Releasing 400 Taliban jihadis doesn’t herald peace talks, but surrender talks. It has been a foregone conclusion for years that the Taliban would take over Afghanistan after the Americans left, but that is not an argument for keeping American troops in Afghanistan perpetually. The military should focus on making sure that Afghanistan does not and cannot export jihadis to the U.S. Otherwise, if the Afghans want to institute a Sharia kleptocracy, it is not the responsibility of the United States to make sure that every nation has good government. The present government has not stood against Sharia in any way, and the Americans actually supervised the institution of a Sharia constitution there, making the presence of American troops there all the more pointless.
“Afghanistan to release 400 ‘hard-core’ Taliban prisoners in bid to start peace talks,” ABC.net.au, August 9, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
The Afghan Government has agreed to release 400 “hard-core” Taliban prisoners, paving the way for peace talks aimed at ending more than 19 years of war.
Under election-year pressure from US President Donald Trump for a deal allowing him to bring home American troops, the war-torn country’s grand assembly, or Loya Jirga, approved the release, a controversial condition raised by the Taliban militants to join peace talks.
“In order to remove an obstacle, allow the start of the peace process and an end of bloodshed, the Loya Jirga approves the release of 400 Taliban,” the assembly said in a resolution.
Atefa Tayeb, a council secretary who read out the final declaration at the conclusion, said it was a way to “stop the bloodshed”.
Minutes later, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said: “Today, I will sign the release order of these 400 prisoners.”
Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the decision “was a good step, a positive step”.
He said negotiations could start within one week of their prisoners being freed….
curious says
The only way releasing them would start a “peace process” is if they are airdropped from a great height without parachutes.
DrazahDivad says
But that would leave the peace process in pieces.
The Political Oracle says
I am here in Afghanistan watching what is happening. I doubt that there will be a peace process. Taliban could run to the mountains in Pakistan for the winter, after they get their prisoners back. They would then attack in a spring offensive after most U.S. troops are withdrawn, giving a huge advantage over a weakend defense force, as a power vacuum will most likely be left behind. This would then degenerate into another Iraq situation where troops were sent right back in to quash ISIS. ISIS is active in Afghanistan btw. President Ghani will most likely leave Afghanistan as Abdullah and the Taliban will take over the Afghan government after several long summer months of battles and many lost lives between the Taliban and pro-democracy forces. Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Qatar (a big money machine), India, China (another big money machine) and Turkey will attempt to control the situation to no avail. The Taliban could also accept the peace process and share power like a good neighbor. However, there are very hard-line opponents to Afghanistan’s future as a democracy. You decide.
curious says
Thank you for this insight and analysis, with which I agree. I doubt the Taliban would “share power like a good neighbor”, but various players within the Taliban might rather seek bribes from all the companies and countries that seek influence in the region. That has been done before, to ill effect. “You can rent an Afghan, but you can’t buy him.”
https://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/28/afghanistan.taliban.pay/index.html
gravenimage says
Yes–the Taliban has no intent on sharing power with anyone.
James Lincoln says
Stay safe, Political Oracle.
The Political Oracle says
Always watching my 12 and 6, trusting but verifying. Thank you!
mortimer says
We value all those who risk their lives for our freedom in far-off places. We live in safety because of what you do. Thank you.
gravenimage says
Yes–stay safe!
GreekEmpress says
Ditto—and thank you for your service!
tim gallagher says
This prisoner swap is news out here in Australia because one of the prisoners, some maggot named Hekmatullah, who murdered three Australian soldiers there while they were playing cards, is one of the prisoners to be released after only 7 years in jail. Apparently, this scumbag Hekmatullah was being trained by the Australian soldiers. To my mind, the USA should get out of this stinking, primitive, backward country, Afghanistan. It seems like a hopeless place, like Muslim countries inevitably are. We need to keep Muslims out of all our countries, that’s the main thing to do. Muslim countries can live their barbaric lives, imitating those wonderfully enlightened, 7th century Arabian ways of living in their own hellholes, but keep them away from our civilised countries.
Keith O says
Tim,
You want to sit on a hill with me about 100m out from the front door of the jail?
I would love to send him a long distance present to celebrate his release!
gravenimage says
Agreed, Tim. American hopes of civilizing this backward Islamic crap hole were always naive, and are at this point obviously failed.
mortimer says
Many Afghans still live in the 7th century, however, for the first time, many girls are in schools. This is the only hope for Afghanistan. I am a strong believer in the so-called ‘girl effect’. When over 90% of Afghan girls are educated, there will be a big change.
Things HAVE changed dramatically since the Taliban rule. There are hundreds of new institutions that never existed before (e.g. real estate boards, professional associations). They are modernizing and civilizing Afghanistan. The solution is ultimately to convince all Muslims that the Koran was composed by humans.
tim gallagher says
You certainly know a lot more about what is happening in Afghanistan than I do, Mortimer. I’m glad that they are making a bit of progress. Getting girls educated would definitely help. I guess I tend to look at the whole Islamic world as an area of backwardness where people are living a way of life that is so primitive (honour killings, child brides, etc) that I find it all a really bad joke. I just think, keep this backward crap out of our countries. You are right about that solution. If the Muslims could somehow see that the Koran, that poisonous, hate filled book, was composed by humans, then the whole evil ideology would fall apart.
gravenimage says
Unfortunately, Mortimer, even “modern” Afghanistan has stoning on the books now.
tim gallagher says
Thanks for the comment, Keith and gravenimage. Keith, that would involve actually being in that disgusting excuse for a country, Afghanistan, and I would never go to any Muslim country on principle. Who wants to see people living in the old 7th century Arabian way? No thanks. Of course, I believe this murderer should have been executed. Now he could get out of jail after serving only 7 years and probably would be treated as a hero of Islam. 7 years for murdering three people is appalling. gravenimage, couldn’t agree more. These unbelievably backward Muslim countries are beyond civilising. Keep their inhabitants away from us is all I want. Maybe, someday, way, way off in the future, these Muslims might even decide that it is time to throw away all the barbaric Muslim garbage and try to move towards joining the civilised part of the human race. But we have to keep them in their own hellish countries.
James Lincoln says
tim gallagher says,
“Maybe, someday, way, way off in the future, these Muslims might even decide that it is time to throw away all the barbaric Muslim garbage and try to move towards joining the civilised part of the human race.”
The West needs to assume that this will not happen.
They’ve had 1400 years to leave islam and the needle has not moved…
tim gallagher says
I agree, James. As I often say here at Jihad Watch, the only policy I can come up with, when it comes to Islam, is to keep this backward and violent throwback of an ideology out of our countries. It has nothing good to offer the world. It would be fantastic if Muslims were leaving islam in big numbers, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. Then again, in Muslim countries, people who no longer believe in Islam’s crap have to keep that fact well and truly hidden.
gravenimage says
+1
The Political Oracle says
I agree! We should be able to treat islam as a sick pedophile man and every muslim that practices this sick ideology as well. Unfortunately, the ICCPR sanctions this sick ideology. All of this turmoil we are experiencing is a result of ignorance, blatant or not. Educators and leaders failed to make the distinction of what democratic nations define religion as. So, some brilliant people wrote a document called the ICCPR. This ICCPR was ratified by many countries but few, if any, islamic and communist countries. Wikipedia has a list of signatories that you can see and judge for yourself. Look at the behavior of countries like Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the list goes on and on. These countries are/were signatories to the ICCPR. Now you know why I think the ICCPR is garbage!
tim gallagher says
Thanks for that information, The Political Oracle. Yes, to me, it is amazing that islam, with all its incredibly backward views of the way human beings should live, such as, for example, that 9 year old girls should be able to married off, or that non-Muslims should be killed by Muslims because they fail to believe in the islamic bullshit view of life and the Muslim version of what god is like, is given respect by so many people. So many people seem to know absolutely nothing about Islam, that has to be the reason for the respect given to this primitive leftover from the 7th century Arab way of living life. As you say, it is definitely a very “sick ideology”.
