Taliban takeover could be worse than before due to closer links with al-Qaeda terrorists
American intelligence suggested it might take as long as 90 days to take Kabul – but less than 90 hours later it was done.
Behind the scenes, the Mirror understands, President Ashraf Ghani had sought a transition of power deal with the Taliban.
He could see the writing on the wall and, as first revealed in the Mirror, fled the country.
Doubtless he will be in his plush Washington home as Afghanistan faces a very dark future.
The situation deteriorated rapidly in the past two days after previously anti-Taliban and pro-Ghani warlords surrendered.
British troops for years tried valiantly to train the Afghan Army in battle tactics but several things prevented the Afghans from being good enough.
One assignment I witnessed in Helmand Province involved an air assault by a platoon of Brits and more than 100 Afghan soldiers deep inside Taliban-held country.
The night operation in three Chinook helicopters meant when the Taliban woke the British-led Afghans were already there.
Village elders, among them obviously hard-staring Taliban, spoke to the British officer via an interpreter in a meeting.
The Afghan commander, who was Tajik, a veteran of many battles from hundreds of miles away from here, was begging them not to follow the Taliban.
The elders and the apparently unarmed Taliban present sat barely understanding a word he was saying.
The Taliban waited an hour after we left before opening fire with small arms, and the shooting stopped when Apache helicopters were called in.
The mixed cultures, language and tradition meant the peace would never last any longer than that. The only reason the Taliban stopped was because of the air support, which has been lacking since the US pull-out started.
Crucially, British troops were there to mentor the so-called “Afghan-led operation” – but it was not Afghan-led.
A Tajik or Uzbek soldier, not a Pashtoun like the Taliban in that region, would never gain the trust of these people.
Afghanistan is a vast and varied country of very different cultures, and it would be impossible to run it by a West-imposed leader such as Ghani.
Afghani Army troops have fled the Taliban because they had everything to lose. Often they were so far from home, and in what they considered almost a foreign country, they were not invested in fighting.
And without Brits or Americans to lead them it became impossible, as we have witnessed in the past few days.
There were fears last night of a wave of reprisals, long-term violence and oppression to women and minorities.
Millions of females have the chance to be educated in the past 20 years in a long-term operation that has cost the coalition almost £1trillion. Women were given a vote and female MPs and campaigners flourished.
The Taliban has claimed women’s education and rights will continue but there are huge doubts over this.
As fears of oppressive Sharia law grew in Kabul yesterday, people hurriedly scrubbed out adverts for women’s cosmetics shops.
People are worried the Taliban will kill anyone suspected of offending their fascist moral world view.
Several million minority Hazara Afghans, mostly in central Afghanistan, will face huge oppression.
And former Afghan Army officers and officials will also face reprisals and possible public executions.
Security expert Will Geddes warned the coup could lead to more terror attacks in the UK as Afghanistan will be a “safe haven” for terror.
There is little doubt about this.
Previously the Taliban only wanted an Islamic Emirate and had no interest in events such as 9/11 beyond the inconvenience of allowing al-Qaeda to remain in Afghanistan.
They now have a much more ingrained and perhaps closer link to al-Qaeda than ever before.
Geddes says: “There’s already reports of Western jihadists trying to get into Afghanistan to align with the Taliban. If al-Qaeda gets a foothold again then attacks could be launched from this new base.”
In the view of many, this new Taliban could be worse than before.
Source: Mirror
