{"id":9011,"date":"2022-10-02T14:36:25","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T14:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=9011"},"modified":"2022-10-02T14:36:25","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T14:36:25","slug":"afghanistans-staggering-set-of-crises-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=9011","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan\u2019s staggering set of crises, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“The markets in Kabul have food, but few can afford it<\/a>. A sack of flour can cost about $40<\/a>. Businesses struggle to get materials<\/a> because of lack of access to bank accounts or foreign currency. Teachers<\/a> and government workers<\/a> weren\u2019t getting paid, and even if those salaries have resumed<\/a>, incomes are lower<\/a>. People sell furniture and silverware for cash<\/a>. They also sell their kidneys<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Afghanistan in the months after the Taliban marched into Kabul<\/a>, the Afghan government fell<\/a>, and the United States withdrew<\/a>. America\u2019s 20-year war ended, but another crisis replaced it: economic collapse. This was brought on by the near-instant evaporation of billions of dollars<\/a> in foreign aid, sanctions<\/a> on Taliban leaders, and the US\u2019s freezing of Afghanistan\u2019s foreign currency reserves<\/a>. A severe drought<\/a>, the Taliban\u2019s struggles to govern<\/a>, and now the global shocks from the Ukraine war<\/a> have pushed Afghanistan toward humanitarian catastrophe<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Taliban are not changing. In March, in Qatar, the US planned to begin discussions with the Taliban about economic issues, including those frozen funds, but talks fell apart after the Taliban issued their decree stopping girls from attending secondary school<\/a>. Those talks resumed this summer in Doha<\/a>, but Zawahiri\u2019s assassination in Kabul might sidetrack them once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Taliban are content to blame the West, and especially the US, for Afghanistan\u2019s suffering \u2014 but their continued human rights violations and ideological extremism have kept Afghanistan cut off from the world. The Taliban continue to curtails women\u2019s rights, like barring girls from attending school beyond sixth grade<\/a> after they promised they would allow it. The Taliban\u2019s restrictions on freedom of movement for women and girls, and on employment outside the home, have added to the economic strain<\/a>, as they can\u2019t earn income or seek access to things like health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Taliban have also continued to target civil society<\/a>. They embarked on revenge killings<\/a> of former members of the Afghan security forces, and human rights groups and the United Nations <\/a>have documented arbitrary arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings<\/a> across the country, along with the targeting of minority groups<\/a>, specifically the Hazaras, a Shiite population<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Zawahiri killing also eliminated any doubt about what kind of government the Taliban oversees. \u201cThe Taliban \u2014 if there was any doubt \u2014 hasn\u2019t changed,\u201d said Douglas London, who served as the CIA\u2019s counterterrorism chief for South and Southwest Asia and is the author of The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s really the same organization we know from the \u201990s, and thereafter.\u201d As London pointed out, Zawahiri wouldn\u2019t be in Kabul without the Taliban\u2019s permission, a sign they are continuing to give sanctuary to terrorists groups that might threaten the US and its allies, in direct violation of the deal the Taliban signed with the US<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/23161802\/afghanistan-humanitarian-economic-crisis-taliban-united-states<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The markets in Kabul have food, but few can afford it. A sack of flour can cost about $40. Businesses struggle to get materials because of lack of access to bank accounts or foreign currency. Teachers and government workers weren\u2019t getting paid, and even if those salaries have resumed, incomes are lower. People sell furniture and silverware for cash. They also sell their kidneys.<\/p>\n

This is Afghanistan in the months after the Taliban marched into Kabul, the Afghan government fell, and the United States withdrew. America\u2019s 20-year war ended, but another crisis replaced it: economic collapse. This was brought on by the near-instant evaporation of billions of dollars in foreign aid, sanctions on Taliban leaders, and the US\u2019s freezing of Afghanistan\u2019s foreign currency reserves. A severe drought, the Taliban\u2019s struggles to govern, and now the global shocks from the Ukraine war have pushed Afghanistan toward humanitarian catastrophe.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The Taliban are not changing. In March, in Qatar, the US planned to begin discussions with the Taliban about economic issues, including those frozen funds, but talks fell apart after the Taliban issued their decree stopping girls from attending secondary school. Those talks resumed this summer in Doha, but Zawahiri\u2019s assassination in Kabul might sidetrack them once again.<\/p>\n

The Taliban are content to blame the West, and especially the US, for Afghanistan\u2019s suffering \u2014 but their continued human rights violations and ideological extremism have kept Afghanistan cut off from the world. The Taliban continue to curtails women\u2019s rights, like barring girls from attending school beyond sixth grade after they promised they would allow it. The Taliban\u2019s restrictions on freedom of movement for women and girls, and on employment outside the home, have added to the economic strain, as they can\u2019t earn income or seek access to things like health care.<\/p>\n

The Taliban have also continued to target civil society. They embarked on revenge killings of former members of the Afghan security forces, and human rights groups and the United Nations have documented arbitrary arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings across the country, along with the targeting of minority groups, specifically the Hazaras, a Shiite population.<\/p>\n

The Zawahiri killing also eliminated any doubt about what kind of government the Taliban oversees. \u201cThe Taliban \u2014 if there was any doubt \u2014 hasn\u2019t changed,\u201d said Douglas London, who served as the CIA\u2019s counterterrorism chief for South and Southwest Asia and is the author of The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence. \u201cIt\u2019s really the same organization we know from the \u201990s, and thereafter.\u201d As London pointed out, Zawahiri wouldn\u2019t be in Kabul without the Taliban\u2019s permission, a sign they are continuing to give sanctuary to terrorists groups that might threaten the US and its allies, in direct violation of the deal the Taliban signed with the US.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[435],"class_list":["post-9011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-afghanistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9012,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9011\/revisions\/9012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}