can say that they failed and i agree with this completely...but their use of force and their killing of enemies was not something unprecedented, it was done by most of the warlords who rained hell on their opponents...so they are not the only guilty party in Afghanistan and that is what i want to emphasize upon...
Kabul was literally raped and destroyed by the warlords prior to Taliban so people who assume Taliban were terrorists and all other Afghan forces were angelic are really not seeing the situation clearly.
If many former Mujahidden commanders can be reasoned with then what is wrong with engaging Taliban in a dialogue?
I think many Taliban can still be reasoned with and you know why i say it...because they are not a phantom organization like Al Qaeda which can destroy any country in its proclaimed cause without feeling remorse...Taliban claimed Afghanistan as their cause and by virtue of this and their nationalistic sentiments, i think it is possible to isolate them from Al Qaeda....I am not saying they are likable lot to me...i am just saying that for Afghanistan to be peaceful they should be engaged in dialogue on a national platform and made to see what they can do in benefit of Afghanistan.
I think the Taliban loyal to Osama will be in minority but branding them together has forced all of them to fight side by side.
I do not care what they think of Pakistan, i am 100% sure they do not like us and i am actually quite pissed off at all what they did in the name of Islam but for the sake of Afghanistan i say that Taliban need to be separated from Al Qaeda...treating them as the same will help Al Qaeda and no one else!
Whether this can be done in practice is something else but in theory it is not a bad option if taken in entire perspective.
j/k
