Talking to the enemy was impossible. Nothing other than total victory was acceptable.
So, imagine his confusion when he learned that the Taliban are opening negotiations with the United States.
“I’m at my wits’ end. Foreigners have attacked this country. I remember my friends who have been martyred. Now there are to be peace talks with the Americans,” Gol said. “I’m confused—I don’t know whether this war is right or wrong.”
The insurgent, from the Tagab district of Kapisa province, northeast of the Afghan capital Kabul, said news of the impending talks had come as a shock. They’ve been left to wonder how the Taliban leadership can sit down at the negotiating table in Qatar and talk with the “infidels” if they have been truly fighting a holy war, or jihad.
And the Taliban aren’t just talking to the Taliban. The hated Afghan government announced that it would hold its own direct negotiations with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia.
On the ground in Kapisa, which has a strong Taliban presence, opinion is split on whether peace talks should be pursued. Some fighters seem ready to lay down arms; others plan to carry on and reject any compromise.
“When rumors of peace talks spread, 40 Taliban members laid down their arms, and another 28 who were from abroad or from other parts of Afghanistan left,” said Maulavi Tareq, a Taliban fighter.
In Kapisa’s Alasay district, local government chief Mullah Mohammad said the talk of peace was already having a definite impact on the ground.
“Ever since news of the peace talks was broadcast, the more moderate Taliban in this area have changed completely,” he said. “The attacks that they used to carry against the national army and the foreign troops aren’t happening anymore.”
But, Mohammad noted, insurgent groups with links to the Haqqani Network, a Pakistani-based group that has supported the Taliban, have remained resolutely opposed to talks.
According to Abdul Hakim Akhondzadah, the district government chief in Tagab, the Haqqani-led insurgents “are not at all prepared to talk to the Americans.”
And while average Afghans are eager to see an end to conflict, many fear the Taliban’s return may also bring with it a return of the movement’s harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
Abdul Salam Zaif, a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan who was later detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been quoted by Afghan media as saying the old draconian rules were a product of the times and the movement would not now seek to impose extreme laws.
But not everyone is convinced. One Kapisa civil servant, who asked that his name not be used, offered a grim prediction of what a deal with the insurgents could bring.
“Civil wars will resume; the Taliban will bring back extremism; and women will be kept indoors without an education,” he said. “Those working for the current government will be severely punished. People will leave the country, and the achievements [of the last 10 years] will be erased.”
(Institute for War and Peace Reporting)
