Taliban Rising
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/taliban-rising/
June 6, 2014 by 3 Comments
Arnold
Ahlert is a former NY Post op-ed columnist currently contributing to
JewishWorldReview.com, HumanEvents.com and CanadaFreePress.com. He may
be reached at atahlert@comcast.net.
While
Obama administration officials and their media allies are furiously
attempting to spin the swap of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for five
high-level Taliban terrorists in their favor, the other side of the
equation is weighing in as well. Taliban leaders are expressing jubilation
over the trade, hailing it as a major recognition of their status and
boon to their cause. The Taliban is seeking to solidify legitimacy as a
political force in Afghanistan in the face of the imminent U.S.
drawdown, after which less than 10,000 soldiers will remain in the
country. With the Bergdahl exchange, the Taliban has achieved a major
propaganda victory that will further aid its ascendancy in the country —
on top of the benefit the return of several of its top operatives will
offer as a consequence of the deal.
Details of the internal assessment of the
Bergdahl swap come from a TIME magazine interview with two Taliban
commanders. “This is a historic moment for us. Today our enemy for the
first time officially recognized our status,” one commander said.
“[T]hese five men are more important than millions of dollars to us.”
When asked if this exchange would inspire the Taliban to capture other
Americans, he responded succinctly. “Definitely,” he said. “It’s better
to kidnap one person like Bergdahl than kidnapping hundreds of useless
people,” the commander added, speaking on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak to the media. “It has encouraged our
people. Now everybody will work hard to capture such an important bird.”
According to the magazine, the Taliban was
well-prepared to engage in a media campaign of their own with regard to
the swap. Those who were selected to hand Bergdahl over rehearsed
messages they wished to deliver to the American public, and a
videographer was assigned to cover the exchange to help shape the
narrative. The white tunic and trousers that Bergdahl wore were also
part of the equation, as a tailor was commissioned to create the clothes
for the event as a “gesture of respect.”
TIME allowed a second Taliban commander
affiliated with the Haqqani network that was holding Bergdahl captive to
humanize the terrorist organization. “You know we are also human beings
and have hearts in our bodies,” the commander said. “We are fighting a
war against each other, in which [the Americans] kill us and we kill
them. But we did whatever we could to make [Bergdahl] happy.”
The resulting propaganda video documenting
the exchange also shows a woven scarf draped across Bergdahl’s
shoulders. The commander says it was a parting gift, further explaining
that Bergdahl had made several friends among his captors. “We wanted him
to return home with good memories,” the commander said. Shortly
thereafter, the video also shows something else that accrues mightily to
the interests of the Taliban: the hero’s welcome the five released
detainees received when they landed in Qatar, followed by a jubilant
raising of the Taliban flag.
Despite its negotiations with the Taliban to
free Bergdahl, the White House initially refused to define the group’s
status. When asked Monday if the Taliban was a terrorist group, outgoing
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dodged the
question. “We don’t get to choose our enemies when we go to war,”
Carney responded. “We regard the Taliban as an enemy combatant in a
conflict that has been going on, in which the United States has been
involved for more than a decade. In this case–as you know we dealt with
the Qataris in order to secure [Bergdahl’s] release–it was absolutely
the right thing to do.”
The semantical gymnastics continued on
Tuesday, when White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin
Hayden explained that a 2002 executive order added the Taliban to the
list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists
(SDGT), while its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)
is omitted from the list compiled by the State Department. Why remains a
mystery, considering the fact that both the Pakistani Taliban and the
Haqqani Network thought to be holding Bergdahl are on the list.
Unsurprisingly, the administration chose to
sidestep the issue, choosing to push the narrative that Bergdahl was a
prisoner of war (POW), rather than a hostage. “Sgt. Bergdahl was not a
hostage, he was a member of the military who was detained during the
course of an armed conflict,” Hayden continued. “The United States does
not leave a soldier behind based on the identity of the party to the
conflict… It was a prisoner exchange. We’ve always done that across many
wars. With the Germans. The Japanese. The North Koreans.”
