Two decades have passed since this image, a this one.
The Afghanistan war in brief
Sunday cartoon. 22 August 2021 in CTXT
Summer is ending and everyone will take the re-entry into the not always desirable routine as they can or as they are allowed to.
For me, "the return" means going back to infoxication, even if I don't want to. If I had to keep only one piece of news from this period of voluntary and necessary sedentarism, it would be the end of the war in Afghanistan.
The announcement that a war is over should be good news, although in the case of Afghanistan it doesn't end, it just stops killing for a little while and what ends is what began with a US invasion after the attacks of 11 September 2001.
In 2011, the last Taliban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, acknowledged that allowing Osama Bin Laden to plan the attacks from Afghan soil was a major blunder, "they were the pretext for the United States to invade our country", said to EFE.
Since the US overthrew Mohammad Omar in 2001, which it had aided economically and militarily during the first Afghan war (1978-1992) for refusing to extradite Osama Bin Laden without a formal extradition request, more than 150,000 people have been killed and some 978 billion dollars have been burned by the Yankees, according to a 2019 Brown University study.
Now, the Taliban are still in control of the country and the US is accelerating its already announced troop withdrawal, which is due to end on 11 September 2021, although many say they could leave the country much sooner due to the speed at which the Taliban are moving . The Taliban already warned that if the US troops do not leave by 31 August, they will use their traditional "diplomacy", i.e. the AK-47.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban Taliban leader said that "there will be no revenge" and promised"an Islamic inclusive government", you have to admit they are masters of black humour.
For several days, different analysts who yesterday were experts on pandemic things, today reconverted into Talibanologists, have been telling us that this new Taliban batch is less bad and that, well, we'll see.
To hell with all of them. I find it ridiculous, cynical, and above all a lie, to suggest that these guys are going to "moderate" their moves and overnight become the love bears.
