A few points.
1. The Taliban put the Haqqani Network, which was allied with Al Qaeda, in charge of security in Kabul and was running security at the airport
2. The head of ISIS-K is a former Haqqani network commander
3. Afghan officials said that the Haqqani network and ISIS-K are the same
4. Whether or not that’s true, units from the Taliban have joined ISIS-K.
5. The Taliban are an umbrella group. Their level of organization is debatable. Making deals with them is meaningless. You make deals with individual commanders.
6. Jihadi groups are like gangs. Their commanders shift alignment. Their loyalties are unclear.
In Syria, we saw FSA units we were funding that were actually operating with Al Qaeda and ISIS. These are not militaries in our sense, they’re opportunistic and contextual.
7. There is no such thing as operational security when your security arrangement includes terrorists.
That’s true in Kabul, it was true in Benghazi, Tunis, etc
Even if you have a deal with a terrorist leader, the Jihadis you’re working with right now still hate you
8. The Taliban fight ISIS-K for their own reasons because they’re rivals. But it doesn’t mean that elements of the Taliban can’t and won’t team up with ISIS-K. Or that some Jihadi units may be both the Taliban and ISIS-K.
Jihadi battlefields allow for that kind of flexibility
9. You can’t negotiate with terrorists.
Trying will backfire in a number of ways because even if the terrorist leaders don’t stab you in the back, their people will.
The United States keeps making the mistake of treating Jihadist groups like representatives of some legitimate government. Even aside from the fact that they are our sworn enemies, it’s like assuming that you can stop gang violence in Chicago by meeting with a top gang leader.
Politicians have tried it. It doesn’t work.
That’s because gangs do what they’re going to do. And their leaders can guide them to do what they want to do already, but getting them to do what they don’t want to do quickly reveals the limits of their power.
Jihadis want to kill, kidnap, rape, and go about their usual business. If you ask them to do those things, it works pretty well. But getting them to stop doing those things quickly shows the illusion of any kind of leadership.
That’s how Al Qaeda lost the crown to ISIS. It’s why ISIS-K made inroads among the Taliban.
Terrorist leaders look strong and effective when they unleash violence. They quickly lose their authority when they try to restrain the Jihad. (There’s plenty of unfortunate parallels to contemporary American politics here.) Negotiating with them about turning their violence on a particular target can be reasonably effective if they already want to take on that target. Take the Mujahadeen and the USSR, for example.
But asking them to restrain from carrying out attacks against Americans is a mostly futile task. What will happen, as it does in Gaza and the West Bank, and in a dozen other conflicts, is that the leaders will disavow responsibility and give the all-clear for an attack anyway.
TruthWFree says
They follow the allah god of Islam in the Quran and Muhammad’s hadiths.
bill says
The Western leaders (so called) need to be reminded that the Tban just overthrew a democratically elected govt. (OK it was not a perfect govt. but neither is Biden’s) and will enforce a tyranny as bad as or even worse than Nazi Germany. We did not negotiate or send aid to the Nazis after the fall of Western Europe
and we should not do with the Tban now/
gravenimage says
Yes–and we did not send aid to the Taliban the first time round, either. Neither Clinton nor Bush did this.
David Grisez says
It is stupid and foolish to negotiate with these Islamic terrorist groups. It was especially stupid and foolish to negotiate with the Taliban for security arrangements. These groups will lie and deceive to accomplish their terrorist goals. These terrorist groups can never be trusted. It is astonishing that the Joe Biden administration negotiates with these terrorists. No wonder that the Joe Biden administration was such a disaster in Afghanistan.
BTeboe says
I can hardly stand to read these articles about the stupidity of our intelligence agencies and military. I said that Gen Milley was going to get people killed on the hill of wokeism and he has not disappointed. Instead of worrying about ‘white rage’ WTF that is, he should’ve been focusing on battle plans and setting our troops up for success. Lying in Islam is required for infidels.
Walter Sieruk says
Even to concept and idea of have any kind of meaningful or good of productive “negotiation” with the Taliban is a sick joke or a hoax.
It’s complete folly to even have any type of dialogue with the disingenuous despicable,lying cruel , violent vicious vile murderous Taliban.
There is a old wise saying which is “No dialogue with the Devil.”
For example , Jesus had that wisdom and put it into practice . For Jesus didn’t have any negotiations with Satan but had a hostile confrontation with him, Matthew 4:1-11.
Infidel says
All we should do now is get as many Americans as we can out, and not bother about Afghan dissidents. Don’t bother about who’s running Afghanistan, or whether we can trust them or not. Just get our people out and then leave, and then make it plain that another 9/11 that’s traced back to there will end up this time in the country getting leveled
gravenimage says
The Myth of Negotiating With the Taliban
…………..
Yes–the whole idea is grotesque. That security for the Kabul airport was handed over to Jihadists and Bagram Airbase abandoned was obvious madness to anyone paying even the vaguest of attention.
Jerry says
In terms of Islamic ideology, any agreement they make with non-Muslims is worthless and not only can be broken, but ought to be broken as soon as it suits the Muslim.
Muslims are so broad minded about this principle that even agreements between different strains of the toxic place of Islam are also worthless.
Ed says
I fully agree with your point about negotiating with the Taliban or any Islamist group except if you apply the same principles they do.
But, please do a little bit of homework. Trump, negotiated this mess with the Taliban without even involving the Afghan government. His terms set the collapse of the Afghan military and police in motion. He wanted to invite the Taliban to Camp David! Fact. Look it up. Might take you all of 1 minute.
Biden was hamstrung with Trumps disastrous plan. Even Trump bragged about it. Still, Biden has much to answer for. But so does Trump. Be fair.
Vladimir says
This is true. But Trump had the good fortune to not be President at this time, and face the storm and fallout that will sink Biden’s Presidency.
gravenimage says
Lots of good things about President Trump, but yes–his believing he could negotiate with the Taliban was foolish.
But he didn’t present a hard date for withdrawal, nor did he suggest that security at the Kabul airport should be farmed out to them.
ME Infidel says
What “religion” do the Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, the Wahhabis and so on follow and which “Prophet” (if he existed) do they emulate?
Robert Powell says
As an old Mil. analyst: Another Chamberlin moment. Evil and stupidity cross paths again. To all, the “Left” is gaining on their attempts to institute “Sharia” in America. To all women, one day, no more need for hair salons, or tattoos, because if you survive this coming event, the burka is for you.
Vallarie Jarrett, and “O”, among a select group, are clearly involved. The “Muslim Brotherhood”, has been given a “get out of jail card” for some years now, and one can now understand why ” Ilian Ohmar” as an illegitimate political, was hired, as is AOC ( the toothy one ). Optics, mis-direction, pure drama, you have all the ingredients. What to me is interesting, is that the idiot “Left” mindless drones do not realize that the first target, of the “Sharia” policies, will be to kill any LGBT person, as just evidenced by the hacking to death of one gay individual in current events. And then, the sky is the limit.
WE are being herded toward the “Buffalo Pit” at an increasing pace.