Clifford Fodor says
We are destined to lose the war against Islam because we think “nation building” is a dirty phrase.
We can’t keep troops in Afghanistan or any other enemy country because every four years we elect a politician for president. Some of them don’t want American boys to be killed in Asia if it is going to cost them votes.
The way to peace in the Middle East is what Ann Coulter told us. We have to spread Christianity around. How can we do that when the Supreme Court ruled against Bible reading and prayer in our schools. We can’t even give Christianity to our children.
curious says
@Clifford Fodor, Afghanistan is far from the Middle East. Afghanistan would be better off returning to Buddhism, or abandoning religion altogether. While Islam is inherently the worst of the Abrahamic faiths, none of the Abrahamic faiths has a really solid track record of peace.
None of this has anything to do with prayer in American schools. You can still give Christianity or SARS-CoV2 to your children, but not in a public school.
gravenimage says
Clifford, you can’t spread Christianity by force.
We were mostly safe when Dar-al-Islam was kept isolated from the civilized world. I think we need to do this again.
curious says
@gravenimage, I agree we need to isolate Islam from the west, but I doubt that would be enough. Recent events from 9/11 to SARS-Cov2 have shown that problems that start in one place can spread everywhere much more quickly now than in the past. Many people speculate about what the next war will look like, but few doubt it will occur, and strategists try to influence what the sides will be.
During the Cold War, Nixon’s deals bound NATO to KSA and the Islamic “republic” of Pakistan against the “godless communists” of the Soviet Union. Pakistan remains a terrorist state, as per Islam, but has now more than 100 nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, KSA continues to spread Islam into NATO countries, hijacking them from the inside. That sets up a lose-lose situation: either we lose to Islam or to an external bloc led probably by China or Russia.
The effort to contain and eventually to defeat communism galvanized when Kruschev traveled to California and announced, “We will bury you.” The question becomes, how to end a totalitarian doctrine that pretends to be an ally? Countless Muslims have declared what Islam says, but Petrodollar corruption and hypnosis throughout NATO ensure that NATO voters don’t get the message, and don’t vote against Islam. Every Islamic attack prompts NATO media to broadcast politicians and community leaders saying “NAMALT” and decrying “Islamophobia”. Engulfed by such corruption and hypnosis, we are unfortunately not close to responding effectively.
Meanwhile, Islamic states become increasingly powerful, building weapons of mass destruction and looking for opportunities to harm the infidel west, e.g. by spreading SARS-CoV2. What happens when they acquire the capability to engineer something worse than SARS-CoV2? Suicide terrorism shows that mutual assured destruction does not deter Muslims.
gravenimage says
curious, thanks for your reply. I don’t think we should be letting hordes of Muslims into the West, including “flight students”–that would be part of isolating Islam.
And I have always said that the West considering Saudi Arabia–one of the most horrific Shari’ah states in the world–to be an ally of ours is *deeply* foolish. Same with Pakistan.
Considering Afghans allies against the Soviet Union may have been forgivable forty years ago–although it made me uneasy even at the time, when I knew far less about Islam. But we should have wised up long since.
As for Khrushchev’s “we will bury you” speech, this was given by him while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956. What happened in California was LA Mayor Norris Poulson in his address to Khrushchev stated: “We do not agree with your widely quoted phrase ‘We shall bury you.’ You shall not bury us and we shall not bury you. We are happy with our way of life. We recognize its shortcomings and are always trying to improve it. But if challenged, we shall fight to the death to preserve it”. This was in 1959. I think this was actually a good response.
