By Ayo Kehinde with Agency Reports
Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, with 6 million persons, fell to Taliban fighters on Monday, forcing a swarm of persons including Afghans and diplomats to scramble for safety on the next available flight out of the uncertain country, renamed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan by the victorious Talibans.
The Taliban fighter fired shots in the air, shouting Allah is Great, after entering the city’s presidential palace which former President Ashraf Ghani fled in the early hours of they day, leaving the country for good.
That sudden change of name triggered a sense of insecurity, uncertainty and even death for many who had witnessed and experienced the brutality and fierce resolve that the new powers fought their 20- years struggle. Viral video has shown the streets of Kabul swarming with frightened persons and vehicles driving against traffic just to register their panic at the new, unforeseen development. Some of the scared persons in the videos were clinging to the fuselage of a US military aircraft as it taxied at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday, probably to evacuate Americans trapped in the currently chaotic country.
But Taliban officials have been trying to reassure everyone that they mean no harm to people.
“Once we make a promise we keep”, Assad Mausaad Kitani, a war Commander, told journalists, adding that “women can go to school but must dress covering their face.”
Sohail Shanin, spokesperson for the incoming Taliban government said the new government will include non-Taliban and life and property will be secured.
He said the Taliban won the war because of the huge support they got from the people and so, naturally, the Taliban will ensure the people are safe, adding that Americans whose embassy staff were being evacuated should stay and “the U.S government should trust us.”
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria has critiqued the U.S exit by saying that, “ a deal made by the US government with the Taliban made it appear to the public as if American troops were maintaining peace in Afghanistan when it was not the case.” To him, “the US was masking the reality that the Taliban were gaining ground in Afghanistan for years.”
In 2018 they signed a peace agreement with the US supported government and still 280, 000 persons reportedly fled the country, fearing the worse for their lives and since that time the Talibans had gained control over 60 per cent of the country.
If the 130,0000 coalition forces led by the United States could not defeat the 75, 000, ill-equipped, rag-tag Taliban fighters, Zakaria wondered what was his countries mission, aim and achievement, all these 20 years.
“They fought for belief, while the army, trained and armed by the U.S fought for money,” Fareed Zakaria submitted. Nationalism, for short, inspired the Taliban.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has admitted the “many missteps” made in Afghanistan over two decades of US military presence and took some responsibility for the current situation unfolding on the ground during his remarks at the White House on Monday. He said he will not mislead the American people, adding that he does not regret “my decision to withdraw our troops because we cannot fight other peoples civil war, this is not what American people want and what our troop deserve.”
Christiana Amanpour said she was too shocked to make meaning of unfolding events and blamed the American government for what she considered a shoddy withdrawal. With more than two decades of experience covering the country, she blamed the U.S for failing to observe what she described as a “conditioned-based withdrawal without a plan B.”
The question that will be answered in the days ahead is whether the Asian country has finally arrived at peace gate, considering that it has been at one form of civil war or the other since, 1979 when the Soviet forces occupied it till 1989.
After they withdrew, the country was thrown into turmoil with various Islamic groups struggling for power. The Taliban seized power in 1996. In 2011, after the September 11, attacked in the U.S , American-led forces invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban. A new government was formed, and a constitution was signed January 16, 2004, but instability continued in many areas of the country till date.
