The Taliban functioned as Pakistan’s proxy, not a genuine anti-imperialist movement

Evidence

The Taliban is also not a principled anti-imperialist force. In addition to its willingness to negotiate with the United States in the 1990s, the Taliban has close ties to Pakistan and at times acts as a conduit of Pakistani influence in Afghanistan. As discussed earlier, Pakistan nurtured and cultivated the Taliban and, even today Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), maintains strong ties with the Afghan Taliban. In a region destroyed by three decades of war, with an economy dominated by opium production and sales and lacking in industry, the political forces that come into being must inevitably enact the agendas of greater powers. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 368

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the Islamophobia literature on how resistance movements are reframed by states; contrasts with any reading that treats Taliban as authentic anti-imperialism. — connects to: Pakistan’s Cold War clienthood aligned it against Third World anti-imperial sentiment; The rescue narrative about Afghan women erased US complicity in Taliban empowerment; US Cold War arms policy directly aided the rise of the Taliban — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 46 (+3 more)