A conspiracy between Taliban and the USA?
The Taliban met with US representatives numerous times throughout the years, holding talks and negotiations over the country’s political and economic future.
But no one took any of these discussions seriously. Not the readers, not the newscasters, nor the conspiracy theorists or India and other anti-Taliban groups.
In Feb 2020, the Taliban and the US (under Pres Donald Trump) stroke a deal paving the way for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan. The primary condition was for the Taliban to kickstart talks with the ruling Afghan leaders over the country’s future. This is not fake news.
While the Taliban was making the deal with US officials, there was a bomb blast in Kabul and the anti-Taliban media and people quickly pointed at the Taliban. They said the Taliban is at the ‘peace table’ talking peace but they bomb people.
The Taliban didn’t claim responsibility for the attack. Most probably because the attack was not orchestrated by the Taliban. The then government in Kabul could have been behind the bomb blast or the CIA was behind it to undermine the Taliban. No one suggested such an angle.
Days later, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in February 2020 that called for peace talks between the two Afghan sides to start in March. See below the full PDF of the peace deal between the Taliban and the US in 2020. This also is not fake news.
After the peace deal was done and talks started between the pro-American regime and the Taliban, the US under Trump decided to pull out its troops.
US TROOPS AND AFGHAN ARMY
The notion was that the Taliban will not launch an offensive against the ruling puppets and the army, minted on the US army, would be stiff in their responses against the Taliban in the event the Islamic group attacked.
Everyone assumed that the US would never allow the Taliban to retake power. This is a country where Washington had spent billions to eliminate ‘Talibanism.’ Trump had in mind the reconciliation between the Taliban and the puppet regime that will lead to an election.
The Trump administration coaxed the Taliban to accept the terms for an election in Afghanistan in which its fighters will lay down the weapons and will form a political wing that will contest all over Afghanistan against the corrupt and so-called ‘democratic’ forces.
The US would have used the might of the Afghan army it built to control the security in the country while its forces were out of the pit. This was the deal, not a conspiracy. The Taliban played along and got the Americans to believe there was a deal and elections would follow.
But we saw the collapse of the Afghan army and that did not prevent the pullout of the American army from Afghanistan.
Another element in the ‘deal’ that is clearly mentioned by American politicians now in power is they will not allow the Taliban to use terrorism or take terrorists as allies. If that was to happen in the future, the US would probably retake Afghanistan. That is the threat from the US and the Joe Biden administration.
After 20 years of battle against foreign armies, local warlords, and internal infighting, people assumed the Taliban would never return. Not with such panache.
The religious group was also under pressure from terror groups but did not resort to a more aggressive approach during the past 20 years.
What the Taliban did since 2001 was to sit and watch, cooperate where they can to benefit from the US investment in the country.
Thus, for 20 years, the Taliban was in charge of the backyards. After the US pullout, it was thought Kabul and Kandahar, the two most important cities would be in the hands of a solid army.
These forces were to be the core security forces of the pro-American regime placed in power by Washington.
That’s the true story so far.