Maria Laura Avignolo
08/16/2021 3:31 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 08/16/2021 3:31 PM
History once again proved that Afghanistan is the grave of the Great Empires.
From Alexander the Great until now, this untamed, wild and unusually beautiful country
once again defeated the West
.
He had already done it three times with Great Britain, whose soldiers rest in the British cemetery in Kabul, or their names are written on the reddish stones of the Kyber Pass, and with the Soviet Union, after its invasion in 1980.
Dizzyingly, in less than 15 days, the Taliban seized the country and its provincial capitals and won again.
First he fought fiercely and brutally, with a list of Western collaborators in hand, with fierce reprisals.
Then
government forces capitulated
and joined the Taliban because their officers had escaped.
The Taliban began handing out provisional amnesty letters to the soldiers, which were to be ratified in their provinces.
Tribal arrangements, generally among Pashtuns,
their hyper-conservative ethnic group.
The structure of 20 years of Western occupation began to crumble like a sand castle in the desert,
without its intelligence services being able to perceive or understand it.
An Afghan boy at the Kabul airport.
AFP photo
They thought that the militiamen would reach Kabul in 3 months.
Even President Joe Biden reconfirmed his early retirement for August 31, designed by Donald Trump, who did not even know where Kabul was, adding that Afghans were trained and had to defend their country.
Which one?
That of the Taliban and the divided Pashtuns?
The one from the Ghani government, an educated Pashtun, who fled so there would be no bloodbath?
The Warlords, who with their militias participated in the defense of their cities, until they compromised with the Taliban and joined with a view to the future or fled? The Shiite Hazaras,
who will be the most persecuted by the Sunni Taliban?
A brutal and political mullah
The Taliban arrived at the presidential palace,
under the baton of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar
, who was detained in Pakistan and the Americans released to negotiate with him in Doha, at the request of Donald Trump.
This was his personal victory.
He is the Taliban political leader, after being a mujahideen against the Soviets, together with the CIA, the Pakistani ISIS and Osama Bin Laden, with Saudi and British funds.
The image in the sumptuousness of the presidential palace in Kabul resembled that of the Last Supper:
Baradar and his Apostles, with American rifles.
The Taliban, in the presidential palace.
AFP photo
Baradar is a fierce guerrilla fighter and a skilled political operator.
He was the one who signed the Doha accords, which the United States
saw as a path to peace and the Taliban, to their complete victory.
In the first hours of their new government, the Taliban have said they want to start a dialogue with foreign states.
They have vowed not to harm Afghans or limit women's freedoms.
It is the "light" Taliban, in its "for export" version
, when the West threatens not to maintain relations with them.
Kabul airport is in chaos.
A withdrawal coordinated by the Americans, which is going around the world.
Unforgettable images.
Thousands of Afghans abandoned
by whom they helped to understand their society, to translate.
A mirror of the occupation.
In Britain, the military and veterans demand explanations from the government about the reasons for this sacrifice, where there were deaths and disabilities as a result.
A new Yalta
China, Russia and Pakistan
are the ones that will maintain an open embassy in Kabul
.
They are the winners of this crisis.
A sort of Yalta in Southwest Asia, with the Chinese as guardians of regional security.
They are determined that the Taliban ideology does not contaminate the Islamic Uyghur, Afghan neighbors, whom they have confined in concentration camps to "chinize" them.
Russia will try to make one forget the brutal invasion of the USSR
and its defeat.
They will be partners of the Chinese and Pakistan, all "partners" in this global rebuilding company.
Taliban soldiers in Kabul.
Photo EFE
The Taliban want to be
recognized as the legitimate government
of Afghanistan.
After an impressive blitzkrieg across the country, its members believe they have earned the right to be seen as the righteous leaders of the country.
But with flags hoisted over embassies and most foreign diplomats now back in their home capitals, the group will not fulfill their wish.
Having spent two decades fighting the group, NATO countries will
not suddenly legitimize the Taliban by
acknowledging their power.
The most the Taliban can hope for is a grudging acceptance of their victory.
With a 700-kilometer border and more than millions of Afghan refugees, Shiite Iran will have a neighborly relationship.
But the Taliban are Sunni.
There may be tensions with the Guards of the Revolution, who today exercise power in Tehran.
Pakistan has been a historical ally
together with its intelligence service (ISIS) and the military, which have allowed the survival of the Taliban and their refuge in Queta, in Balouchistan, where their Shura operated.
Isolated but not alone
The Taliban will be isolated from the West but not from the international scene.
It remains to be seen who recognizes them in the Persian Gulf
and what will be the attitude of Saudi Arabia, which finances Pakistan and its economic dramas.
The Taliban office in Qatar will be critical.
They are not going to close it.
It will serve as a back door for all kinds of negotiations
.
The Taliban could meet with Western officials, with NGOs offering humanitarian aid, and with multinational organizations.
No country with interests will break that link
, started by Great Britain, which fears destabilization and the export of terrorists to the kingdom.
There will be no financial, health, or official humanitarian aid.
But security and terrorism worry Westerners.
Those negotiations will take place, quietly, in Doha.
The Taliban take over Kabul.
Photo EFE
We have yet to know the composition of the new Taliban administration.
The victorious fundamentalists
are in the stage of appeasement, facing a society that fears them and does not want to return to the Middle Ages.
The Taliban government is going to declare an Islamic Emirate.
It's early to know its format yet.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in contact with the Taliban in order to bring peace to the country.
Karzai, a multilingual, US-educated, India-educated Pashtun leader who was Afghanistan's president from 2001 to 2014, said he was part of a three-member council,
which worked to transfer power to militants peacefully.
Look also
Thousands of people try to flee Kabul after the Taliban take power
In an interview with the
BBC
, Karzai stated that the council has had contacts with the Taliban leaders and will coordinate with them.
“The important thing is the life and safety of all the Afghan people and our goal is to achieve this.
"The Taliban have told me that they have appointed people to focus on the security of the city, and I hope there will be more progress on this Monday," he said.
The council also includes Hezb-e Islami party leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former warlord turned politician, and chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, the
former hand right-wing of Ahmad Shah Massoud
, the Afghan leader assassinated by al Qaeda a day before the September 11 attacks.
PB
Look also
Interview with Luciano Zaccara: "In these 20 years nothing has ever been built" in Afghanistan
The United States will send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan, bringing the number of troops in the country to 7,000