Questions tagged [taliban]
Questions concerning the political, religious and terrorist organisation in Afganistan and Pakistan.
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Did the Taliban give any hint they were letting the US 'keep' the Bagram Airfield (under some conditions)?
Trump claimed in 2022 that his peace plan for Afghanistan (that Biden ruined) involved keeping the Bagram Airfield:
We were gonna be out. I got it down to 2,000 [troops] we were getting ready to pull ...
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What's the point of continuing not to recognize the Taliban government of Afghanistan?
As per Wiki, no countries have so far recognized the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate as the legitimate successor of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. But... what's the point of delaying the official ...
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Have the Taliban held/allowed any multi-candidate elections since coming to power?
Interestingly, the Taliban of 2022 appear to hold some limited local elections, although the example given there involved open (one vote per household) voting and (more importantly) one candidate, at ...
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How are interactions between Taliban Afghanistan and the world carried out if they are not officially recognized by anyone?
This is a hybrid politics/international law question and it’s posted here for convenience.
Everyday interactions would include border crossings, postal services, telecommunications, airspace ...
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Is the US allowed to execute an airstrike on Afghan soil after withdrawal under the provisions of the agreement that enabled it?
The United States killed Al-Qaeda's chief in an airstrike on his house in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Though the agreement between the US and the Taliban is not public, one thing that is clear is that the US ...
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Does the new Taliban government in Afghanistan still not recognize the Duran line? Do they propose any other well-defined border with Pakistan?
This answer to Have cross-border terrorist attacks in Pakistan declined or stayed the same after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan? mentions the Duran line and the Afghanistan's government lack of ...
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What is the difference between the classic Taliban and TTP?
What is the difference between the Taliban who is ruling the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and TTP (Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan)?
Do they have any relationship? Do they have any common goal?
Are ...
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Did the U.S. lose the war against the Taliban?
We know that the U.S. has a much stronger military than the Taliban, they could have deployed more troops in Afghanistan to beat the Taliban, but they consciously didn't. This makes me wonder, did U.S....
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Have cross-border terrorist attacks in Pakistan declined or stayed the same after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan?
According to the Pakistani security agencies and the government, various terror outfits were hiding in Afghanistan and they perpetrated terror attacks across the border inside Pakistan on a routine ...
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Why didn't the USA first evacuate civilians then focus on evacuating their army from Afghanistan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjF-8lZcTfQ
At 2:30 in this video Russel Berman points out that civilians should have been evacuated out first and then the military should have been evacuated. This ...
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Why do the Taliban restrict women's rights?
Despite the numerous reports on how the Taliban restrict women's rights, I've never found an explanation why they do it. To quote The Guardian
“Education and literacy are so strongly valued in Islam ...
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Last American soldier leaving Afghanistan, was there a deal from American govt with Taliban to hold fire [duplicate]
Per the news the last American soldier boarded the flight showing his back to the Talibans, they could have fired shots since the last flight of American soldiers out numbered the Taliban forces. Also ...
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Why are the Taliban unwilling to establish a diplomatic relationship with Israel?
https://www.timesofisrael.com/taliban-willing-to-establish-relations-with-all-nations-except-israel/
“Yes, of course, in a new chapter if America wants to have a relation
with us, which could be in ...
user28660
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Why is the Taliban willing to overlook China's dismal treatment of its Uighur Muslim population?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/09/02/taliban-calls-china-principal-partner-international-community/
China is the Taliban’s “principal partner” in the international
community, the Islamist ...
user28660
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Does the Taliban government of Afghanistan have a written legal code?
Since the Taliban took effective control of Afghanistan in 2021, I've been reading various sources claiming that they are restricting the movements of women and girls in public, but it is unclear if ...
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Is the predictive "historical analysis" on the 2021 Taliban strategy (provided to the US Congress) a public document?
An article in The New York Times from August 18 says:
A historical analysis provided to Congress concluded that the Taliban had learned lessons from their takeover of the country in the 1990s. This ...
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Is there anything the United States can do to stop the Taliban from selling American made military equipment to Iran?
Today I have been wondering about the possibility of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan selling some American made military equipment to Iran as a way of raising much needed cash for the new Taliban ...
user39026
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Why did the US completely depart the Bagram Air Base?
After reading this question and the associated comments, I was left wondering: For what reasons did the US choose to completely hand over Bagram Air Base to the Afghan Security Forces? Was it ...
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Are the Taliban Pashtun nationalists?
It is a well known fact that the groups composing the Taliban seek to obtain a Islamic emirate in compliance with Islamic laws; however, do they also seek to the foundation of a “Pashtunistan”, the ...
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Why do the Taliban not try to conquer the Kabul Airport?
Currently there are some thousands of USA troops there, bound by strong regulations. The army of the Taliban counts hundreds of thousands, and they are not bound by strong regulations.
The USA had war ...
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Why did al-Qaeda attack the US during 9/11?
So I'm sitting here watching the news trying to figure out / remind myself why we were in Afghanistan. I figured we were there so that we could prevent further attacks from al-Qaeda.
That makes sense ...
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Why is the rest of NATO blaming the US for the situation in Afghanistan?
Example headline: 'Greatest debacle that NATO has seen': Biden stuns allies with Afghanistan mistakes expected of Trump
"You know, it is not the European Union who decided to leave Afghanistan,&...
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Is there an overview of battles between the Afghan Army and Taliban forces during the Resolute Support Mission (2015-2021)?
According to the Wikipedia page on the Resolute Support Mission (RSM):
Resolute Support Mission or Operation Resolute Support was a NATO-led train, advise and assist mission consisting of about 7,772 ...
JJJ♦
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With the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, what adaptations are the US and allies making to prevent terrorists from using Afghanistan as a safe haven?
