A.P. Richelieu
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2013
- Messages
- 7,724
- Reaction score
- 4
- Country
- Location
It's better to read up on the subject u start arguing about instead of just diving in head first and looking like a fool...see below, this is taken straight from Wikipedia, which honestly would've taken u 5-10 min to find and read instead of making this blunder of a post
"After the Soviet Union intervened and occupied Afghanistan in 1979, Islamic mujahideen fighters engaged in war with those Soviet forces.
Pakistan's President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq feared that the Soviets were planning to invade also Balochistan, Pakistan, so he sent Akhtar Abdur Rahman to Saudi Arabia to garner support for the Afghan resistance against Soviet occupation forces. A while later, the U.S. CIA and Saudi Arabic General Intelligence Directorate (GID) funneled funding and equipment through the PakistanI Inter-Service Intelligence Agency (ISI) to the Afghan mujahideen.
About 90,000 Afghans, including Mohammed Omar, were trained by Pakistan's ISI during the 1980s. The British Professor Carole Hillenbrand concluded that the Taliban have arisen from those US-Saudi-Pakistan-supported mujahideen"
^see that name highlighted in red up there...keep that fresh in ur mind along with the fact that "Mujahideen" was a coalition of various different militant factions with various different warlords...
...now continue reading below
"After the fall of the Soviet-backed regime of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, many Afghan political parties, but not Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, Hizb-e Wahdat, and Ittihad-i Islami, in April agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement, the Peshawar Accord, which created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period; but that Islamic State and its government were paralyzed right from the start, due to rivalling groups contending for total power over Kabul and Afghanistan."
^after these various factions collectively called "Mujahideen" fought off the Soviet Union and were able to form their own government...infighting started and a power struggle ensued...also known as Afghan Civil War...
...read below
"From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban held power over roughly three quarters of Afghanistan, and enforced there a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. The Taliban emerged in 1994 as one of the prominent factions in the Afghan Civil War and largely consisted of students (talib) from the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan who had been educated in traditional Islamic schools, and fought during the Soviet–Afghan War. Under the leadership of Mohammed Omar, the movement spread throughout most of Afghanistan, sequestering power from the Mujahideen warlords."
Here is the link in case u want to verify urself the information.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban
So what were u saying about that the Taliban were never part of the Mujahideen during the soviet period?
Hopefully after reading that above u now understand the following key points...
- The West/KSA/Pakistan together created the Mujahideen to fight off Soviet Union
- Mujahideen were a group of various different factions(militant groups under various warlords)
- Once the Soviet Union was defeated, the Mujahideen(group of factions) tried to form a united government.
- The united government fell apart and a power struggle between the various factions of Mujahideen started.
- From that power struggle one faction(of previously Mujahideen) emerged dominant/victorious, which became known as the Taliban
US wasn't involved in the period after the Soviet Union was defeated bcuz the US goal had been met. The presence of Soviet Union in Afghanistan was a concern to both US/Pak bcuz for Pak it was right next door and for US...well US opposed Soviet Union...so the goals of both countries aligned and hence they together created the Mujahideen.
Once the Soviet Union was defeated the US didn't need to do anything further but for Pakistan it was still "in our backyard". There was a mess leftover...a vacuum. Pakistan didn't want all these militant factions left unchecked right next door(a rogue military of sorts) nor did they want a non Pakistan friendly government forming in Afghanistan bcuz that would be a disaster for Pakistan(India on one front and a possibly hostile Afghanistan on the other)
So logically at first Pakistan tried to help Mujahideen create a united government in Afghanistan...this didn't work
...once the infighting did start...naturally the next step was to back the faction that was most likely to win...to ensure a peaceful western front.
As demonstrated above it is not dishonest. Taliban were part of the Mujahideen, which were together created by US/Pakistan/KSA.
If u mean to say that US didn't provide support to the Taliban after Soviet Union was defeated and left Afghanistan then u would be correct...but idk why that would be necessary bcuz I didn't make any claim on the contrary.
In short these militant groups(including Taliban were created together by US/KSA/Pak)...then US pulled out after its goals were achieved and Pakistan continued bcuz Pakistan's goals had not yet been achieved.
Right...but important how? R u implying that bcuz Pakistan nurtured/supported Taliban...then somehow this means that they are indeed playing a double game?
Like they are fighting the very group they created...but bcuz they created them so they are also supporting them?
By that reasoning...US also created them...and US is now also fighting them...so if we apply ur reasoning...US is also playing a double game?
Isn't it convenient how all these strawman arguments are used to demonize Pakistan but somehow the same logic/reasoning/thought never applies to the US?
US is a superpower...Pakistan is not...plain and simple
Right...any person anywhere can claim anything...what's ur point? It is the official position of a country that matters. So that would be a dumb thing to do if the US top brass actually uses that approach, which I highly doubt they do.
Also I see that u conveniently ignored answering the part in my last post about the US government differentiating between the Taliban...I remember u took an issue with Pakistanis on this forum doing that same thing...care to answer?
Unlike most others here on PDF, you seems to have a good understanding of the historic events.
I have already pointed out that
- Mullah Omar was a Mujahedin
- He fought the Soviets
- He is the Taliban.
The fact that the US may have trained Mullah Omar, did not make the Taliban a viable faction.
Only the massive support from Pakistan allowed them to succeed .
