Mr. Haqqani will fit comfortably in the new Afghan government led by Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. He’s an Islamic fundamentalist who wants to govern the country under strict Shariah law. The new prime minister is Mullah Hassan Akhund, who was foreign minister in the pre-9/11 Islamic Emirate in Kabul. Critics who said the Taliban were never serious about negotiating a power-sharing agreement were right.
These are the men that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden are counting on to allow the departure of the Americans and Afghan allies who are still trapped in Afghanistan. They are also supposed to prevent jihadists from again using the country as a sanctuary.
In the aftermath of 9/11, George W. Bush declared that the U.S. would no longer distinguish between terrorists and the governments that harbor them. Now, after Mr. Biden’s calamitous withdrawal, the U.S. is in the incredible position of hoping to make a government run by terrorists our partners.
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