In a follow up to episode one, hosts Bill Roggio and Tom Joscelyn explain why wishful thinking in Afghanistan has led the U.S. to portray the Taliban as something it is not. True peace is not on the horizon.
The deadly assault in Zabul takes place as U.S. military officials continue to ponder if the Taliban’s drumbeat of daily attacks is part of the group’s overall strategy or the efforts of a “splinter” cell.
The U.S. military wonders if a “splinter” Taliban groups is responsible for attacks that are occurring in nearly every Afghan province. Meanwhile, the Taliban is claiming the attacks in its own name.
Hosts Bill Roggio and Tom Joscelyn review the U.S.-Taliban withdrawal agreement and why it isn’t a true peace deal.
The Taliban has launched attacks in 27 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces against Afghan security forces since it signed an agreement with the U.S. that ensures American troops withdraw from the country.
In a religious ruling, the Taliban said it “shall continue waging armed jihad” until it establishes the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with its emir, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, in charge.
The agreement signed by the U.S. and the Taliban made no such stipulations that the Taliban must halt attacks on Afghan forces. Yet the U.S. military is surprised that the Taliban is striking Afghan forces.
The author is a designated terrorist closely allied with al Qaeda. That’s not mentioned. Neither is al Qaeda.
Taliban fighters are training in the open in a mountainous area that should be easily identified by the U.S. and Afghan militaries.
The kidnapping took place less than three months after the Taliban and the U.S. conducted a prisoner exchange that freed three senior Haqqani Network leaders and two America professors. The Haqqani Network is thought to be behind the latest kidnapping.
The Mahmud Ghaznawi Military Camp. was previously identified by the Taliban as a training center for its “commandos.”
Deh Yak district, where the E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node aircraft is said to have crashed, is one of the 11 districts in Ghazni that are under Taliban control.
The Taliban could not be more clear about its unwillingness to share power with the Afghan government. “They shall continue to remain an insignificant party when it comes to major issues,” the group said in an official statement.
The U.S. military has suppressed a press release announcing the death of Al Qaeda In the Indian Subcontinient’s emir for three months as his presence with the difficult. Asim Umar, his courrier to Ayman al Zawahiri, his staff, and even his wife were embedded with the Taliban in Helmand province when he was killed.
More than 500 members of American military families, including over 100 Gold Star families, have filed two lawsuits: one against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and another against eight multinational companies that operate in Afghanistan.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for an IED attack in the southern province of Kandahar earlier today that killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded two more.
The Taliban has denied press reports, which it described as “false and baseless,” that it was on the cusp of declaring a ceasefire in Afghanistan.
The Taliban suicide assault takes place as the US and the Taliban have reopened negotiations that would allow the former to extricate itself from Afghanistan.
The decades of mistakes and deceit has led us to the brink of a major foreign policy failure. A peace deal will absolve the Taliban for its decades of steadfast alliance with al Qaeda.
FDD’s Long War Journal reported earlier this month that the Turkistan Islamic Party released new images of its men fighting and training in Afghanistan. The Taliban, which is currently seeking to downplay the presence of foreign terrorist groups in Afghanistan, subsequently issued a statement claiming that the montage was “falsified.” That is a lie.
The video shows TIP’s men with captured Afghan military equipment, as well as recruits undergoing training.
In exchange for two kidnapped U.S. and Australian professors, the Afghan government freed dangerous Taliban and Haqqani Network leaders Haji Malik Khan, Anas Haqqani, and Qari Abdul Rasheed Omari.
Security in the southeastern Afghan province of Zabul continues to deteriorate as the Taliban presses it offensive there.
Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security claims it has confirmed that Asim Umar, the emir of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, was killed during a Sept. 23 raid in Helmand province. Other key AQIS leaders were also killed in the fighting.
In 2001, Omar was unwavering in his position that the Taliban was religiously obligated to protect Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda cadre. The Taliban has remained true to Omar’s words, and fought an 18 year long war to defend the terror group.
The Taliban continues to use rural areas it controls to threaten major population centers, including provincial capitals.
Not only does the Taliban reject democracy in Afghanistan, it is opposed to it worldwide. Given the Taliban’s clear and consistent views on the “evils” of democracy and all Muslim’s religious obligation to resit it, it is absolute folly for the State Department to attempt to appeal to the Taliban to permit elections to take place.
Afghan officials have identified several AQIS members who were killed during a controversial raid in Musa Qala, Helmand earlier this week. They have also posted images purportedly documenting the weaponry, explosives and cash seized at the jihadists’ compound.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has repeatedly made it absolutely clear that the aim of this Jihad is the end of occupation and establishment of an Islamic government,” the Taliban says in a recent statement.
On Sept. 19, Thomas Joscelyn testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at a hearing titled, “The Trump Administration’s Afghanistan Policy.” His testimony focused on the close working relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.