New Taliban Enters New Afghanistan
Afghanistan today is not the Afghanistan of 2001 when the Taliban had left it. At that time, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media platforms did not exist. The number of internet users in 2005 in Afghanistan was only one million, which has jumped in 2019 to reach 22 million. It is noteworthy that the population of Afghanistan is 40 million and more than 70% of Afghans use internet. More than 60% of the Afghan people are under the age of 25, which means that when the international alliance removed the Taliban movement from power in 2001, all of them were only 5 years old. Therefore, the Taliban for them is history and not their own memories. Everything which these people have been availing during last two decades of a life of luxury in comparison to their previous generations, such as education, electricity, internet, freedom of press, participation of women in work and ATM services, as well as electricity, will not be easy to be snatched from them. This is why Taliban, after their arrival in Kabul, decided not to announce any decision which could be read as a restriction on people’s lives unlike what it did between 1996 and 2001.
The semiotic view of the entry of Afghan Taliban fighters into the presidential palace in Kabul showed the magnitude of change in the Taliban movement. It needs huge effort to convince the world that it is no longer the same movement which was in 2001.
(by Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan in Arabic Post)
US Prevented Its Own Grinding Down
What has happened can be summed up only with the facts that the United States was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan, and then it admitted its military defeat against Taliban, at least tactically. The US did it to put an end to the process of its own grinding down, which could weaken it strategically in the long run. In other words, it can be said that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was in response to a more comprehensive vision of international crisis management, aimed at reducing dependence on hard power tools and replace them with soft and smart powers. This vision requires the US combat forces not involved in the field except in cases where it is absolutely necessary and for a very limited period. It also wants that fixed military bases should be maintained in vital areas of the world, away from the areas of tension. Therefore, it is expected that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan will be followed by a gradual withdrawal from other regions also, such as Iraq and Syria. There may be more reliance on allied regional powers, such as Israel and Turkey, to carry out combat missions on their behalf when necessary. As for the future conflict with powers which have global ambitions, such as China and the Russian Federation, the United States has soft power tools which can help it in meeting the challenges, without resorting to wars or involvement in combat operations.
(by Hassan Nafaa in Al Araby Al Jadeed)
Compiled and Translated by Faizul Haque