The Taliban are what?!?!

[Playinghardball]

[louis-t]

1. Ooooh, another great piece to send in response to the

'Obama loves terrorists' hatemails.

[Glassunion]

2. This is such a photoshop.

Reagan had horns.

[lunatica]

3. The only woman there is the translator.

LOL! Maybe that's why they hate us! We dared to use a woman to translate to them.

[Nye Bevan]

4. "Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Taliban emerged as a resistance movement

aiming to eject the Soviet troops from Afghanistan. With the United States and Pakistan providing considerable financial and military support, the Afghan Mujahideen were able to inflict heavy losses on the Soviet troops."

http://www-pub.naz.edu 000/~aamghar6/History%20of%20the%20Taliban.htm

I suppose you could argue that this is analogous to the Americans ejecting the British to obtain independence.


on edit: sorry, I can't seem to post the link correctly. The colon seems to screw it up but I don't know how to fix it. If you Google "history of the Taliban" it's the second result.

[SoCalDem]

5. The irony of unfortunate alliances

and ignorance of history.

We have "sided with" many who have turned out later to have only been using us.. Delicious, because we thought we were using them ..

The thing our leaders have NEVER understood, is that ANY "local/insurgent/guerrilla/freedom-fighter" will side with whomever can help their cause at any given moment, but they will NEVER accept our intervention/dominance longterm.

Once their crisis is past, they will readily turn on us and drive us put with any means necessary, even turning our own weapons against us. It's THEIR country, so they fight on.

[former9thward]

6. A nice photoshop but that is all it is.

The Taliban was not founded until 1994. The people pictured are not Taliban they are the Mujahadeen who also fought the Taliban after the Taliban took over.

And that quote comes from Reagan referring to the Contras in Nicaragua.

[ieoeja]

7. Mujahadeen does not equal Taliban. And the quote is about the Contras.

There is some crossover. But it was also Mujahadeen who were fighting the Taliban and who likely would have prevented the rise of the Taliban had we continued arming them. It is notable that Al Qaeda launched their attack on 9-11 just days *after* killing the principal military leader of the Mujahadeen.

Also, the quote is about the Contras in Nicaragua.

[cthulu2016]

9. +1

[longship]

8. "Charlie Wilson's War"

"That ball. It keeps on bouncing."

After helping the Afghanies kick the USSR out of Afghanistan, the ball, indeed, kept bouncing.

Make of it what you will, but that flick was pretty damned good. Tom Hanks, and others, at their best.

[grantcart]

10. For historical accuracy, they were not the Taliban, but those that would fight and die against the

Taliban.

From the NYT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burhanuddin_Rabbani

The President in the Oval Office yesterday with members of the Afghan Alliance, a coalition of guerrilla groups in Af-ghanistan.

From left were Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the coalition; Sebghatullah Mojadedi and Nabi Mohammadi. Standing was interpreter. Page A7. (NYT/Paul Hosefros)

Here is the background on Burhanuddin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burhanuddin_Rabbani

He was a Tajik, and a respected academic,

After the Soviets withdrew from the country he was President of the country until the government was defeated by the Taliban and they became the "Northern Alliance".

quote

When the Soviets supported the 1979 coup, Rabbani helped lead Jamiat-e Islami in resistance to the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan regime. Rabbani's forces were the first mujahideen elements to enter Kabul in 1992 when the PDPA government fell from power.[citation needed] He took over as President from 1992 until the Taliban's conquest of Kabul in 1996. For the next five years he and the Northern Alliance were busy fighting the Taliban until the 2001 US-led Operation Enduring Freedom in which the Taliban government was toppled.

unquote

He was assassinated last year and his son is the lead negotiator to try and negotiate a peace with the Taliban.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibghatullah_Mojaddedi

Sibghatullah Mojaddedi

Mojaddedi, also a respected academic, preceeded Burhanuddin, briefly, as provisional President of the post Soviet supported government. He is a Pashtun and led



He has survived 3 assassination attempts by the Taliban to kill him, even while he led the Parlimentary Committee to negotiate with former Taliban members

quote

During this time in 1992, when Mojaddedi was President of Afghanistan, the Ariana plane carrying him to Kabul was hit by an RPG as it was landing at Kabul Airport. The plane landed safely, with no fatalities.[6][7]

Two suicide bombers carried out an attack in Kabul on March 12, 2006 against Sibghatullah Mojaddedi.[8] At the time of the attack, he was a member of the upper house of parliament and head of a reconciliation committee aimed at engaging former Taliban members.[8] He was attacked as he was being driven on the road in Kabul. Attackers blew up a vehicle filled with explosives next to his car.[9] Four pedestrians were killed and Mojaddedi was slightly injured, with burns to his face and hands.[8]

unquote



Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Nabi_Mohammadi


Mohammadi is the only one identified in the picture who had links with groups that would eventually become known as the Taliban as many of the Taliban leaders had studied under him, and I assume he was Pashtun. However when the disparate groups that formed the alliance started to fight after the Soviets left, Mohammadi refused to join in and told his followers not to engage in a civil war, hardly in concert with the Taliban. He died in 2002 of Tuberculosis.

In conclusion none of the people that have been identified in the picture were involved in the group later formed and known as the Taliban. Two of the leaders were the targets of multiple Taliban assassination attempts, even while they were pursuing negotiations with some Taliban groups. One of their sons continues to negotiate for a solution even after his father was killed by them.

The fellow on the furthest right hand seat of the couch on the right side appears to me to be a little like Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated in the hours before 9/11 by Bin Laden so that he would not be in a position to lead a unified Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's version of Ho Chi Minh and the only one that could have unified the country. September 9th is Massoud day. Massoud obtained some information about an imminent attack on the US and warned the US ahead of 9/11.

Again the NYT didn't identify him so its doubtful that was him, but he is the one that, like Ho Chi Minh, we should have been listening to.

Just because they dress differently doesn't mean that they are the bad guys.

&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud