The Afghan Dilemma

Afghanistan has been described as the graveyard of empires by various historians. The resilience and resistance of the Afghan people in the face of occupation are matchless. The first casualty of the 9/11 attacks was Afghanistan, its people and the regime led by the Taliban. For a decade now the U.S troops have been occupying Afghanistan and Taliban are out of power even though they remain stakeholders in the Afghan future. The U.S tried hard to annihilate the Taliban but after more than a decade of relentless war against them, the Taliban are still a force to reckon with. The book under review is a collection of nine papers written by various scholars and policy makers who are keen observers of Afghan Affairs and politics. The relationship between the Taliban and the United States is the common theme of all the contributions in this book. In his Introduction, Abdulaziz Alhies highlights the need for the Taliban to be more pragmatic, as ‘Taliban needs to change its triumphalist thinking and to stop viewing the impending withdrawal of NATO and ISAF forces as a vindication of its isolationist discourse and regressive policies, towards other Afghan groups in particular and the political world at large’ (p.13). He also draws attention to the competition between Qatar and Saudi Arabia with regard to playing a part in negotiations with Taliban.