Could Afghan Resistance Catch the Attention of Congress?

As anti-Taliban resistance fighters ramp up attacks against the Kabul regime, an Afghanistan veteran turned congressman says it’s time for America to begin supporting their efforts, an idea that also got last week the endorsement of President Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton.In a tweet on Friday, the congressman, Michael Waltz, a former Green Beret, wrote, “We need to give these fighters the capabilities to stop ISIS or Al Qaeda from attacking our homeland again.” Mr. Waltz was referring to support for Afghan resistance groups amid what they say is a renewed offensive by the National Resistance Front. Meanwhile, other resistance groups are also reviving the fight against the Kabul regime, according to a new dispatch in Foreign Policy.Mr. Bolton also endorsed American support for anti-Taliban fighters. In an interview Thursday with a Dari-language program produced by Voice of America, Mr. Bolton said America should “absolutely” be supporting Afghan resistance groups.Mr. Bolton added: “I think the mistake made by the Biden administration withdrawing was a shame for America and a strategic mistake…. I think there is such support in Congress to support the resistance, so perhaps something can be done there.”The calls to support resistance groups in Afghanistan mark a shift in rhetoric in Washington. Since America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, there have been proposals for humanitarian relief for Afghanis, but not for military or material aid to anti-Taliban fighters. The National Resistance Front’s head of foreign affairs, Ali Nazary, told The New York Sun that he was pleased to see the comments from Mr. Waltz. Mr. Nazary took it as a sign that Washington sees the NRF as “the only solution to counter-terrorism and the only force that can establish a democratic government in Afghanistan.”The Foreign Policy article was headlined, “The Afghan Resistance Is Still Fighting.” Its author, Lynne O’Donnell, notes: “Embers of resistance against the Taliban’s brutality are flaring up in Afghanistan.” Ms. O’Donnell observed “clashes” were being “reported across the north and west of the country this week as armed resistance groups frontally take on the Islamists.” Even so, the article notes “an uphill fight against the Islamists in Kabul.”In addition to the NRF, Ms. O’Donnell points to other resistance groups including “the Afghanistan Freedom Front and a group led by the former warlord-politician Atta Mohammad Noor.” Of the NRF, Ms. O’Donnell notes the group “says it is fighting in the Panjshir Valley and the Andarab district in Baghlan province.” She observes the NRF “claims success in ‘liberating’ some districts and causing high Taliban casualties” but she notes, that “evidence”, is “not forthcoming.”Ms. O’Donnell’s cable reckons that the resistance in Afghanistan still has to prove itself on the ground. She summarizes the challenges faced by the anti-Taliban fighters as a “lack of unity, leadership, and a true cross-border haven.” Furthermore, Ms. O’Donnell describes in her article how the current resistance against the Taliban lacks international sponsors. “Neighboring Central Asian states backed by Russia as well as Pakistan and Iran do not want to empower an anti-Taliban resistance that could plunge Afghanistan into full-blown civil war.” Despite the NRF’s recent setback in its offensive in Northeast Afghanistan, the group has claimed on Twitter to have had killed two Taliban commanders in the region in the last 24 hours. The Taliban’s Mullah Ghafaar, described as “a commander from Kandahar,” was killed at Rukha district in Panjshir Province, the NRF said, and another commander, Mullah Malang, was reportedly “killed in an ambush in Bagram district, Parwan.”

Could Afghan Resistance Catch the Attention of Congress?

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