The Taliban now controls virtually all of Afghanistan, but about 70 miles north of Kabul in the Panjshir Valley, the son of a well-known mujahideen commander is trying to form a resistance force against the group.
Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, wrote an op-ed published Wednesday in The Washington Post titled, “The mujahideen resistance to the Taliban begins now. But we need help.” Massoud said his fighting force has arms but warned they would “rapidly depleted unless our friends in the West can find a way to supply us without delay.”
Amrullah Saleh, who served as Ashraf Ghani’s vice president, has joined Massoud in Panjshir. After Ghani fled Afghanistan, Saleh declared himself the “caretaker president” of the country. “We have lost territory but not legitimacy,” Saleh told The New York Times. “I, as caretaker president, upholder of the Constitution, don’t see the Taliban emirate either as legitimate or national.”
For now, Saleh is calling for peace talks with the Taliban. “Should the Taliban be ready for meaningful discussions, we will welcome it,” he said. “If they insist on military conquest, then they better read Afghan history.” Saleh did not tell the Times how many fighters are in Panjshir, but some former Afghan officials estimated it was somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500.
Massoud seemed more ready for a fight than Saleh. “No matter what happens, my mujahideen fighters and I will defend Panjshir as the last bastion of Afghan freedom. Our morale is intact. We know from experience what awaits us. But we need more weapons, more ammunition and more supplies,” he wrote in the Post.
Massoud’s father fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and then against the Taliban in the 1990s. He was a leader of the Northern Alliance, a group of warlords the US-backed early on in its war in Afghanistan, although Massoud’s father was killed before the September 11th attacks.
The Afghan ambassador in Tajikistan appears to be backing Saleh and Massoud’s cause. “Only Panjshir resists, led by Vice President Amrullah Saleh,” said Ambassador Zahir Aghbar. “Panjshir stands strong against anyone who wants to enslave people.”
Massoud doesn’t seem to get its not a good idea to announce publicly that not only are you forming an armed resistance, you’re short on cash and weapons for said resistance.
Then ask for American aid. Because people like him used it so well the last few weeks.
Great comment!!!
It is a great idea. The only way for military aid right now is to publicize it as us govt r now gun shy and going public gives their neocon allies ammunition to force Biden to give them arms and airlift food and other essentials. it might also give them a some leverage in the eventual negotiation. Also it’s a extremely easy to secure location from defensive point of view it didn’t fall to talibal or even the ussr.
Taliban must go in and surround them and starve these collaborators out
That was sarcasm, right? Please tell me that’s sarcasm…
Massoud has a few cards missing from the deck. Idiot. I can just see the clouds of dust as the Taliban Toyota trucks head his way.
Massoud’s and Saleh’s principal problem is that they are cut off from the major domestic money-making sources which are internal trade and trans-Afghan trade tariffs.
I doubt that President Biden will pour more dollars down another Afghan rat-hole. I doubt that Putin and Xi will. I doubt that Germany and GB will.
So who could be left to be their paymaster? Saudi Arabia?
The US regime has never shied away from pouring money down rat-holes. And it probably wouldn’t cost THAT much money to keep things from getting peaceful.
Also, depending on how the Taliban treat the 10-15% Shia minority once they consolidate power, the Iranians might take an interest.
Prior to the US invasion, the Taliban took over Shia mosques and re-named them after early anti-Shia Muslim leaders, banned Shia rituals in Kabul, and toyed with the idea of making them pay “attributions” as non-Muslims. Over the last few years, they’ve cultivated much friendlier relations, appointed a Shia district governor, etc. But who knows if the improved relations will hold now that the Shia aren’t needed to help kick the Americans out?
More war, more foreign meddling and more occupation if these guys get their way. Maybe it will be better if thsee guys set an example by being taken out for their cozing up to the infidel former occupier, encouraging strife.
Amrullah Saleh Al-Guaido. “West”, please help!
Sounds like something from the past an era, gone and truly buried at Kabul airport.
He is either counting on getting a “rebel”status to get money and protection, or wants to be included in the coming “inclusive” government.
Or made an example that the “T” boys are being nice, but there are limits to their largess & patience.
From the looks of that map, this outfit will be darned difficult for the US to ‘supply’.
Like Stalingrad for the Germans. Who will be our HG who tells JB “Mr. President, it can be easily done?”
its not a problem we can just supply them like we supplied our troops,
by bribing the taliban
The mujahideen resistance to the Taliban begins now. But we need help
Calling all Neocons!… Calling all Neocons!