Yes, many in the West are not just woefully ignorant about Islam, but in willful denial over it. Obviously, this has to change for Islam to be isolated again. More people *are* waking up to the threat–we just have to work to making sure it is enough, and in enough time.
curious says
Thanks for the correction, @gravenimage
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-khrushchev-1959-quote-idUSKBN22N25D
gravenimage says
Thanks, curious.
gravenimage says
Afghanistan:, the Government to release 400 ‘hard-core’ Taliban prisoners in bid to start peace talks
……………….
Yes–this is surrender. Why even bother going through the motions here? As soon as they can, the brutal Taliban will just take over again.
curious says
+1
A promise from the Taliban is not worth a penny, so any payment is only making matters worse.
Prior to becoming President, Governor George W Bush tried to make a deal with the Taliban regarding an oil pipeline. That didn’t end well.
gravenimage says
No one can deal with these Jihad thugs.
mortimer says
The only way to stop jihad is to convince Muslims that the Koran is of human origin.
gravenimage says
In a place like Afghanistan this is virtually impossible, Mortimer.
curious says
@gravenimage is right, and besides many Muslims know already that the Koran is of human origin, just as many Christians know the Bible is of human origin. It does not stop them from believing.
Mohamad’s hateful fraud of Islam promises jihadis greater rewards than any secular promise can match. People tend to believe what they want to believe, as you seem to persist in believing that jihad would stop if Muslims knew the Koran is of human origin. (Again, many of them do know that.) You repeat your claim like a prayer, and you believe it, but the evidence is against it.
People have many reasons to persist in believing a religion. A famous Mormon athlete said: “It doesn’t matter if the underwear are actually magic or not; what matters is that you agree to believe they are, and thereby become part of a community of faith.” In a Muslim country, Islam dominates and apostates are persecuted, as per Islam. Expecting a Muslim to renounce Islam is like expecting him to stop identifying with a sports team that has won every year for longer than he can remember, and to identify instead with the underdog, at terrrible personal cost.
More than any other religion, Islam invites Muslims to treat “Allah” as an ego extension. Islam tells Muslims to become the sword of “Allah”, meaning they become an extension of Allah and Allah becomes an extension of them – complete with eternal life and omnipotence. In Christianity, to become wrath is an unforgivable sin; in Islam, it is a command, with incomparable rewards.
kami-sama says
@curious I’d have to disagree with the notion that many Muslims know the Quran is of human origins , Im an ex Muslim & I still live among them as you said at a great risk if my views were to be made public , & I can assure you that 99.9 % believe that its the infallible word of the only true god
Daniel Triplett says
Right. The answer is written in history. At Tours, Lepanto, Vienna, 781 years of Spanish conquest/reconquest, and everywhere else the Ummah has lost — words are always futile — only kinetic war gives Kafirs victory.
Still today, for every 100 Western Muslims who are reasoned into apostasy, 150 – 200 Western Kafirs freely convert into Islam.
Clearly, the War of Words and Reason is insufficient. Dawah is winning that contest — on top of the other wildly successful forms of jihad — hijrah, womb, sword, word, pen, law, finance, etc.
Birthrates alone will win the Islamic War for the Ummah if nothing else changes.
If we want a stake in how the World’s future looks for our progeny, we must take strategic action now, while we still have the advantage.
As every superpower has learned — Egypt, Greece, Persia, Rome, Byzantines, Ottomans, Spain, United Kingdom, Third Reich, Japan, Soviet Union, and all the rest — superpower status is perishable and doesn’t last forever.
So, what will we do with our time in the sun? What will we do with our limited opportunity to shape the World’s future long after our power and influence have waned? Will we piss it away, or will we bequeath a worthy legacy?
Consider how the British improved the World. Their legacy is long and distinguished indeed.
Our high-water mark may come sooner than we like to think. What’s going to happen when Texas flips Blue sooner or later? What will happen when with a stroke of his pen the next Democrat POTUS makes 11 to 20 Million illegal aliens American citizen Democrat voters?
Republican/Democrat demographics have been rapidly heading in the wrong direction for many decades now.
