After a pact made between the US and the Taliban, the ultraconservative political and militaristic group endorsed President Donald Trump.
As the year moves forward it gets harder for me to not believe that we jumped into some wacky parallel universe. The headlines continue to get wilder and more outrageous as if time itself is surprising us by saying, “oh, you thought THAT was freaky, just wait until you get a load of THIS!” I did my daily check of the news and this was the first thing to come to mind Saturday, October 10th. The headline: Taliban endorses president Trump.
The Taliban is an ultraconservative military and political group in Afghanistan. The United States has occupied Afghanistan since 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks. Since then, the US has continued to occupy Afghanistan and many parts of the Middle East, declaring groups like the Taliban terrorist organizations. We know, and have always know, US occupation was motivated more by oil than by terrorism.
After a pact made between the US and the Taliban, the ultraconservative political and militaristic group endorsed Trump. A huge reason for the Taliban’s support of Trump is because of his promise to get the United States’ troops out of Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News, “We believe that Trump is going to win the upcoming election because he has proved himself a politician who accomplished all the major promises he had made to American people, although he might have missed some small things, but did accomplish the bigger promises, so it is possible that the U.S. people who experienced deceptions in the past will once again trust Trump for his decisive actions.”
When looking more in depth to the reasons why the Taliban likes Trump, things get a little too spooky for October. They like Trump’s “America first” policy, not surprising when looking at the Taliban’s mode of conducting themselves in a manner that puts them first. They like his clear cut honesty and his support for the second amendment. Not surprising coming from a hyper-militaristic group, however this should be of concern to Americans that the Taliban views Trump in such a high pedestal.
This endorsement was followed by two things that must have left the Taliban as heartbroken as a Taylor Swift song. Much like a cringe super-like on Tinder, the Trump Administration was quick to reject the Taliban’s endorsement. One can imagine that the Taliban was left heartbroken and rejected, especially after being led on from the from the pact made in February where the US agreed to begin a slow removal of troops from Afghanistan.
To make that rejection set in more, Sunday Oct. 18 the US defended airstrikes that the Taliban claims was in violation of their pact. This trail of events leads me to continue to continue to think one thing; the pact was a political tactic for the Trump administration.
All jokes aside, there is no question that the US should leave its occupation of the Middle East. However, I would like to point out that the slow removal was a political tactic to cover Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to remove the Troops from the Middle East. Obviously Trump didn’t keep his promise, and in order to look more clean come election time a “slow removal” is a way to look good while also not completely leaving Afghanistan; and the Taliban fell for it.
The Trump administration claims that there will be a complete removal of troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. Despite this, I am still inclined to believe this to be a political move to cover a false promise and to hold single issue voters hostage. The fact that he had three years to get out of Afghanistan and just made a deal this right before campaign season leads me to believe that this is a political tactic to make Trump look good. If he really cared, he would have an immediate removal rather than making the complete removal date after his second election.
In the end we are just reminded that this presidency is so bad it cannot even maintain its original promises made on the 2016 campaign trail. When the administration tried to do a last minute scandal, it completely backfired with both sides confused and unsure on where to go from here. The Trump Administration was quick to reject any association with the Taliban and went as far as to break a historic pact in order to seemingly prove a point. I now expect Lorde to get an increase in sales in Afghanistan as the Taliban continues to cope with their heartbreak.
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