Is the US Trying to Provoke the Taliban?

In the wake of the deadly Kabul suicide bombings against Shi’ites, an attack roundly condemned even by the Taliban leadership, NATO officials are saying that provoking the Taliban into being as brutal as possible would be an extremely useful thing for the occupation forces in the nation. The theory, which has been pushed chiefly by the US, is that if they can convince the Taliban to commit more atrocities it would “alienate the population” and make the NATO-backed regime seem better by comparison.

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Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.