The Taliban seem to think they have seen off the Americans in Afghanistan, just as they saw off the Russians. The country is a graveyard for invaders; the Afghans like nothing better than fighting foreigners because it saves them from fighting each other.
According to The Times, one Afghan ‘senior adviser’ says: ‘It is the Americans asking us to make peace so that they can leave Afghanistan not the other way around. They talk to us directly to make the deal, not to the Afghan government. We will be the winners in peace, or the winners in war. Either way, the Americans will leave and the Taliban will be back.’
The country’s tragedy is not that it has been invaded many times by unsuccessful imperialist armies but that it cannot last long as a single entity. They may witness the withdrawal of the Americans but that won’t bring peace and stability to the country; it will just make it more dangerous for everybody.
The Trials of Eldred Pottinger 