As the United States debates deploying 4,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan to stem the advances of the Taliban, which has overrun much of the country, Western diplomats keep repeating the same old line: that only a political settlement can end the war there. By now, even the Pentagon accepts that negotiation, not triumph, is the ultimate goal. But a political settlement may be as elusive as a military victory, and the Western coalition supporting the Afghan government may have less time to resolve the conflict than it thinks.
In the 1990s, U.S. officials said the Taliban would never be capable of capturing the entire country. And yet by 2001, says Marvin G. Weinbaum, an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, “the insurgents had conquered all the country except for a small part of the northeast.”
"ACCORDING TO THE U.S., THE TALIBAN REALIZED THAT IT COULD NEVER TAKE URBAN AREAS. IF THE INSURGENTS HAD IN FACT COME TO THIS CONCLUSION, THEY WOULD HAVE STOPPED TRYING."
And they’re at it again. The Taliban reportedly controls more territory in Afghanistan now than at any point since 2001, when an American-led invasion expelled the Sunni fundamentalists from Kabul. The insurgents have stormed Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, several times and surrounded other provincial capitals, from Lashkar Gah to Tirin Kot. Desperate to conclude America’s longest war, U.S. officials have tried forcing the Taliban to the negotiating table, both with military pressure and through back channels. These efforts have included attempts at a peace process arranged by the insurgents’ Pakistani patrons.
Weinbaum, who worked as a State Department intelligence officer analyzing Afghanistan and Pakistan between 1999 and 2003, warns against underestimating the Taliban. “According to the U.S., the Taliban realized that it could never take urban areas. If the insurgents had in fact come to this conclusion, they would have stopped trying.” So while American leaders may assume there’s no military solution, that doesn’t mean the extremists are on the same page. “[The Taliban] has demonstrated extraordinary patience.”
The insurgents’ offensives against and suicide attacks on cities from Kabul to Kunduz show that, contrary to American assumptions, they have the firepower, manpower and willpower to capture urban areas and outlast Afghan and Western opposition. Weinbaum argues that the Pakistani intelligence officers known to support the insurgency have less leverage than the United States hopes. “Pakistan and the Taliban coordinate well when they have the same goals, but Pakistan can’t control the Taliban,” he warns. In fact, he says, “the insurgents have often embarrassed Pakistan — as when, in 2001, they destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Pakistan can prevent or upset negotiations, but it can’t dictate to the Taliban, he explains. “The Pakistanis oppose talks that they can’t control.”
