What are your views about the Taliban?

Originally posted on Quora September 27, 2021

Two days ago I met an Afghan Uber driver who, like so many other immigrants to Canada, was only doing the job because of widespread labour discrimination and unfortunate economic necessity. No one was ever more out of place at the steering wheel of a taxi cab than this man. I asked what he thought of the Taliban. As soon as he opened his mouth, it became obvious he was very well-educated and as articulate as any university professor (which I suspect was his occupation back home). His English was almost as good as mine, which is striking because my English is diamond-standard and he probably only started learning in his teens. He had a scholarly command of the language and knew exactly how to say what he wanted regardless of complexity.

In 20 minutes he told me more about the US-installed democratic government of Afghanistan than I could accurately learn from US mainstream media in a week. He said:

• Very little of the money the US spent “on Afghanistan" over 20 years actually went to Afghan communities. There was very little in the way of nation-building, economic development, job creation, poverty alleviation, etc. Most of the money was spent on Americans in Afghanistan (soldiers and civilian contractors) and on maintaining the US-installed government.
• Even most funds assigned for developmental purposes went not to Afghan organizations, but to American organizations operating in the country. So who knows how much of that money went to pay American aid workers and their management, but it was probably the majority.

(I also know Western aid agencies are grossly inefficient and have a miserable track record in virtually all developing countries. For example Haiti, which has the most NGOs in the world per capita, remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Only directly funding grassroots indigenous development works.)

• Afghanistan's governing élite in Kabul — especially the administration of President Ashraf Ghani — was predominantly made up of privileged Afghans who had lived abroad for decades and obtained a Western education and mindset. They spoke English and many married foreign wives. They were more at home in Europe than in the country they represented. They had no understanding of common Afghan people.
• The elections that brought these men to power were based on pathetically tiny voter registration and turnout. In 2019 Afghanistan had 9.7 million registered voters and only 1.6 million actual voters. Its population that year was 38 million. Ashraf Ghani won the 2019 election with 923,000 votes, so his mandate came from 2.4 percent of the population.
• My friend accused those men of plundering the nation's coffers and escaping with many millions on their way out.
• Outside Kabul and other major cities the Afghan government was not exactly a government, but more like a loose coalition of tribal leaders who outwardly professed loyalty to Kabul. Not only was there little government control of those vast areas — indeed, there was almost zero government activity in them at all. The loyalty of tribal leaders was secured through corruption, which also reigned supreme in the capital.
• Violence, chaos, civil strife and extreme poverty remained the norm in all of Afghanistan outside Kabul and other major cities throughout 20 years of the American presence. My friend spoke of famine as well.
• All the Kabul government's proud data and claims of developing the country (echoed by the US) were illusions. Not only were there never 300,000 soldiers — there were never 100,000 schoolteachers either, and so on. The extent of these lies only became clear when the government collapsed.

My friend said that over 20 years, very few responsible officials in the US government, military, or aid or contractor sector showed a basic understanding of Afghanistan when making policy.

He wondered why Americans would conquer and try to administer a country 10,000 miles away which they not only knew nothing about, but also weren't willing to study. He asked me, On what basis would I be qualified to serve as mayor of Toronto if I weren't from here?

My friend was certainly no Taliban supporter and did not even seem religious. Indeed even his traditional repetition of friendly Islamic phrases I use in conversation, like “assalamu-alaykum" and “inshallah,” sounded strained and unenthusiastic to me. Yet based on all the above, he concluded that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was a positive development. At least now, he said, the country would be governed by people who knew its problems, and there would be no more thieving, chaos or famine, but a stable (if repressive) environment for some development. Instead of showing anger or grief over America's betrayal of its ally and over the collapse of his own government of 20 years, he only expressed relief.

Near the end, my friend spoke positively of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), the Communist organization that ruled the country with failed Soviet assistance until 1992 when it was destroyed by the mujahideen empowered by the US. My friend said the PDPA governed harshly, but at least with the genuine purpose of developing the country (redistributing land, emancipating women, forcing modern education, eliminating theocracy and superstition, etc.).

I asked if he agreed that the US only wanted to destroy the Afghan Communist government and did not care what kind of Afghanistan would emerge after its destruction (i.e. Taliban, Islamic fundamentalism, etc.). He said yes.

Sadly he refused my suggestion of exchanging numbers for further conversation. He was formal (rather stiff) and not the social type. But he was by far the best-educated, best-spoken and most analytically minded Afghan out of dozens I've met in Canada. His account, which I trust more than any other I've heard, confirms my belief that Afghanistan is just another country that would have been ten times better off if Americans had never heard of it.