Tyranny by Other Means

It seems that the Taliban in Afghanistan have been brought low to a point where they may be willing to negotiate. But when you look closely at their maximalist demands, you quickly realize that these are not starting points for a realistic solution. The Taliban are now hoping to achieve their civil-rights trampling end by simply asking for them. They have no relinquished one iota of their overall objectives for solidifying Afghanistan once more into a xenophobic, autocratic state guided by an most inhuman ideology that doesn't even pay lip service to basic human freedoms.

CASC co-founder Lauryn Oates explores this theme in the National Post. An excerpt:

As the world focused its attention on the talk of Afghanistan's future at the London Conference in January, no Western media picked up on a declaration, signed by these 200 organizations in Kabul on Jan. 25, that starts, without mincing words: "We, women's rights and Afghan civil society organizations participating in the above mentioned historic meeting, herewith declare the following:

1. Based on the persistent violation of the rights of women and men by the Taliban, whether when in power or after, object to any negotiation with the Taliban.

2. We desire peace and stability in Afghanistan, but we reaffirm that the Afghan Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are non-negotiable."

Canada has a stake in the realization of peace in Afghanistan. But tyranny, even in the absence of war, is not peace. So the Canadian Government needs to ensure it is listening carefully to Afghans, and to their democratically elected members of parliament and to their civil society leaders, and then advocating for the kind of peace that ordinary Afghans want. The Canadian public needs to likewise check itself when hearing of Taliban demands and be reminded that the Taliban are not some kind of popular rebellion who represent the aspirations of the average Afghan. Rather, they are a small band of oppressors long bolstered by the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, for sinister ends. Taliban ideology is rejected by the vast majority of Afghans, and should be viewed as the affront to modernity, human rights and civilization that it is.