‘We should not as a nation be rushing to raise the white flag’

By WND News Services
Published August 27, 2021 at 7:47pm

Taliban members wield their weapons.

The Taliban have control over 32 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. But one, Panjshir, is firmly in government hands, and a second is contested, with at least three districts retaken by Northern Resistance forces on August 20. We should not as a nation be rushing to raise the white flag of surrender to the Taliban and throw our Afghan allies under the bus before the Taliban even get the flagpole erected and the bus started. Under both international law and the Afghan Constitution, the lawful President of Afghanistan is now First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, and he is in Panshir Province with a force of some 10,000 men, including about 6,000 commandos. Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi is there as well. They have at least five operational helicopters and a number of armored vehicles. They have been stockpiling ammunition and supplies for four years.

The Panjshir Valley was the heart of Afghanistan’s resistance to the Soviet invasion from 1979 to 1989, and it never fell to the communists. The Soviets attempted at least nine assaults into the Panshir with huge armored forces, armored personnel carriers and Hind gunships. Their wreckage litters the valley floor to this day. The Taliban would not fare better. Since he became President, Mr. Biden has promised to continue to support the lawful government and armed forces of Afghanistan, and under international law, the lawful government of Afghanistan is still on Afghan soil. It urgently needs international support. There are other centers of resistance in other parts of Afghanistan as well, notably in Nangarhar Province and in Khost Province, where the Khost Provincial Force comprised around 4,000 Zadran and Kharoti Pashtun tribesmen remain fiercely anti-Taliban as they have been for a quarter-century. And Afghan society itself has changed dramatically since the last time the Taliban were in power. Half the population of Afghanistan has no memory of Taliban rule and its draconian laws. The Taliban are faced with overruling a population that does not support them. Just because they would not fight for the corrupt and incompetent Ashraf Ghani does not mean they want the Taliban in power.

Afghanistan’s government still in control in key region (wnd.com)