Before the Taliban enabled Al Qaeda to launch the tragic 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan was a free zone for all types of terrorist groups 21 years ago.
Small terrorist groups disturbed destitute Afghans and posed a major security risk to the United States, Afghanistan’s neighbors, and the world.
Under the Taliban’s pre-9/11 regime, gender apartheid prevailed, state institutions collapsed, hunger and famine thrived, many citizens lost their jobs, and civilians desperately tried to flee torture from the terrorists and extrajudicial killings.
The only export that the Taliban could muster was their drug rings. The drug money stimulated organized crime and financed terrorism.
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar once rationalized that this was “a gift from the Islamic Emirate to kill infidels everywhere in the world.”
Afghanistan Taliban also tried to attack the United States, but the world overwhelmingly assisted the U.S. military intervention to help the Afghan people free their country from terrorism, extremism, and drugs.
After the United States was able to suppress the Taliban, Afghanistan emerged as a prosperous democracy where millions of girls went back to school, mortality rates dropped, life expectancy rose, the economy took off, state institutions gained the capability to deliver public services, and Afghan security forces took over from international troops to defend Afghanistan against external menaces.
The Taliban found a way to get back into their home country and reversed everything the Afghans had struggled to build.
Since the US withdrew its troops, the country has suffered from a large-scale brain drain as thousands of educated Afghans have fled for well-founded fears of persecution under the Taliban’s dictatorial rule.
The Taliban has thrived in advancing terrorism, drugs, economic collapse, and humanitarian crisis which pose major threats to the security of the U.S. homeland, regional stability, and international peace.