We’re quickly approaching a point in history where the GOP can’t possibly win the Oval anymore. Imagine what that means for America beyond that. Imagine what that means for the World.
The greatest legacy America can render to the World is liberating 1.8 Billion Muslims from Islam. Consider the World 500 years from now if we don’t.
mortimer says
In Europe, they found that a very large percentage of jihadic terrorists returned to jihad-terrorism after returning to Europe.
curious says
Likewise jihadists who complete ‘deprogramming’ have gone on to commit more lethal jihad, e.g. Usman Khan. One of the people he killed (Jack Merritt) was an advocate of the deprogramming scheme that failed. While that might be poetic justice, Khan killed another person and injured three more.
gravenimage says
Sadly true.
Walter Sieruk says
On the morning of April 17, 2019 on FOX NEWS television the subject was covered about the idea of having “peace talks “with the Taliban. Viewing the history of the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan and the brutal ruthless misogyny they had engaged in was both vicious and malicious to the extreme.
Therefore the question, naturally, was brought up, now that peace talks” might soon begin, the Taliban was asked if they return to power in Afghanistan “ would they respect female rights ?”
To that question the Taliban replied “that when back in power they would respect.
The point is that the “cultural of Afghanistan” is really the religion of Afghanistan, which is Islam.
Therefore the reality is that female rights, for both girls and woman, will not exist in a future Taliban controlled Islamic state of Afghanistan . For Islam is a religion of harsh and malice- filled misogyny.
As explained in the book, by Brigitte Gabriel, of the title THEY MUST BE STOPPED. Her book informs the readers on page 172. “Woman in Islam are considered unclean, deemed inferior even to dirt.”
Walter Sieruk says
Any “peace” agreement with Taliban is a “Deal with devil “ in other words a “fools deal.” The very idea of having actual, real, genuine productive “peace talks” with those brutal ,cruel misogynistic Taliban characters is an absurd and fool idea of folly.
One thing is for sure, even if even attempting to engage on “peace talks” with Taliban it would be best not to be naïve about them and take at face value anything that they might say or promise. To just “give trust away” to those Islamic characters who compose the Taliban would be foolishness and folly. For when trying to have genuine negotiations with the them ,it need to be kept in mind that there is an Islamic doctrine called TAQIYYA This is the Muslim dogma the lying and deception are good things to do, if and as long as the lies and deceit are done for the advancement of Islam.
For the deceptive and disingenuous Taliban have proven many times over, by their own actions, that they are a ruthless, brutal vicious gang of thugs with no honor. So in any kind of “dialogue” the Taliban will most likely speak the truth only when it happened to suite them. The rest of the time they will be speaking half-truths and also be outright lying. Likewise, the Taliban will keep their word in anything that they may happen to promise only and long as in fits into their agenda and no longer. So before engaging of the foolishness of attempting to have genuine “talks for a peace alliance” with Taliban, the officials of the current government would do well to heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu found in THE ART OF WAR. For it instructs “We cannot enter into an alliance neighboring’s princes, until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more updated and current way, it may be said that “We cannot enter into a peace alliance with the Taliban until we know the actual intentions and real schemes.”
Furthermore, if attempting to engage in “peace talks” with Taliban it would be very naïve to take at face value anything that the Taliban might promise. For example, the Taliban might say that they will respect the rights of women and girls, for they ,many times, employ the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya In those so called “negotiations” with officials of the West .Taaqyia ids the Islamic teaching that lying and deceit
So it may be nothing but foolishness and folly to even try to have worthwhile constructive peace discussions with lying brutal cruel men who make up the Taliban . For having a genuine practical peace compromise with Taliban might be impossible
As the former US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had well-spoken when he said “There has never been – there never can be – successful compromise between good and evil.”
OLD GUY says
Vary well but, 100% agree with you. You can NEVER trust the Taliban or Islamic controlled governments.
mortimer says
All of those to be released should have tracking devices on them.