From total mismanagement of the Afghanistan retreat to supporting the Taliban, the State Department does not fail to disappoint. At the end of August 2021, as Afghanistan was falling into chaos because of ham-handed White House actions, Liberty Nation asked a timely and important question: Who is the State Department working for? The United States has prided itself as the champion of the downtrodden, the underdog, and those striving for freedom. Yet, now we learn, as resistance forces attempt to secure a measure of liberation from the terrorist Taliban government, Foggy Bottom is siding with the oppressors.
The United States is “not supporting organized violent opposition to the Taliban, and we would discourage other powers from doing so as well,” a State Department spokesperson recently told the foreign desk staff of Just the News. So, if the Department of State is not assisting people who seek freedom from barbaric overseers, whom can it help? In February of this year, a similar policy was made public at a US Institute of Peace gathering, when Thomas West, President Joe Biden’s special envoy to Afghanistan, declined to support those opposing the Taliban and encouraged others to follow suit.
As a reminder, the Taliban has been a brutal, oppressive enterprise. These extremist murderers allowed Al Qaeda safe haven to plan and carry out the 9/11 attacks. Afghan women are not allowed to be educated. Summary executions and public beatings are commonplace. “A UN report seen by Reuters says the Taliban and its allies are believed to have killed scores of former Afghan officials, security force members, and people who worked for the international military contingent since the US-led pullout,” a January 2022 dispatch explained.
To the credit of the Afghan people, resistance to the Taliban is increasing, despite the United States not condemning the current Afghan ruling thugs. “Embers of resistance against the Taliban’s brutality are flaring up in Afghanistan, with clashes reported across the north and west of the country this week as armed resistance groups frontally take on the Islamists,” Lynne O’Donnell, writing for Foreign Policy, explained. However, “There is no international support or supply lines, as neighboring Central Asian states backed by Russia as well as Pakistan and Iran do not want to empower an anti-Taliban resistance that could plunge Afghanistan into full-blown civil war.” So, it would seem the US State Department is aligned with like-minded nations – not a particularly savory crowd.
Resistance fighters have had some success in the last month. “After hours of fighting Taliban forces, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) took control of several areas in the Khost district of Baghlan province, the northern part of Afghanistan,” Lisa Daftari reported in The Foreign Desk. However, instead of encouraging those seeking to re-establish some semblance of a free and open society, Biden’s foreign policy team took a head-in-the-sand approach. “We are monitoring the recent uptick in violence closely and call on all sides to exercise restraint and to engage. This is the only way that Afghanistan can confront its many challenges,” a State Department spokesperson opined. So Foggy Bottom falls back on its tried-and-true foreign relations mantra: “Can’t we all just get along?” The short answer is no, not while tyrannical governments put their citizens in jeopardy.
People “yearning to be free” remain willing to fight for that freedom. With the debacle of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan painfully fresh in the minds of Afghans, the abandonment narrative will not go away.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
