A senior Taliban diplomat urged the international community to aid Afghanistan’s recovery during a meeting in Kabul on Sunday, emphasising the destruction caused by decades of conflict.
Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai called on the United Nations and international NGOs to provide support to Afghanistan in the form of technical help, economic development initiatives and agricultural cooperation.
He particularly addressed countries that were previously militarily involved in Afghanistan, claiming they have a moral obligation to help rebuild the country based on the Doha Agreement.
Stanekzai indirectly pointed to Nato countries that took part in US-led operations, claiming that for 20 years these countries bombed Afghanistan and conducted military missions that led to fatalities and destruction of the country.
“Cooperate with Afghanistan in all fields, especially in politics, economy, agriculture and medicine, so that Afghanistan reaches self-sufficiency,” he said.
The United States and the Taliban signed a peace agreement in Doha that led to the ending of the US occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent return to power of the Taliban in August 2021.
Since then, the Taliban government has been seeking international recognition and aid, while also facing criticism over its governance practices. As a result, no country has officially recognised the Taliban government yet.
I still remember when Taliban was marching into Kabul and while US was fleeing out of the country, that there were many people who were desperate to argue for the war and occupation going to keep going, because Taliban would be bad for women’s rights. There is no question about Taliban being bad towards women. However the logic of keeping the war going that killed mostly civilians, including women, to guard women’s rights is just twisted. This “They don’t let girls to go to school. let’s keep bombing them” is just slightly worse of the “You won’t let girls to go to school even after we bombed you. I hope you stay poor, suffer and starve”.
What does motivate this? Neocon butthurth? Racism? A sense of vengeance of those who still believe in liberal universalism and nation building? A just general confusion and mixup in moral priorities?
The majority of deaths in Afghanistan were not civilians, although a large chunk was.
If you include the Afghan security forces that were basically an US proxy force during the occupation, then yes. If you look at the killed taliban to dead civilian ratio, then there were more dead civilians. Meaning that the war and occupation costed more civilian lives than it killed taliban. Not that it even stopped the Talibans eventual return, but that is beside the point.