Will Afghanistan, Again, Become a Cradle for Jihadism? | The Narrative of America in Retreat Is False | Budding Resistance to the Taliban, and more

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Like other Biden administration officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken got many things wrong about the exit from Afghanistan. However, he is entirely right about one major point. “Most of our strategic competitors around the world would like nothing better than for us to remain in Afghanistan for another year, five years, ten years, and have those resources dedicated to being in the midst of a civil war,” Blinken told CNN. Jettisoning ill-advised obligations to weak foreign clients that have little or no intrinsic value to America’s security actually benefits this country in the long term. Retaining the Afghanistan albatross in the name of preserving U.S. credibility would have been the hallmark of folly.

Inside the Hidden War Between the Taliban and ISIS  (Alan Cullison, Wall Street Journal)
Two days before he was shot dead by the Taliban, Abu Omar Khorasani, a onetime leader of Islamic State in Afghanistan, sat slumped in a dingy Afghan prison interview room, waiting for his soon-to-be executioners. Mr. Khorasani saw the Taliban’s advance as a harbinger for change. For years both organizations had sworn to rid Afghanistan of nonbelievers. “They will let me free if they are good Muslims,” he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. When Taliban fighters seized Kabul last week, they took control of the prison, freed hundreds of inmates, and killed Mr. Khorasani and eight other members of his terror group. Just as the Taliban has been fighting American coalition forces in Afghanistan, it has been waging a separate but parallel war against its rival Islamist group. On one side are the Taliban, who have co-opted remnants of al Qaeda. On the other is the Afghan arm of Islamic State, known as ISIS-K, which has sought to incorporate parts of Afghanistan into a broader caliphate emanating from the Middle East. The Taliban, assisted at times by other countries and U.S. coalition forces, were the winner in that effort, defense officials say. ISIS-K has been driven from its enclaves in Afghanistan and its fighters dispersed into hiding.

Airport Attack Underscores How the Taliban Could Fail  (Michael Kugelman,Foreign Policy)
Facing security risks and shaky legitimacy, the group will struggle to govern and consolidate power.

The Taliban Are Far Closer to the Islamic State Than They Claim  (Sajjan M. Gohel, Foreign Policy)
The terror group behind the Kabul attacks has close ties to the Haqqani network.

America’s Flight from Afghanistan Will Embolden Jihadists Around the World  (Economist)
Even if the Taliban do little to help other fighters, their success is an inspiration.

Budding Resistance to the Taliban Faces Long Odds  (Carlotta Gall and Adam Nossiter, New York Times)
For now, the fighters have merely two assets: a narrow valley with a history of repelling invaders and the legacy of a storied mujahedeen commander.

What Chance Does the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan Have Against the Taliban?  (Campbell MacDiarmid, The Telegraph)
With the Taliban determined to press its advantage, NRF leader Ahmad Massoud may be tested on his vow to fight to the last breath

Son of Legendary Afghan Commander Seeks “Settlement” Over Last Anti-Taliban Stronghold  ((Campbell MacDiarmid, The Telegraph)
Ahmad Massoud is part of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, but is seeking to reach a deal with the Taliban

72 Hours at Camp David: Inside Biden’s Lagging Response to the Fall of Afghanistan  (Ashley Parker, Tyler Pager, and Annie Linskey, Washington Post)
Marine One lifted off Friday at 1:36 p.m. for Camp David bearing a leader headed on a long-planned August vacation: President Biden, clad in a black baseball cap and a light-blue short-sleeved shirt, carried a lone piece of luggage and was accompanied by his wife and a small retinue of staff.
But when the president’s official helicopter touched back down 72 hours later in Washington, the leader who emerged was preparing to address the biggest foreign policy crisis of his presidency — a rapidly devolving catastrophe in Afghanistan that has left the administration scrambling to evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghan nationals before the Taliban’s stunningly swift takeover of the nation is complete.
One close Biden foreign policy ally, who is in regular contact with the White House and the State Department, said the president’s team would never have let him leave for Camp David had they known just how quickly Afghanistan would implode amid the president’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops by Sept. 11.

Afghanistan, Again, Becomes a Cradle for Jihadism—and Al Qaeda  (Robin Wright, New Yorker)
In March, I travelled to Afghanistan and the Middle East with General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, Jr., the Alabama-born marine who heads Central Command. He has been overseeing the frantic evacuation out of Kabul. During one of several interviews aboard his plane, I asked him, “Do you really think, given the intermarriage, the interweaving of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, that the Taliban is really ever going to be able or willing to restrain Al Qaeda from doing anything against us?” By then, the Taliban held roughly half of Afghanistan, a country about the size of Texas. McKenzie was chillingly candid. “I think it will be very hard for the Taliban to act against Al Qaeda, to actually limit their ability to attack outside the country,” he replied. “It’s possible, but I think it would be difficult.” For more than a year, both the Trump and Biden Administrations had reams of warnings—from the military and diplomats, congressional reports and a commissioned study group, its own inspector general, and the United Nations—that the collapse of the Afghan government, an ever-growing possibility, would also mean a resurgence of Al Qaeda. In April, a U.S. intelligence assessment warned Congress that Al Qaeda’s senior leadership “will continue to plot attacks and seek to exploit conflicts in different regions.