Last week, I joined the radio program and podcast Beyond Politics to discuss the anniversary and the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
It was not an uplifting conversation. There is only one way in which Afghanistan is better today than a year ago. Fewer civilians are being killed by conflict between the Taliban and Afghan forces, since of course there are no Afghan forces anymore and the war is over. Otherwise, every other aspect of life in Afghanistan is worse after a year of Taliban rule. Does that come as any surprise? As I discussed on the program, the Taliban did not follow the quasi-moderate vision they were selling a year ago.
Again, no surprise there. Yet, the Taliban disappointed the few optimists and grew more repressive. They have dialed back rights and freedoms every few months. Now, women are living under pretty much the same conditions as they faced under Taliban regime 1. The economy is an utter disaster with little private sector remaining and unemployment in the ballpark of 40 percent according to some estimates.
To make matters worse, the leader of al-Qaeda popped up in Kabul living in a house a five-minute walk from where I used to live. Fortunately, a U. For now, it means Taliban efforts to gain legitimacy and have billions in Afghan funds unfrozen will go nowhere.
That further punishes the Afghan people. This gets to the question of what the United States and international community can do at this point to pressure the Taliban and help the Afghan people. The short answer is not much. On the carrot side, there has been a big one dangling for a year: billions of dollars in frozen funds.
