4 Presidents, 20 years, two trillion dollars of investment in training and equipping the Afghan army, and yet the 3,00,000 plus Afghan army surrendered meekly in front of 75,000 pajama-clad Taliban mercenaries?
If you look at the videos of the Taliban mercenaries in their ill fitting kurta and pajama, squatting in the palace, eating like barbarians without fail you will be taken back to the era when Huns, the Mongols and he Islamic armies invaded a city, killing and looting with impunity.
Let me use this premise to bring up five talking points.
Funding
If the superpower of this world US was funding the long-drawn and intense fight against the Taliban, who was funding the Taliban? We all understand that a 20-year long battle requires immense money power. Not only to buy arms, ammunition but also for logistics, media support, and to build the global narrative. Against a trillion-dollar US fund, who on the other side was investing megabuck to sustain this onslaught?
2. The paradigm In 1988 First Blood 3 better known as Rambo 3 was released. The hero, Sylvester Stallone teams up with the local Afghans to rescue his long-time friend from the clutches of the Russian army. So it is evident that till 1988, the Taliban was the villain for the US. Taking the Cold War a little too seriously, the US used every opportunity to belittle Russia, mostly through its movies. So with Russia’s exit from Afghanistan, what made the US set its foot in this war-torn country?
From then, when the US was fighting the so barbarians, the Taliban, to now, where it meekly pulled out, supporting the Taliban in taking over the country, what made the US take this extreme step?
Joe Biden till a few weeks back was confident that the Afghan army will fight. So why this surrender?
3. The quandary
World over Muslims long for racial supremacy via prevailing the will of their Allah; killing everyone who is a Kafir or non-muslim. They want Sharia to be the law of land. They want women to wear a burka, they believe in triple talaq, halala, taking young girls as sex slaves, etc etc.
So if Afganistan was a Muslim country where the Taliban wants to enforce Sharia why are the Muslims objecting to it?
They should have been more than happy to have a country with their wish list. Also, if Sharia is being imposed in Afghanistan why are Muslims fleeing from there? Why is the Indian Muslim who keeps ranting about Sharia not going there? What is wrong with Syria and Afghanistan? We thought that Muslims have a problem with everyone else. So what is the problem in Syria and Afghanistan?
4. The narrative I will use local instances to illustrate my points: Pehlu Khan, a thief who happened to be a Muslim is beaten by a mob and dies in the police lock-up. Akhlak, a Muslim gets killed by a mob under the suspicion of consuming beef that is banned by the law of the land. A rogue Muslim boy is slapped at a temple in Dasna, UP for creating nuisance within the premises.
All these stray incidences of violence were projected as the case of growing intolerance within Indian society and had Malala to Arundhati Roy, Swara to Amir express their anguish and fear. These cases were taken up at the UN too. From NY Times to CNN, BBC to Washington Post, every publication expressed its displeasure at the state of minorities in India. Suddenly India was not perceived to be safe for the minorities anymore.
5. The impact Please don’t take this as an esoteric incidence in some far-off land. Till a thousand years back, Afghanistan was the land of Buddha. Today it is ruled by Muslim radicals. Since the day the Taliban assassinated Najibullah, the then Afghan President, the land has been an odd mix of radical Islamist forces, Al Qaeda and Taliban, breeding under the patronage of Pakistan and other Muslim nations.
This coup has given a new lease of life to Islamic forces. Now they know they have what it takes to defeat not one but two superpowers, Russia and the US. After losing in Iraq. Iran and many other places now they have tasted blood with the win of Kabul. Their template of psychological war and making a country bleed internally with thousand cuts now will become an SOP.
With Pakistan openly supporting the Taliban regime, China backing both Pakistan and Taliban and now the US getting inclined towards supporting more ‘rights respecting Taliban’ it will affect India adversely.
We have invested a huge amount of capital, both in terms of money and goodwill in Kabul. We went all the way out to construct the parliament for them. With close to 3 billion dollar investment in Afghanistan, India has a lot to lose, and we are not talking of money alone For starters, we will have another Neighbour who will be a constant nuisance. After Pakistan and China, Afghanistan with its rogue element will be coaxed by Pakistan to spread the venom in India via Kashmir. All this in the name of Jihad and Allah.
So more shelling on borders, more infiltrators, and a new narrative of Islam and its resurgence mounted on the shoulders of scared minority and rising cases of atrocity against them.
Now coming to my observations
Where are all these top Muslim sympathizers who can’t see the slaughter of hundreds in Afghanistan? Not even a whimper? On the contrary CNN, the so-called upholder of the gospel truth terms the Afghanistan massacre as an ‘almost silent transfer of government.’
My second observation: If India till a few weeks back was not conducive for Muslims, if it was an intolerant country and a more intolerant society plagued with Hindu terror, why do these Muslims want to come to India?
Why are they not keen to go to one of the so-called Islamic countries? As the days would pass, we will get to know various sides, varied hypotheses, and dime a dozen analyses.
With my limited knowledge what I can tell you is the Muslims who are fleeing Afghanistan fearing Sharia will be demanding Sharia once they are settled in France, The Netherlands, Germany, or England. They have been a perpetual source of global terror and global anarchy. It is best to avoid them.
PS. Afghanistan has always fascinated me. So much so that in my fifth title,Uberlegen, I have set a large part of action in this country.
- Amit Shankar
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