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During years of talks in flamboyant Qatari hotels, US diplomats warned the Taliban of dire scenarios if they failed in Afghanistan peace talks. The message was clear: do not occupy Kabul with weapons, because if you do, your regime will face economic isolation and your country will be without money. This was not a hollow threat. After the Taliban ignored the warnings and won in August 2021, Western governments responded by suspending development aid, freezing government assets, crippling banks and imposing sanctions to restrict the private sector. The economic crisis has driven more than half of Afghanistan's population to starvation.
It makes sense for Western officials to justify their deportation of the Taliban to the economic desert. However, this is a mistake. Even if such punishment is appropriate for the Taliban's countless crimes, isolating Afghanistan is a defeat for the West itself and contrary to its goals. A more realistic approach is to work with the new Taliban government to provide basic government services, a policy based on the calculations of today's geopolitical interests rather than the mistakes of the past.
The United States and its allies must reduce their restrictions and work to help revitalize Afghanistan's economy. Doing so strengthens regional stability, halts the drug trade, and reduces the likelihood of another migration crisis. Saving millions of Afghans out of poverty may also help rebuild US credibility after its turbulent exit. Its inevitable side effect will be to help the Taliban regime, but such exchanges are a sign of real politics. Lord Palmerston was right that nations should not have a "permanent enemy", even though the challenges of a policy of dealing with Islamist militias that have completely taken over a country may never have occurred to this British politician.
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