There is Nothing Called the ‘Moderate Taliban’

The Obama administration’s new approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan involving talking with “moderate” Taliban has raised a lot of criticism. Indian journalist and author M.J.Akbar argues that to consider any Taliban who is not fighting the US moderate is a mistake. The phrase “moderate Taliban” glosses over the intent of the Taliban’s actions: the oppression of women and the repeal of modernity. Moreover, according to Akbar, it risks obfuscating the crux of the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan – that of the fight against a chauvinistic and regressive theocracy. The Taliban were originally legitimized to create a pro-Islamabad Afghanistan and solidify an Afghanistan-Pakistan bloc until Osama Bin Laden came along and threw a wrench into those plans. Now the concept of a “moderate Taliban” could further that goal while giving the US cover for an exit strategy. Yet, as Akbar intimates ominously, the repercussions of such a strategy are unlikely to be “moderate.” – YaleGlobal