Send’em in as paratroops.
Without the parachutes…
Send in Liz Cheney
And her dad Dick. Or her dick dad.
More threats & tough talk by professionl cons, maybe well intentioned, but willing to lie & inflate their heft and resolve, just like the puppets now fleeing.
That didn’t take the neocons long.
“Taliban Resistance Force Forming in Langley Falls”
More likely.
I can hear the sounds of joy in the offices of the companies making up the MIC. Yahoo!!
It would be surprising if Afghanistan DIDN’T revert to civil war with the US/NATO withdrawal.
The Taliban has never been universally loved in Afghanistan, and chances are that a lot of people who were fighting “with” the Taliban against the US/NATO forces were not necessarily on board with Taliban rule afterward.
In Vietnam, the Hanoi regime did what it could to throw as many NLF (“Viet Cong”) troops into what amounted to suicide missions (e.g. the Tet Offensive) in 1968 and after so that there wouldn’t be any quibbling about who was going to be in charge once the NVA was able to march south.
If the Taliban did any such thing with units of “doubtful loyalty,” it never made the world news as far as I can tell.
Given that almost no one including myself predicted the swift and almost complete takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban I will refrain from predicting any potentially possible future for that country and its people.
What I make from a multitude of reports is that the Afghans who have remained behind are at least relieved that the civil war seems to be dormant today and that smidgens of “normal life” are present in most of Afghanistan today. Tomorrow? Who knows?
I will however send a message the White House. “Don’t bite Joe”.
im pretty sure lots of people have been saying for 20 years “the day us troops withdraw is the day the taliban control all of afghanistan”
If so, I don’t recall hearing them say that.
Granted, most people assumed the Taliban would defeat the US puppet regime, but I don’t ever recall hearing anyone predict that they would do so before the US withdrawal was complete.
Nearly all antiwars more or less said and expected Afghanistan would end like Vietnam, with helicopters evacuating the U.S. embassy once the capacity to sustain the war collapsed.
For a time there, though, it looked like Trump had an agreement for a withdrawal with dignity.
Its the Dien Bien Phu lite (so far) part at Kabul Airport that surprised everyone.
In Vietnam, the helicopters flew straight out of Vietnam. The Vietnamese refugee boat people crisis unfolded slowly and painfully in the decade that followed, initially ignored by the U.S..
The refugee crisis stage is being fully embraced ad hyped to the max this time, in hopes of playing a stay-on.
“For a time there, though, it looked like Trump had an agreement for a withdrawal with dignity.”
Biden still carried out the withdrawal, he just delayed it. I don’t see why anything would have unfolded differently. It’s not like the Taliban would have ever been willing to share power with the installed puppet government. The only possible difference would have been the reaction to the Taliban’s actions. Maybe Trump would have resumed bombing the sh*t out of them.
The evac is ongoing, far from completed. Already there’s speculation on how Afghanistan could have been ‘saved’. One of the most interesting is the idea that U.S. air support and intel was withdrawn, abetting ANA collapse.
The fear of Trump bombing would have kept the Taliban somewhat honest. His respect for rules of engagement was non-existent beyond a-deals-a-deal thinking and he dropped some pretty big bombs on Afghanistan just for fun. But Trump kept his deals, more or less, with both sides.
The key change from Trump to Biden is the lead-up to the Kabul Airport crisis.
Until the very end of the Trump Administration, the Afghan National Army held the line fully backed by U.S. air power and intel. They would have understood, they were fighting for their lives against Taliban reprisals.
The only way they would have broke so quickly, is indeed if that advanced air and intel support were abruptly withdrawn.
With no experience fighting without the cheat codes, and no warning of losing crutches and training wheels, leaders would panic and flee first, leaving the lower echelons no choice but to follow as best they could.
“The fear of Trump bombing would have kept the Taliban somewhat honest.”
But why wouldn’t they feel the same regarding Biden? His 40 years of warmongering are well documented.
“The only way they would have broke so quickly, is indeed if that advanced air and intel support were abruptly withdrawn.”
And we don’t know if Trump wouldn’t have done the same.
Biden’s opposition to continuing the Afghan war under Obama is public knowledge, and, he’s cultivated the image of not being as mercurial as Trump.
