Afghanistan has changed. What if exiled Taliban have not?
The Taliban are set to reclaim some power in Afghanistan – if not orchestrate their own wholesale military takeover – as remaining U.S. forces prepare to withdraw and end America’s longest war by Sept. 11.
In the interim, a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Kabul remains elusive, and the Taliban are gearing up for their annual spring offensive – even promising “every necessary countermeasure” against the United States for ignoring a May 1 pullout deadline that the militants agreed to in February 2020 with then-President Donald Trump.
It’s a vow that fits a pattern of uncompromising Taliban positions that appear to barely recognize – or to directly oppose – the dramatic social and political changes in Afghanistan since the U.S. ousted the Taliban’s self-proclaimed “Islamic Emirate” two decades ago.
And it
