With Joe Biden withdrawing the US forces from Afghanistan and the Middle East’s “never-ending war” the fighting between the Taliban and the formal Afghan government has escalated. The Taliban claimed to be unwilling to negotiate peace with Afghanistan until the United States made a complete exit from Afghanistan, but now, even after the United States’ exit, the Taliban still seems dead set on taking away human rights while still proclaiming a desire for long term peace.
On April 24, it was announced that both the President of Afghanistan and the leader of the Taliban would meet for 10 days to complete negotiations with the formal Afghanistan government for peace. In February 2020, Donald Trump signed the DOHA agreement with the Taliban that the U.S would withdraw fully from Afghanistan and the Taliban would stop attacking the U.S. Recently, Joe Biden decided to delay the pull out since he wanted to wait if the peace talks failed between the Afghan parties, in case the Taliban’s opposition became endangered. If the U.S stayed any longer, Joe Biden might have had to resort to fighting the Taliban and have broken the agreement between the Taliban and Trump.
The United States didn’t exit Afghanistan fully until September 11th, allowing the Taliban the chance to make empty promises to the formal government of Afghanistan in negotiation, as their resources for fighting back against Taliban control were heavily limited. “Making a public announcement is a gamble because the Taliban now knows Washington’s plans, it can just wait the U.S out and plan to focus its full attention on the fight once the last soldier has departed,” said Micheal Kugelman on ABC News.
The U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to send an eight-page proposal to both sides to convince the government to share its power and advocate for more laws that can be passed for Afghans to promote human rights. Currently, three laws in review are the Protection for Women Act, the Minorities’ Rights Act, and the development of an Islamic judicial council to review Afghan laws. These laws would ensure a certain amount of rights for what the United States classified as protected groups, helping to protect women, LGBT individuals, and minority religious groups, theoretically, even if/when the Taliban take full control over the nation. The U.S making its move and leaving Afghanistan will likely lead to a Civil War within the country, one that the ANSDF (Afghan National Security and Defense Forces) might not be able to win.
The danger of all of this is that Joe Biden, and thus, America, the world’s “free nation”, has recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government and not just as a terrorist faction. This empowers the Taliban and gives them an even greater advantage over the ANSDF.
Near home, in response to the recent deaths of thirteen American service members killed in the suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan, a memorial was erected at Ivy Street, which had thirteen American flags and one Marine corps flag placed on a fence above the overpass, on the 91 freeway. The flags of the fallen service members were found vandalized on Labor Day. The flags were ripped and torn. The act was made public on a Riverside County Facebook page that was soon brought to the attention of the authorities who soon thanked the public for their notice of the degradation of the memorial. When the flags were checked, the vandalism seemed to have malicious intent behind it. So far no one has a description of the suspects who did this and the police are asking the public for help.