Blog - Debate About the Taliban

So, we all participated in the Taliban debate a few days ago on Wednesday and my position has changed slightly for the first time this semester. I initially chose to join the side espousing a military presence in Afghanistan for two primary reasons. One, the Taliban believe that the U.S. (and her allies in Europe) are direct products of Satan due to our support for Israel, our Christian values, and our belief in capitalism. Their primary objective involves destroying the West and completely eliminating all of its citizens in order to establish a worldwide caliphate for Allah. Two, the Taliban have no tolerance for individuals who happen to disagree with their radical beliefs. They torture and even murder innocent men, women, and children solely due to the fact that they do not concur with their extremist actions. In my eyes, a group that intends to subjugate our culture and that regularly bestows harm to innocent members of the Afghan populace is unacceptable. So, the question arises: how do we cease the Taliban from accomplishing their goal of global Islamic domination and precluding them from the continuation of their harsh civilian abuse? I still believe that a military presence can be employed to stop the Taliban forces if absolutely necessary, but I now feel that diplomacy could work based on the argument that one of the other sides expounded during our debate. The one assertion that compelled me to rethink my position involved the notion that an ideology, such as the one held by the Taliban, cannot be demolished (I’m fairly certain that Jono introduced this argument so all credit goes to him on this one). It’s impossible to eliminate every individual who embraces such radical beliefs because the ideology lives on and pervades other individuals who are observing it favorably from other countries. Adam Gadahn, an American-born citizen, joined Al-Qaeda in Pakistan during the late-nineties because he read, studied, and learned about jihad and Islamic terrorism while residing in California. If, by some miracle, all Al-Qaeda members in Pakistan were killed in the mid-nineties (before Gadahn officially joined them), Gadahn would still be alive in California and hence the ideology would remain extant despite the complete destruction of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. I believe this logic can be applied to our Taliban debate. Even if our military destroyed all the Taliban forces in Afghanistan, there would still be individuals abroad who support and sympathize with their causes just like Gadahn did with Al-Qaeda. In the end, I support diplomacy because it is better equipped and has a better chance at decreasing the extremism of an ideology than our military currently possesses.