No to Lindsey Graham's anti-Taliban resistance idea
By Daniel DePetris 18 hrs ago
The attack claimed the lives of dozens of Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. troops. President Joe Biden was visibly distraught.
But once the last flight departs from the Kabul airport on Aug. 31, the White House will be presented with another challenge: how to deal with the Taliban over the long term. Thus far, the Biden administration has taken a practical approach out of necessity: With roughly 1,000 Americans left in Afghanistan, the United States has no choice but to coordinate in some fashion with the Taliban.
Some, though, have other ideas.
In a joint press release on Friday, Rep. Mike Waltz and Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed extensive U.S. support to a group of anti-Taliban factions in the Panjshir Valley. That group refers to itself as the National Resistance Front. The two lawmakers called on the Biden administration to recognize the Front's leadership as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The proposal comes a little more than a week after Ahmad Massoud, the son of the famed Afghan resistance fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, appealed for Western support.
There are likely some elements within the U.S. intelligence community who find this idea worthy of consideration. In terms of policy, however, Waltz and Graham’s initiative is the definition of reckless.
For a start, Washington is still scrambling to get Americans on departure flights at the Kabul airport. Some amount of cooperation with the Taliban is imperative. Taliban fighters have the airport surrounded and are operating a labyrinthine system of checkpoints around the facility. If you aren’t an American who is fortunate enough to be taken to the airport by helicopter, the only way to get through the gates is by passing through those checkpoints. To date, the Taliban have been relatively tolerant of allowing Americans free passage (to be clear, there have been exceptions of violence over the past week). But all of this would be at risk were Washington to provide Massoud with U.S. backing. More Americans could presumably be left stranded.
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Saturday, August 28th 2021 at 7:47AM
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