Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords
Reviewed by Hoshang Noraiee (Ayub Husainbor)
After 11th September, the book is still very fresh and up to date in terms of understanding a wide range of social, political and cultural events which had developed in Afghanistan. The book is based on a long period of day to day developments in Afghanistan, in broader international and regional contexts, which the author had very closely observed.
The book is an important account of the Afghan issues in terms of providing the readers with a systematic and in-depth investigation of the circumstances in this country. The arguments are fully supported with a great deal of evidence presented in full detail in terms of historical, cultural, and geopolitical features of the society, even characteristics of personalities on the political stage which has been highly influenced by gender, religion, ethnic, tribal and linguistic divisions and conflicts.
Competition among the great international and regional powers for further influence in contemporary Afghanistan, is a historical analogy with the 19th century’s “great game” which erupted among the big powers, particularly among the British and Russian empires, in the region. While Russia is still a big military power in the political parameters of the current game , the British empire has given way to the USA; and many other regional powers such as China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan have emerged. This time, however, the competition is not a direct action for territorial occupation or neutralisation of Afghanistan as a buffer zone, it is about the politics of oil and gas pipelines which also involves economic competition among gas and oil multinational companies.
Taliban is a complex product of the circumstances in Afghanistan’s recent history. Internally Taliban emerged in a society where the culture of war, drugs, orphanages, dislocation and refugee camps had thrown young and homeless boys far from family and contact with mothers or sisters, into Deobandi madrassas mainly associated with different factions of Jameit Ulamai Islam in Pakistan.
Taliban claimed its legitimacy, mainly in Pashtoon areas, for being a force against lawlessness, insecurity and corruption which had paralysed the whole society after 1992. Taliban challenged the interests of the post Soviet warlords who had deeply benefited from this chaos and insecurity in the society while ordinary people had nothing left to loose; as a Dari/Persian proverb says “Ab ke az sar gozasht che yek neizah che sad neizah” (when you are drowning it does not matter how deep you are underneath the water). However the cost of introduction of such an order by Taliban became too high.
This order was introduced by extremely brutal and uncivilised means which were inconsistent with all modern human rights values and international laws. Nevertheless, the internal success of Taliban in Southern Afghanistan was boosted by support of the Pakistani ISI and Saudi’s Intelligence service. This gave Taliban the power and courage to support and harbour international Islamic terrorists like Bin Laden to use Afghanistan as a home for the training of thousands of Islamic brigades whose mission has been to use violence to spread fundamentalist Islamic values all over the world. The 11th September attacks changed the whole climate of international politics and highlighted the problems of American previous foreign policies particularly regarding support for many Islamic fundamentalist as a whole, and Afghani mujahidins including Bin Laden in particular.
In Afghanistan we are close to a post Taliban era but the book will not lose its credibility as long as the conflicts and contradictions among the warlords and the culture of guns and drugs dominate social life in the country. These problems will not disappear as long as the interests of the regional and international powers, for their own political interests, keep Afghanistan as the subject of the great game. Therefore the book retains its significance in helping the students to understand the politics of Afghanistan.
However in the post Taliban era there will be many questions concerning the viability and future of Islamic fundamentalism either as a hostile political force or a source of inspiration for terrorist activities. Does the defeat of Taliban and Bin Laden’s forces bring to its end the triumphalism which boosted the morale of the Islamic fundamentalists? Does it bring to end the courage, inspiration and mobilising power of the Islamists to challenge secularism after defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and finally the collapse of the Russian empire? In answering these questions, to what extent do we need to take an optimistic stance as could be concluded through the arguments put forward by Ahmad Rashid?
