Conservative Think Tank Calls for American Support of the Anti-Taliban Afghan Resistance

The Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, has issued a paper calling for the United States to support the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan against the Islamist terrorist Taliban militia that took over Afghanistan in 2021: US Has an Opportunity to Support the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan | Hudson (https://www.hudson.org/node/45119). The paper calls for outreach to the only organized resistance to the Taliban that favors an ethnically inclusive representative form of government for Afghanistan and possible military support. There is other ethnic and religious resistance in Afghanistan, as well as attacks by the terrorist Islamist Islamic State, a rival offshoot of the al-Qaeda terrorists allied with the Taliban, but the National Resistance Front (NRF) is led by the son of the greatest mujhadeen commander against the Soviets during their 1979-1988 invasion and the vice president of the internationally recognized Afghan government. Although mostly Tajik, who are one of the largest ethnic groups in Afghanistan, the NRF attracted Afghan security forces from around the Central Asian State and has recruited from surrounding areas as it continues to harass Taliban forces from its base in the Panjshir Valley. Late last fall, the U.S. did conduct some official meetings with the NRF, which at least confers some legitimacy, even though the Biden Administration opposes violent resistance to the Taliban, which it has refused to recognize as the legitimate Afghan government. The Taliban had ruled Afghanistan before the U.S. led an international force to overthrow them after al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 Attacks on America that killed nearly 3,000 people, but the disastrous Trump-Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan allowed the terrorists sponsors and allies to return to power, as I have posted about. The Taliban have returned to their oppressive ways. The U.S. should consider steps beyond meetings to support the principles of liberty and representative government that the NRF shares with Americans and Westerners, to provide the NRF and their supporters with the solidarity they deserve, instead of abandoning them to our shared enemies, and to keep pressure on the Taliban not to allow Afghanistan to become again a safe harbor for al-Qaeda and other affiliated terrorists.