{"id":71153,"date":"2021-08-15T14:47:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T14:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=71153"},"modified":"2021-08-15T14:47:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T14:47:10","slug":"afghans-in-taliban-crosshairs-want-us-to-stay-and-protect-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=71153","title":{"rendered":"Afghans in Taliban crosshairs want US to stay and protect them"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"News Desk:<\/strong> It is a sanctuary in the middle of madness \u2014 an example of calm before an all but certain storm.<\/p>\n

Sheathed in blue burkas, women drift in and out of the historic Blue Mosque, deep in thought.<\/p>\n

Men sit together beneath the trees to block out the sweltering summer sunshine in small reading circles, and children splash in the foundation of freshwater.<\/p>\n

You would not know that less than a 30-minute drive away, Taliban insurgents are battling local and government forces \u2014 ever so slowly choking the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif as the US withdraws from its \u201cforever war.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the Afghan government only controlled two other major cities, Kabul and Jalalabad.<\/p>\n

Members of the Afghan National Army Commando Corps in the area say they are fully confident that Mazar will not fall.<\/p>\n

But the locals are not so sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Taliban is all around Mazar,\u201d said a shopkeeper named Shamsula who appeared far more weathered than his 35 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it will be one day or two days. We don\u2019t know how long until they come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cBut if America stays here, life would be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asif, 23, echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want very much for the US to stay,\u201d he said in soft, halting English.<\/p>\n

Asif used to be a police officer in Kabul and was severely wounded in the twelve-hour standoff with the Taliban on the InterContinental Hotel in 2018.<\/p>\n

But he has no bitterness about the long-running war.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I got to meet and work with the Americans,\u201d he said proudly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they might stay? You see, the situation now is not good. So maybe they see this and stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although many in Mazar worry that the city could fall to the Taliban at any time, it\u2019s not possible for ordinary citizens to cower in their houses.<\/p>\n

Life must go on, and people continue to work hard to survive and provide.<\/p>\n

And they do so with gusto.<\/p>\n

Streets are still stuffed with honking cars and open-air markets still brim with beggars, shopkeepers, bread-makers and kebab cafes from dusk to dawn.<\/p>\n

Technically, there is a 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew, but there seems to be no one around to enforce it.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there is an odd, Wild West feeling to the city, which appears largely unprotected.<\/p>\n

There are no policemen patrolling the streets or soldiers in uniforms.<\/p>\n

On rare occasions, a tank will roll through the traffic-clogged, dusty streets, flying a weathered Afghan flag to signal loyalty to the government in Kabul.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will go anywhere where there is peace. If the Taliban comes to Mazar, the war will go on, and they will kill,\u201d lamented Khalil, a 38-year-old shopkeeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen America got out, things happened very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned slowly toward the scorching midday sun and cocked his head with a question.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think America would still stay?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Most in Mazar-i-Sharif express a sense of admiration for the US, despite how the invasion morphed into a nearly 20-year occupation.<\/p>\n

One shopkeeper\u2019s stand is walled by a large blue-and-red \u201cTrump 2020: No More Bulls\u2014\u201d flag that he poses alongside with a cheeky smile.<\/p>\n

However, there are others who want to know why Washington appears to be abandoning their country to the wolves.<\/p>\n

Lal Muhammad, a 23-year-old English teacher, recalled chilling details of fleeing his hometown of Sheberghan last week as the Taliban blitzed through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was too horrible; there was so much violence. After three months on the outside, the Taliban was able to come inside and take over the whole city,\u201d he said, his voice cracking with emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were able to take over a prison and release all the prisoners, and then they went to the hospital and killed all the wounded soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a further illustration, he described meeting a mother he met at the hospital in Mazar this week, who brought in her sick son whose \u201cleg was cut at the knee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was crying, and she was saying that a bomb hit and her four sons and one daughter and husband all killed. Just the boy who was cut at the knees survived,\u201d Lal said angrily.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven a dog has more value than an Afghan in this world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The last thin ray of hope for the beleaguered citizens \u2014 aside from the illusory dream that the US might reverse course and not withdraw troops \u2014 lies in the \u201cpublic uprising forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those ragtag, all-volunteer militia groups are loyal not to Kabul but to the notorious regional warlords Atta Mohammad Noor and Abdul Rashid Dostum, who aided American forces after Sept. 11 to bring the Taliban to its knees.<\/p>\n

Multiple insiders say that these unofficial forces have the skill and the will to beat back the Taliban but are hamstrung by insufficient arms.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the government is purporting to bring the uprising forces under the formal umbrella of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) to try to keep some semblance of control over the militia outfits, which are estimated to comprise at least 6,000 fighters.<\/p>\n

But the clock is ticking, and the morale of the Mazar people is fast falling by the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has all the power to stand and get out the Taliban, but it is not happening. We go to sleep and wake up, and the Taliban has taken another province,\u201d bemoaned Muhammad Aslan, 58, who works for an electric company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen America finally goes, we will be finished,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Source: New York Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Desk: It is a sanctuary in the middle of madness \u2014 an example of calm before an all but certain storm. Sheathed in blue burkas, women drift in and out of the historic Blue Mosque, deep in thought. Men sit together beneath the trees to block out the sweltering summer sunshine in small reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":71154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n