How the New US-Afghanistan Peace Deal Rekindled a “Business Friendly Taliban”
America’s relationship with the Taliban has always been determined by how useful they are at advancing US interests in the region and the Trump administration’s recent efforts to make “peace” with the group are no exception.
In examining the history of the U.S.-Taliban relationship, it becomes apparent that the U.S. was eager to support the Taliban until they presented hurdles to U.S. corporate interests, particularly oil and pipeline projects, and the interests of the U.S. intelligence community, especially with respect to the opium trade. As the war in Afghanistan has dragged on, the Taliban has sent signal after signal that they are willing to be “pro-business”, as seen in their support of the TAPI pipeline, and even willing to share revenue from both legitimate and illegitimate economic activities with the U.S.-backed government of Ashraf Ghani and the CIA and its Afghan paramilitaries.
From the U.S. perspective, returning U.S.-Taliban ties to where they were in 1996 would serve the Trump administration’s interests in Iran containment and its economic interests in Afghanistan. The U.S.-Taliban relationship has always been determined by the group’s convenience to U.S. interests. Thus, efforts to make “peace” with the group will be guided by these very same factors, particularly given that a key player in this long-standing relationship — Zalmay Khalilzad — was the main U.S. negotiator of the deal. After the September 11 attacks, the effort was made to eradicate the Taliban, but since that effort has clearly failed, the U.S. now seeks to make them a business partner.
OPERATION CYCLONE..........
Khalilzad was also
a key figure in the CIA-backed Operation Cyclone under the Carter administration and later the Reagan administration, where he personally helped
greatly expand the controversial program. That operation created, armed and financed Afghanistan’s Mujahideen forces, which included the very individuals who would go on to create both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It is one of the longest and most expensive covert programs in the history of the CIA and also involved Saudi and Pakistani intelligence..............
In addition, Khalilzad, at the time Operation Cyclone was ongoing, was also
the executive director of the Friends of Afghanistan, a “support group” for the Mujahideen, and is also
a long-time member of the board of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), long labeled
a CIA cut-out by critics.
Notably, the Taliban’s
own top negotiator of this new “peace” deal, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, was
among those trained and armed as part of the Mujahideen force created during Operation Cyclone
SO IS IT SAFE TO SAY, THAT CIA WON AGAIN?.........IN AFGHANISTAN, WITH TALIBAN,S
How Trump's US-Afghanistan peace deal is likely to turn Afghanistan into a South-American-style narco-state run by the Taliban and a CIA-backed president.
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