Afghanistan Times
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By Haseeb Rahimi
Most of the wars in history are fought for the personal interest of the filthy rich, Propaganda machines came up with reasons to sell the narrative of war among the citizens.
Taliban is a for-profit organization or aka a limited liability company rather than an Islamic or political movement. Taliban has been in a business of selling fear, drugs, mines, implementing the national interests of Afghanistan´s regional neighbors and particularly gulf states. An article by Dawood Azami on BBC in December 2018 titled `Afghanistan: How does the Taliban Make money?` He identified four major incomes of the Taliban, First, the opium trade that generates close to a billion dollars of profit every year, estimating a 500 plus drug laboratories in southern Afghanistan only; and an annual export of $3 billion.
The second source funding comes from the pursuit of national interests of Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, Estimates are that Taliban are pocking another $200 million to $500 million for providing and enforcing consultations of the states above. The Drug Cartel, mining, and taxation; Taliban cashes in another $500 million.
Yet, their biggest business is selling fear to the U.S. and Europe, which leads to lobbyists in congress push for more wars and ask budget for the Defense and requesting the financial institutions to provide the money. According to an article New York Times titles ` What did the U.S. get for $2 Trillion in Afghanistan? ‘And according to the times, 1.9 Trillion dollars went back to the U.S. providing the interest payments for the war and providing Care for the Veterans. The Close of the 100 Billion dollars that Afghanistan, please look at the SIGAR investigation reports on how they were spent by the USAID.
| Counternarcotic Programs | $10 Billion |
| Training Afghan Military and Police Forces | $87 Billion |
| Economic Development | $24 Billion |
| Other Reconstruction Programs | $30 Billion |
| Interest payments on the loan | $500 Billion |
| Veterans that fought in post 9/11 by 2059 Medical and Disability Cost | $1400 Billion |
On the other side, the world collectively spent close to $2 trillion every year according to the Statistical. The Taliban claim to be a dominant force in Afghanistan and would like an international certification to sell their fear globally, would like to ask for a bigger piece of the pie. If the world is collectively spending 2 trillion on Defense Budgets every year, lobbyists in Guns, financial, and health Care intuitions pushing for wars to make a fortune every year, compared to their earnings, Taliban’s source of income is peanuts. According to the Taliban narrative, they are the source of the funding for all these other private companies to make money, and at the end of the day, their income is less to 0.1% of a world scale defense Budget and 0.4% on a scale of Asia Defense Budget.
Being a Student of Economics in the U.S. I happen to know the very basics of how Washington is run for the filthy rich and the lobbyist. Khalilzad is only a pound in the game of chess, the magnitude of the game is far from the understanding of ordinary taxpayers of the U.S. or Afghanistan. There are countless theories about U.S. peace deal with the Taliban. Is the U.S. going to give the Taliban the international recognition to sell fear globally, so the financial institutions make another trillion in a year? With a negotiating a deal with the U.S., Are Taliban looking into pocketing another extra billions of dollars and have their dominance secured for the next decade or two? With the peace negotiations, what will be the members of Afghanistan be negotiating, how much impact their words and opinions will have in this matter? Is it all for a show?
As a Limited Liability Company, with a workforce of 60,000. With their stakeholders, Governing Council, Human Resource Management system, Finance, Investments, Marketing, the service delivery of fear. Giving the Taliban an international recognition and a so-called ´Peace Deal´, will give the Taliban an ISO 9000 certification. Taliban are looking into this deal and have their plans on what the next phases after the deal.
To understand what is going on in Afghanistan, we must think in terms of numbers, any emotional approach and attachment to his matter will be extremely counterproductive. Will this deal secure our spot for us in 21 century as a nation? Or the Taliban sell their story on a gunpoint. What kind of story will we narrate for our future generations? I know everyone is tired of war, and war has brought a lot of misery to the Afghanistan State? A peace deal with the organization that is looking for expansion is not a reliable solution.
The writer is Ex-Instructor of Mathematics at AUAF,
Ex-Advisor at Ministry of Finance
Co-Founder at Economic Club of Kabul
Twitter: @rahimi_haseeb
