The Taliban, explained

How they’ve taken over Afghanistan again.

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The roots of the Taliban movement go back to 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. They were there to prop up a communist Afghan government that was supported by a minority of urban residents. But the vast majority of Afghans lived in rural areas. Here, authority came from tribal and ethnic groups, and life revolved around conservative practices of Islam.

Rural Afghans formed militias called mujahideen and drove out the Soviets. But then they fell into a civil war with each other. Out of this chaos emerged a group of Islamic teachers and students called the Taliban. They swept through the country, destroying mujahideen groups and imposing a strict order. In 1996, they took the capital city of Kabul. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until 2001, when the US invaded.

In a sense, the cycle of invasion and rebellion began again. Urban areas were reformed while rural areas suffered, allowing the Taliban to resurge. In 2021, the Taliban took back Kabul and the country.

Further Reading:
No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes, Anand Gopal
SIGAR quarterly reports: https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2021-10-30qr.pdf
Ghost Wars, Steve Coll
Directorate S, Steve Coll
Taliban: The Unknown Enemy, James Ferguson
The Rise and Fall of Taliban Regime (1994-2001), Dr. Qamar Fatima
Across the Divide, William T. Vollman, The New Yorker
Road Rage, Kathy Gannon, the New Yorker
The Other Afghan Women, Anand Gopal, The New Yorker
The Long War Journal: https://www.longwarjournal.org/mapping-taliban-control-in-afghanistan

These reports from Human Rights Watch and Brown University’s Cost of War project has data that helped us understand Afghan civilian casualties throughout these wars:
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/afghanistan0908/3.htm#_Toc208224420
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2020/Rising%20Civilian%20Death%20Toll%20in%20Afghanistan_Costs%20of%20War_Dec%207%202020.pdf

These reports from the US Government Accountability Office and USAID provided us with useful information on the US-funded reconstruction projects in Afghanistan:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-08-689.pdf
https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/usaid-field-report-afghanistan-oct-2002
https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/usaid-field-report-afghanistan-mar-2003

Afghanistan and Me: https://podcasts.apple.com/hu/podcast/afghanistan-and-me/id73802620?i=1000535848733

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