A peaceful revolution led by secularists unseats an American ally and sends shockwaves through the Middle East. Everyone wants to co-opt the Egyptian revolution. The Taliban is no exception.
In a statement released online this morning, the Afghan insurgents shoehorn the Egyptian people's achievement into their own context. What matters to the Taliban is that Egyptians deposed a dictator who received "all-sided American and Israeli assistance in financial, political and intelligence fields." Never mind that the main recipient of that aid, the Egyptian military, is currently in charge of Egypt.
It doesn't matter to the Taliban that Egypt lacks the 98,000-strong U.S. troop presence that Afghanistan has, nor that President Obama, at the very least, offered Hosni Mubarak the bare minimum of support against the uprising. For the purposes of their propaganda, the Taliban claim the mantle of the Egyptians, who proved that an "arsenal of weapons, huge army and foreign support is no guarantee for continuation of power; nor they can prevent the caravan of the aspirations of the people from forging ahead."
But the Taliban have to be cautious about praising a revolt animated by civic principles more than Islamic ones. Egypt's "real phase of trial has just began," the statement reads, as the Egyptians must "carve out a new political life and direction as a Muslim nation." It's hardly clear that religion is at the forefront of Egyptian minds right now, but that just goes to show the Taliban flailing.
Another sign: at first the statement attacks the government of Hamid Karzai as a "mafia state," a "pro-America stooge" and a "tenure of tyranny and atrocity." Then it asks those same predatory government officials to "come to yourselves; abandon slavery of foreigners and choose the way of your people," since Obama will abandon Karzai's rule just as he did Mubarak's.
The rest of the statement is boilerplate with few rhetorical connections to Egypt -- condemning a "colonialist system" the U.S. allegedly seeks; decrying the war's violence; portraying their victory as inevitable; even laughing at the size of the U.S. budget deficit ("a sign of your imminent downfall"). But it's a sign of how fluid politics are in the Islamic world after the Egyptian uprising that the Taliban felt compelled to take up the banner of Tahrir Square, even though the millions calling for freedom would be appalled by Taliban rule.
Photo: Flickr/AlJazeeraEnglish
See Also:
- Taliban and al-Qaeda: Unfriended?
- Petraeus Team: Taliban Made Us Wipe Village Out [Updated]
- Egypt Hacked Vodafone to Send Pro-Regime Texts
- Jihadi 'Media Whores' Piggybacking on Egypt Unrest
- New U.S. Intel Push Risks Taliban 'Propaganda Bonanza'
- The Taliban Wants To Wish You A Happy 9/11
- Pak Taliban Spooked by Drones, Insider Account Shows