Since I only have access to media reports I assume that
the US and Afghan Special Forces network of on-the-ground informants has been severely degraded
long range artillery batteries no longer exist
...
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Why did the State Department entertain the founder of the Taliban?
I saw an image of the former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo I believe, standing in a formal room with the founder of the Taliban.
Can anyone help me understand why we as a democratic nation would ...
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Relations between Russia and the Taliban
On the one hand, the Taliban is recognized in Russia as a terrorist organization (FSB List). On the other hand, on July 8, Taliban representatives arrived in Moscow for "talks."
Also, the ...
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Why is China interested in supporting the Taliban?
In this news article, it is said that China is willing to develop positive relations with the Taliban.
"China respects the right of the Afghan people to independently determine their own destiny ...
user35379
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Which countries have welcomed the Taliban takeover/victory in Kabul?
FT reported (paywalled) that Pakistan has, at least at the government level:
As the Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after a dramatic military offensive, the leaders of neighboring Pakistan did not ...
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What are the differences among ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban?
Seeing as how Afghanistan is being taken over by the Taliban and remembering how easy it was for ISIS to just roll over the Iraqi Army, plus the role of Al-Qaeda in starting these two wars, it got me ...
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What are the few things thought to be bad if the Taliban is ruling Afghanistan excluding deprivation of women rights? [closed]
What are the few things thought to be bad if the Taliban is ruling Afghanistan excluding deprivation of women rights?
Let's not consider historical aspects. They have agreed to not support any ...
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Why are the Taliban winning against the Afghan army?
According to the Wikipedia page on the current Taliban offensive, the combined Afghan army outnumbers the Taliban by roughly 3:1. The Taliban have less or worse equipment and vehicles, and the Afghan ...
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The Talibans are conquering Afghanistan. Whose side are the USA on? [closed]
According to all media networks, the Taliban are quickly conquering Afghanistan. The initial reports mentioned US bombings trying to provide cover to the Afghan army. But those bombing were ...
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Did Taliban maintain foreign relations with other countries between 1996 and 2001?
Seeing all the news of embassies evacuating out of Afghanistan made me wonder - what were the foreign relations of Taliban before the 2001 war? I can tell the US Consulate was shutdown in 1989, the ...
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Why doesn't the USA use drones and bombardment to support the Afghan government troops? [closed]
Since 2001, it was the usual practice. Various warlords and the government army fight on the field, and they get air support from the USA military.
Sometimes Taliban leaders were also killed by USA ...
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Given the current turmoil in Afghanistan, is acquiring it as a 15th US Territory a viable option?
The US and her allies have invested heavily in blood and treasure in Afghanistan for 2 decades. Current trajectories indicate that the entire country will soon fall to the Taliban. I have heard no ...
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Are there any reliable indications on popular sentiment in Afghanistan for/against the Taliban?
(Note: this question was asked in the context of the rapid military takeover of Afghanistan in July/August 2021 and the period leading up to it. How Afghans will come to view Taliban rule in the ...
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Is Taliban a terrorist organization in China's and the US's eyes?
By some (unofficial) reports, President Biden decided to launch airstrikes against Taliban fighters. It shows that the US is not friendly to the Taliban. But Chinese leaders had met with a leader of ...
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Why does the Afghanistan peace agreement talk about Visa and passports when the US does not recognize the Taliban?
From part 2 section 5 of the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan:
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will ...
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Why has 20 years of US occupation not removed the Taliban in Afghanistan?
With the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, a question one might ask is how is Taliban still in power, in fact gaining more control? It is known that the majority of the Taliban's income comes ...
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Who supplies arms to Taliban?
During the Soviet-Afghan war, the USA supplied arms to the Taliban.
During the Afghan civil war, Pakistan is believed to have supplied arms to the Taliban. But, they changed the policy when Imran Khan ...
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Differences in conditions of Afghanistan in 1989 vs. now?
I'm reading news about the Taliban gaining control over the country.
I remember, that Najibullah's government, which was left there by the USSR in 1989 stood for three years after Soviet troops left ...
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What's the difference between paying someone to kill another country's soldiers, and arming that someone to kill another country's soldiers?
This question is inspired by this New York Times article. The crux of the article is that some Russians think if the GRU are paying the Taliban bounties to kill US soldiers (something denied by both ...
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Why did the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan fail to ban opium production?
Why did the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996-2001), despite claiming to be an Islamic state, fail to ban opium production? Can it solely be explained in terms of economical difficulties like not ...
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Why do the Taliban commit atrocities on Afghan civilians? [duplicate]
I've been following the recent developments in Afghanistan and have been flummoxed on the issue of - why Taliban is continuously bombing its own people incessantly? I have read that it is because they ...
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What will come after a US withdrawal from Afghanistan? [closed]
The United States and the Taliban may be nearing an agreement to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan after more than 17 years of conflict.
In return, the Taliban would commit to refusing access to ...
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What was the premise behind the Bush/Obama administration's "we don't negotiate with terrorists" sentiment?
Many scholars and policymakers state that negotiating with terrorist groups legitimizes them, their goals and their methods. They assert that such negotiations incite violence, weaken democratic ...
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Were balloons banned by the Taliban? [closed]
I came across the following annotation to Simon Norfolk's "Former Teahouse in a Park, Kabul":
Banned by the Taliban, balloons have emerged as one of the symbols of
freedom from authoritarian rule ...
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Why is the Quetta Shura allowed to exist in Pakistan?
The Quetta Shura is the Afghan Taliban leadership ousted in late 2001. It has existed in Pakistan since then, although several members have been captured. Why are they allowed to remain in Pakistan?
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Why does Taliban still control huge areas in Afghanistan?
This wikipedia article shows that Taliban still control a significant portion of Afghanistan. How are they doing it and and what has the government/US done about it?
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