Biden’s team cancelled a Trump-era anti-Benghazi disaster plan, enhancing the pre-existing OpMed (Bureau of Medical Services Directorate of Operation) wit the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau.
https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/bidens-state-dept-halted-trump-era-crisis-response-plan/
Trump hated being embarrassed by the press and his team, chosen for loyalty, clearly took some steps to prevent some of the most obvious worst-case scenarios from happening.
Therefore Trump would immediately realize, withdrawing air support from the ANA was trouble. His attempt to pullout from Syria was sabotaged, so its not like he’s unfamiliar with that kind of thing.
All evidence suggests he planned to win the 2020 election and be around for a successful pullout.
That didn’t answer my question of why the Taliban wouldn’t have been wary of Biden bombing them given his warmongering history. Trump was supposedly opposed to continuing the war also. And I have no clue what Biden’s cancellation to the Trump era anti Benghazi disaster has anything to do with the Taliban’s thinking regarding Biden’s willingness to bombing them.
And your take on why Trump would “immediately realize withdrawing air support from the ANA was trouble” is based on nothing but your opinion that his “team” would have seen that. And Syria is completely irrelevant.
Actually, you’re just making up excuses not to think, and they’re not very good.
Biden voted for wars, sure, but he was never in charge of any. When he finally was, he never really ordered much more than okay-ing the usual drone strikes. He’s seen as senile, maybe, but still sane-ish.
Trump dropped the 22,000-pound GBU-43, just to get the Taliban’s attention. There was no serious tactical reason. That aura of unpredictable volatility would give pause to any opponent.
Benghazi was one of the main strikes against a President Hilary; of course Trump would want to make sure the same couldn’t happen to him.
If Team Trump had the sense to beef up an obscure organization like OpMed, they would have had the sense to maintain air support for the ANA.
“Trump dropped the 22,000-pound GBU-43, just to get the media’s attention.”
Fixed, no charge.
Neither of our conclusions precludes the other, therefore my error was using the word ‘just’.
The bomb was a media stunt, and sent the message to the Taliban, that Trump was unstable.
Er, I mean tough and unpredictable, so look out during negotiations.
Sure I’m making up excuses and your argument is Biden isn’t really a warmonger because he’s “only” doing the usual drone strikes? I recall having a conversation with you about Biden voting against the ’91 invasion of Iraq and you insisting that was an aberration and Biden had been a warmonger his entire career. And now suddenly he’s a meek pacifist compared to bad ass Trump. Ok. And Trump beefing up “an obscure organization like OpMed means he would have had the sense to maintain air support” is nothing but pure conjecture on your part.
No, my argument is whether or not Biden is a warmonger is irrelevant to Taliban calculations. All Presidents warmonger.
Trump isn’t even President now, and he wanted to go back in to destroy surplus equipment.
Biden’s reasons for pullout need not be conversion to pacifism. Perhaps approaching the war from a different angle; as of right now, a plan seems to be unfolding to capture the Taliban ‘diplomatically’ rather than fight them.
There is also the need to focus resources on other battles that are also slowly being lost, but not as fast as Afghanistan.
Dismissing Team Trump’s obvious understanding of the importance of OpMed, sells Trump a lot short. Hazing Trump on a politically important agenda item, would be career suicide for guys like Pompeo.
There’s no way the Taliban could have survived this long had their not been some underlying thread of popular unity.
All the major anti-Taliban are foreign-empowered, like the Khorisan IS movement. Afghan gladios would have needed at least a transitional government to work under to even begin to be effective.
NATO and their Pentagon allies are gambling on a humanitarian crisis to force the U.S. to stay on at Kabul International Airport. In doing so they seem to have scuttled whatever else might have been in place to harass the Taliban.
Everyone who can fight the Taliban making for the borders if they can’t make the airport. Asylum as a refugee is preferable to staying and fighting. Deny asylum to force them to fight the Taliban, won’t restore esprit de corps.
There are two facts about Pansjhir It is not Great Britain and Massoud is not Winston Churchill.
What will be worth watching if the Taliban remains in the saddle long enough is whether it will organize a true national army to signal that Afghanistan is on its way to a real nation. And thereby reduce the power of their SA?
The Taliban appear to already have an army… works pretty good too.
A formal standing army disconnects from their putative People and would be a political downgrade from what the Taliban are now, a force of and from the majority of Afghan people.
Oh boy!! Looks like we have another “terrorist” group to fund. Predictable. “Deep State” help in getting that in their State Run publication.