Afghanistan

I woke this morning to news that Kabul had been captured by the Taliban. I nearly wrote ‘fallen’ but so far there has been a reasonably peaceful transition though video sent to me privately from the middle of the night show scenes of desperate despair at the airport. I spot one man wandering among the crowd underneath aircraft with a toddler hanging off each hand. I wonder, as I do with all the people I met there, where they will land.
There is a whole lot of emotion connected to the people of that place, people who became firm friends and were building something for themselves and their families. A part of me despairs for what I see.
Another part of me attempts the pragmatic view.

At the end of the day Afghans need to build something for themselves by themselves. Or rather, Afghans need to define what they want. We all wanted them to build something in our image. Something we wanted. Something we liked. Something we imposed. As good and true as we think our institutions might be, if the man in the valley in remote Kandahar or anywhere else in The Hindu Kush doesn’t buy into it, it will not stand the test of time. (Indeed, it only stood with a whole lot of blood shed – never a testimony to its validity). The man in the valley was never ushered into it and that’s why the Taliban have been allowed a fast and quiet walk Into the heart of Kabul. For so many they were not the enemy. Rather, whatever was imposed was the enemy.

Building something for themselves will still need the help of partners and allies. Tajikistan provides the electricity that lights the palace room the Taliban commanders were sitting in this morning after all. The Taliban know that. By 2002 they had come to the realisation that grabbing power was not the same as exercising it in support of a country and were starting to reach out for governing help. I wonder if they retain that sensibility. I hope so.

About the time I left Kabul some in the Taliban were talking about transitioning to a political rather than a militant force, modelled along the transition made by the IRA. Some wanted to have that political representation in the elections. They were not taken seriously. I am hopeful there is a spark of that thinking in the Taliban in Kabul, or making their way to Kabul today.

Whatever else we think about the Taliban we should never forget that their roots lie in a deep moral crusade directed at removing corruption and punishing those who sexually and otherwise abused their children. While that agenda was soon subverted in all sorts of perverse ways (the Kabul stadium and the swimming pool remain chilling monuments to their brutality) that moral agenda remains. They are, after all, the Talib, Pashto for ‘students’ – originally students of the Koran.

I have no idea what the Afghans will build for themselves, being as they are a deeply tribal conglomerate of people. But I’m pretty sure the couple on this bike are likely to prefer their presence than the imposed presence represented by those vehicles which have just pushed past them. I’ll wait and see. And try not to despair.

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Author: Bruce Lyman

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Author: Bruce Lyman

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