Such an effort is at odds with reality. In the five years Bergdahl was missing, the Pentagon never listed
him as a POW. When he first disappeared, he was listed as “duty status
whereabouts unknown.” Two days later it was changed to
“missing/captured,” where it remained until his release. Detainees at
Guantanamo Bay have never been referred to as POWS either, largely
reflecting the reality that terrorists are international gangsters
rather than soldiers of a nation state.
The five released Taliban leaders were
initially reported to be under house arrest in Qatar, but this was later
discovered to be untrue. “All five men received medical checks and they
now live with their families in an accommodation facility in Doha,” a
Gulf source, who declined to be identified, told Reuters
Tuesday. “They can move around freely within the country.” Moreover,
officials in the U.S. intelligence community note that Qatar has a long
track record of turning a blind eye to terror financing taking place in
the emirate, and that they failed to keep track of a Gitmo detainee sent
there at end of the Bush administration. “We know that many wealthy
individuals in Qatar are raising money for jihadists in Syria every
day,” a senior U.S. intelligence official told The
Daily Beast. “We also know that we have sent detainees to them before,
and their security services have magically lost track of them.”
In other words, while the Obama
administration continues to tout the merits of the deal, the deal itself
has unraveled—a reality that further enhances the status of the
Taliban, which poses greater danger to Americans in the process.
The Weekly Standard’s Thomas Joscelyn outlines exactly
why, noting that Berghdal was swapped for “five of the most dangerous
Taliban commanders in U.S. custody.” Former Bush administration Attorney
General Michael B. Mukasey explains the
perilous implications of releasing such men, noting that even as the
president is withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in a way that will
purportedly not jeopardize the safety of those left behind until 2016,
he has provided the Taliban with skilled strategic planners. He further
notes that, despite the administration’s stated objective of separating
the Taliban from al Qaeda, he has freed men with close ties to that
organization — dating back prior to 9/11.
The Diplomat’s Zachary Keck attempts to save the Obama administration, insisting that
the details of swap itself are only tangential to the bigger picture.
He contends the larger strategy behind the deal is the Obama
administration’s attempt to implement a “new, more unilateral tone to
its Afghan policy,” brought about in large part by the lame duck
presidency of Hamid Karzai. Thus, it is necessary to build trust and
goodwill with the Taliban. “With the prisoner swap agreement out of the
way, the U.S. and the Taliban are likely beginning to pursue these more
substantive talks. The U.S. side is undoubtedly hoping to persuade the
Taliban to end the insurgency and join the Afghan government in some
capacity.”
Keck goes further, insisting the U.S. has won
the war in Afghanistan, with “victory” consisting of eliminating the
nation as a safe haven for al Qaeda. He believes the Obama
administration will eventually allow the Taliban to resume power in that
nation, as long as they deny al-Qaeda and other transnational terrorist
groups a safe haven there. “This is an example of what President Obama
meant when he discussed trying to hit singles and doubles rather than
swinging for the fences,” Keck concludes.
Sadly, he is probably right. Last Sunday Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admitted as
much, characterizing the prisoner swap as a vehicle “that can produce
an agreement,” with the Taliban. Much like Obama’s affinity for the
Muslim Brotherhood, or his administration’s latest decision to
work with a Palestinian “unity” government that includes Hamas, this
appalling level of indifference regarding the true nature of the Taliban
will undoubtedly be portrayed as “21st century” diplomacy. Furthermore,
allowing all the hard-won gains in Afghanistan to be squandered exactly
as they have been in Iraq will undoubtedly be hailed as a
“breakthrough,” despite the reality that the Obama administration is on
the verge of doing something no administration in history has ever done
before: withdraw from two different wars on schedule.
Angry Republicans have rightly wondered what
message freeing five high-level Taliban thugs for one possible deserter
tells the terrorists. They would be far better served wondering what the
mockery of over ten years of American blood and treasure in exchange
for “singles and doubles” that include a possible re-instatement of the
Taliban tells them.
We know what it told Mullah Mohammad Omar,
the Taliban’s spiritual leader. “I extend my heartfelt congratulations
to the entire Afghan Muslim nation, all the mujahedeen and to the
families and relatives of the prisoners for this big victory,” he said.
Apparently one side in the war on terror
still believes in victory. Sadly, as the Obama administration has so
amply indicated, it’s not America.
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