The Taliban Insurgency Example

The Taliban Insurgency Example The Taliban Insurgency â€" Term Paper Example > IntroductionThe Taliban refers to an Islamist political and militant organization that propelled itself to the seat of power and ruled almost the entire Afghanistan not leaving the capital, Kabul from September 1996. The Taliban is a component of the holy warriors known as mujahideen that sprang up during the Soviet Union occupation of the nation from 1979 to 1989. Upon withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the Soviet backed Afghan government did not withstand the strength of mujahideen, thus lost footing to them. The Taliban exerted their authority by capturing Kabul and setting up a government in 1992. Its interim president was Burhanuddin Rabbani, but due to lack of understanding and cooperation, the various factions of the militant group started quarreling amongst themselves. The country was eventually reduced to territories under the control of numerous armed factions. Close examination of the Taliban movement shows that it is largely embraced by Pashtun tribes, which is the larges t in the country. The rise to power by TalibanGroups of religious students known as taliban were united on the basis of their geographical locations during the military occupation by the Soviet Union and the civil war. Although they had the potential of forming a large force, there were no signs of unity until taliban of Kandahar decided to initiate a move in 1994. In that year, a selection of well-trained taliban was carried out by the Pakistani authorities to provide protection for a delegation that was mandated to open a business corridor to Central Asia from Pakistan (Nasir, 2011). The initiative proved worthwile as they were able to defeat rival warlords and mujahideen. This provided the taliban with the motivation and impetus to take Kandahar city, which spread to other urban centers until it reached the country’s capital, Kabul in September 1996.According to Jayshree (2011), many of the people who enlisted in the Taliban were former members of mujahedin who had been disill usioned with the constant conflicts that characterized the mujahedin parties. Many of them crossed border into Pakistan to take up Islamic studies in the Islamic seminaries known as madrassas. Owing to the fact that most of the movement members were from Pashtun tribe, most of the Taliban practices were in line with the conservative traditions of the tribe. The Taliban therefore viewed the interim government headed by Rabbani very corrupt as well as anti-Pashtun, thus the civil war that broke out in 1992 and ended in 1996 created a popular support in favor of Taliban as having the ability to bring stability. Ascending to power of the Taliban brought a lot of changes to societal governance of the country. For example, the Taliban enforced a very strict interpretations of the Muslim law referred to as Sharia law, thus gained notoriety for their inhumane treatment of women. They were not required to get out of their homes, go to school and expose their bodies. The Taliban military s upports were from the Central Asian and Arab armed groups as well as the Pakistani Army. A rare support also came from Al Qaeda, which was instrumental in providing the rag-tag militia organization with imported troops from Central Asia and some Arab nations. The foreign militia involvement was evident when it emerged that about 44,000 troops fighting for Taliban ideologies and rule, only about 15,000 were native Afghans. The influence of the Taliban spread its wings to include northwestern Afghanistan, which was a clear indication why the Western governments were furious with their Pakistani counterparts for supporting terrorism. The popularity of the militant organization with the people of Afghan was due to the fact that most of them were tired of constant conflicts and killings, and were looking for a system that can restore peace and eliminate rampant corruption (Nasir, 2011).