“The Taliban are terrorists, and they,re going to support terrorists.'

In the assessment of former US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Taliban will become a national security threat to the United States. There is no guarantee that Afghanistan wouldn’t once again become a safe haven for terrorists - either those intent on doing harm to the US or other foreign powers. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was the Taliban refusal to hand over al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin. The main reason for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the Sept. Bush's administration, told NPR that “thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of Afghans” who believed in the US are suddenly finding themselves the subject of Taliban reprisals, and been assassinated during the past year. Ronald Neumann, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan during President George W. They have been blowing up hospitals and infrastructure,” he warned. So far, in the areas of the country where they have regained control, the Taliban “have been executing people summarily, they have been lashing women, they have been shutting down schools. Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US, told NPR that there's no reason to think that a new Taliban regime won’t be another humanitarian eyesore. While Taliban spokespersons and some of their leaders have called for calm and project a sense of civility, outside Kabul in the provinces they had captured, reports suggest that the extremist group has hardly changed.ĭenying education to women, carrying out public executions of their opponents, persecuting minorities, and destroying the priceless antiques and heritage structures like the giant stone Buddhas at Bamiyan.

The US-trained Afghanistan national army collapsed without putting up a fight in the face of a concerted push by Taliban forces, who are back in control after two decades.įor the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Ĭommentators have written about why the outcome in Afghanistan matters to the rest of the world. The Taliban capture of the capital city Kabul surprised the world, including the United States and its Western allies which were planning for a withdrawal on August 31.

The takeover