Taliban return 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

The Taliban last held power around the turn of the century, banning music and television, preventing girls from studying after puberty, and not allowing women to leave home without an escort. Kabul's soccer stadium was re-purposed for public executions. In 2006, Kabul's American University had one woman in its 51 students. 

Now the U.S. and its allies are leaving Afghanistan after two decades of fighting Islamic extremism, but the Taliban is regaining the power it lost during the war. They control about half the districts in the country.

photo

Reports say that they're killing civilians in Spin Boldak, and executing Afghan officers who recently surrendered. A former government official says that the Taliban brags that they defeated the U.S. and made it negotiate an exit.

"[Y]ou can see why the Biden administration—like the Trump administration before it—wants out. But we should be clear-eyed about what this means. Afghanistan will return to brutality, and the world will have to cope with the consequences."

from AEI