“As long as there is life there is hope” Do you remember this phrase?

Well, that phrase seems to be quite untrue, at least for Afghans.

Have you seen the video? I mean the one which contains disturbing contents of how Afghan men, women and children held on to the bulkhead of the United States C-17 Globemaster III cargo aeroplane as it took off from the runway.

Seeing Afghans who are scurrying away from their motherland using grim, desperate and life-threatening measures as revealed by the photage is quite disturbing.

The C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane had already rounded up about 600 passengers in it which is far beyond what it has ever carried according to its makers Boeing.

But we soon saw an unpleasant sight of men, women and children holding on to the dear C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane as it left took off. Soon they began to fall from such altitude, just to crash and splatter on the runway of the airport.

This was is the same C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane that was sent by the United States for evacuation of some Afghans.

One question that keeps ramrodding my heart like a battering ram– and I think it should border you’re also, is this; what will make a human embark on such desperate measures and attempts to leave his homeland.

What happens to the “live and hope phrase”?

Two things could be the reason;

Firstly, it could be that the situation back in Kabul is so critical that those men prefer to die, trying to elope than to die in such a grotesque manner in the hands of the Taliban.

Secondly, the hopelessness that comes with the thought of seeing their dear president Arsaf Ghani(2009 -2021) who seemed like a shimmer of hope until the 16th of August 2021 fade into oblivion.

According to the New York Times, president Arsaf Ghani was isolated as everyone fled and left him alone to face the Taliban.

Dissecting The Taliban

The word “Taliban” means “students” in the Pashto language, which sprouted from the Arabic language with a singular form of “Talib” and a Pashto plural ending of “an”.

The Taliban came into play around the early ’90s.
Given their active role in the termination of the Mujahideen’s irksome reign, who in turn displaced the Soviet in Afghanistan a couple of years earlier.

Afghans grew weary of the Mujahideen due to the stringent and uptight rules embedded in religious extremism that characterised their rule.

This is more like a case of “from the frying pan to fire” as poor Afghans transited from the hard hands of the Mujahideen’s rule to the Taliban’s, Who promised a corruption-free leadership.

Although, the Taliban under the leadership of Mohammed Omar, declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

However, kept to their promise and soon their fame was spread abroad as they successfully combated corruption, lawlessness and made roads and commercial environments safe for business.

Thus resulting in a cosmic effect in commerce.

Not until they etched for themselves an even more Hardline of Islamic hardness called the “Quetta Shura”.

This was characterised by stringent and harsh interpretations of the sharia law, such as; Amputations for people found guilty of theft,
public executions for people convicted of murder and philander.

Also, men were required to grow beards irrespective of their health challenges or personal philosophies and women had to be covered in burka from head to toe.

The Taliban went further to place austere bans on things like television, music, cinema and refused young girls of a certain age range from going to school. Sounds more like a mini North Korea.

They have several human and cultural rights abuse accusations on their account.

The Role of The United States

After Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attack led by Osama Bin Laden in the United States, on Tuesday 11th September 2001. which left 2,700 persons dead and successfully destroyed the World Trade Centre.

The largest and longest chase and manhunt led the United States into Afghanistan where it was discovered that the Taliban was instrumental in the 9/11 attack. Because they offered solace to the leader of Al Qaeda Osama Bin Laden.

This soon brought the Taliban to the limelight in the view of the World.

The United States began combating the Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan pushing back and maintaining some sort of tranquillity against the Taliban’s upheaval ploys for two decades.

During these years the Taliban lost some prominent leaders in this lingering coalition, including their founder and supreme leader Mohammed Omar, who was immediately succeeded by his assistant Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Several futile agreements and peace talks were held with the Taliban asked to disassociate themselves with Al Qaeda and any form of terrorism. But just like I earlier stated it was a futile agreement.

On the contrary, every form of violent and upheaval precedent carried out by the Taliban was rather intensified.

This led to the United States sending troops to fight the longest war in American history. And also they spent over $83 billion to train and equip the Afghan security forces–police, air force and others.

According to the United States Department of Defence, the Afghanistan war cost a total of $2 Trillion from October 2001 to September 2019.

The blame game deal

It is still unclear whose decision and action led to the withdrawal of the United States troop from Afghanistan.

Some accounts and reports say that the entire withdrawal carried out by President Biden was the outcome of an earlier agreement brokered between Ex-president Donald Trump and the Taliban.

Others say, President Biden, veered off the course of the pre-existing agreement, and then set a different course. And of course, the consequence was the withdrawal of United States troops which led to a total chaotic take over of the Capital Kabul on Sunday 16th August 2021.

The two decades coalition between the USA and the Taliban was finally ended due to the withdrawal of the United States troops.

This left the former President of Afghanistan- President Ashraf Ghani on the run as he fled the capital earlier before the takeover after he was deserted by everyone.

Sadly these sequence of events leaves us with a handful of unanswered questions and loose ends yearning to be knotted;

Why wasn’t the Afghanistan forces able to hold back the Taliban after such adept training and equipping by the United States?

Why would a nation like the United States honour such an agreement with the Taliban?

What is the hope of Afghans who are stuck in their hell of a homeland?

Is the Taliban an Islamic agenda?

Like Our Story ? Donate to Support Us, Click Here

You want to share a story with us? Do you want to advertise with us? Do you need publicity/live coverage for product, service, or event? Contact us on WhatsApp +16477721660 or email Adebaconnector@gmail.com