{"id":194723,"date":"2021-09-13T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=194723"},"modified":"2021-09-11T07:03:27","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T06:03:27","slug":"what-to-expect-from-taliban-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/09\/what-to-expect-from-taliban-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Expect from Taliban 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>A wiser, better-traveled and social media-savvy Taliban will strive to avoid the many dire mistakes of its 1996-2001 rule.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_194724\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/taliban-leaders-afghanistan.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-194724\" class=\"wp-image-194724\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/taliban-leaders-afghanistan.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/taliban-leaders-afghanistan.webp 800w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/taliban-leaders-afghanistan-300x215.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/taliban-leaders-afghanistan-768x550.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-194724\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Taliban delegation in Doha on August 12, 2021.<br \/>AFP via Getty Images \/ Karim Jaafar<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>8 Sep 2021 &#8211; <\/em>The announcement by Taliban spokesman Zahibullah Mujahid in Kabul of the acting cabinet ministers in the new caretaker government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan already produced a big bang: it managed to enrage both woke NATOstan and the US Deep State.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>This is an all-male, overwhelmingly Pashtun (there\u2019s one Uzbek and one Tajik) cabinet essentially rewarding the Taliban old guard. All 33 appointees are Taliban members.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammad Hasan Akhund \u2013 the head of the Taliban Rehbari Shura, or leadership council, for 20 years \u2013 will be the acting prime minister. For all practical purposes, Akhund is branded a terrorist by the UN and the EU, and under sanctions by the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \"><\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s no secret Washington brands some Taliban factions as foreign terrorist organizations, and sanctions the whole of the Taliban as a \u201cspecially designated global terrorist\u201d organization.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s crucial to stress that Himatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban supreme leader since 2016, is <em>amir al-momineen<\/em> (\u201ccommander of the faithful\u201d). He can\u2019t be a prime minister; his role is that of a supreme spiritual leader, setting the guidelines for the Islamic Emirate and mediating disputes \u2013 politics included.<\/p>\n<p>Akhunzada has released a statement saying that the new government \u201cwill work hard toward upholding Islamic rules and sharia law in the country\u201d and will ensure \u201clasting peace, prosperity and development.\u201d He added: \u201cPeople should not try to leave the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?w=1538&amp;ssl=1 1538w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?resize=1536%2C1025&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?resize=1200%2C801&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Mullah-Mohammad-Hassan-Akhund-Afghanistan-Taliban.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>New Afghan Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is widely accused of terrorism. Image: Screengrab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Spokesman Mujahid took pains to stress that this new cabinet is just an \u201cacting\u201d government. This implies that one of the next big steps will be to set up a new constitution. The Taliban will \u201ctry to take people from other parts of the country\u201d \u2013 implying positions for women and Shiites may still be open, but not at the top level. <strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, who so far had been busy diplomatically as the head of the political office in Doha, will be deputy prime minister. He was a Taliban co-founder in 1994 and a close friend of Mullah Omar, who called him <em>baradar<\/em> (\u201cbrother\u201d) in the first place.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \"><\/aside>\n<p>A predictable torrent of hysteria greeted the appointment of Sirajuddin Haqqani as acting minister of interior. After all, the son of Haqqani founder Jalaluddin, one of three deputy emirs and the Taliban military commander with a fierce reputation, has a US$10 million US FBI bounty on his head.<\/p>\n<p>His FBI \u201cwanted\u201d page is not exactly a prodigy of intel: they don\u2019t know when or where he was born, only that he speaks Pashto and Arabic.<\/p>\n<p>This may be the new government\u2019s top challenge: to prevent Sirajuddin and his wild boys from acting medieval in non-Pashtun areas of Afghanistan, and most of all to make sure the Haqqanis cut off any connections with jihadi outfits.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a <em>sine qua non<\/em> condition established by the China-Russia strategic partnership for political, diplomatic and economic development support.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign policy will be much more accommodating. Amir Khan Muttaqi, also a member of the political office in Doha, will be the acting foreign minister, and his deputy will be Abas Stanikzai, who\u2019s in favor of cordial relations with Washington and the rights of Afghan religious minorities.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \"><\/aside>\n<p>Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar, will be the acting defense minister.<\/p>\n<p>So far, the only non-Pashtuns are Abdul Salam Hanafi, an Uzbek, appointed as second deputy to the Prime Minister, and Qari Muhammad Hanif, a Tajik, the acting Minister of Economic Affairs, a very important post.<\/p>\n<h4>The Tao of staying patient<\/h4>\n<p>The Taliban Revolution has already hit the Walls of Kabul \u2013 which are fast being painted white with Kufic letter inscriptions. One of these reads: \u201cFor an Islamic system and independence, you have to go through tests and stay patient.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3701.jpg?resize=780%2C468&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3701.jpg?w=1240&amp;ssl=1 1240w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3701.jpg?resize=768%2C461&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3701.jpg?resize=1200%2C720&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3701.jpg?resize=400%2C240&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3701.jpg?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3701.jpg?resize=706%2C424&amp;ssl=1 706w\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>The inscription in the Kabul walls referred to in the text. Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That\u2019s quite a Taoist statement: striving for balance towards a real \u201cIslamic\u201d system. It offers a crucial glimpse of what the Taliban leadership may be after: As Islamic theory allows for evolution, the new Afghanistan system will be necessarily unique, quite different from Qatar\u2019s or Iran\u2019s, for instance.<\/p>\n<p>In the Islamic legal tradition, followed directly or indirectly by rulers of Turko-Persian states for centuries, to rebel against a Muslim ruler is illegitimate because it creates<em> fitna<\/em> (sedition, conflict). That was already the rationale behind the crushing of the fake \u201cresistance\u201d in the Panjshir \u2013 led by former vice-president and CIA asset Amrullah Saleh.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \"><\/aside>\n<p>The Taliban tried serious negotiations, sending a delegation of 40 Islamic scholars to the Panjshir.<\/p>\n<p>But then Taliban intel established that Ahmad Masoud \u2013 whose father, the legendary Lion of the Panjshir, who was assassinated two days before 9\/11 \u2013 was operating under orders of French and Israeli intel. And that sealed his fate: not only he was creating <em>fitna<\/em>; he was a foreign agent. His partner Saleh, the \u201cresistance\u201d de facto leader, fled by helicopter to Tajikistan.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s fascinating to note a parallel between Islamic legal tradition and Hobbes\u2019s <em>Leviathan<\/em>, which justifies absolute rulers. The Hobbesian Taliban: that\u2019s a hefty research topic for US think-tankland.<\/p>\n<p>The Taliban also follow the rule that a war victory \u2013 and there\u2019s none more spectacular than defeating combined NATO power \u2013 allows for undisputed political power, although that does not discard strategic alliances. We\u2019ve already seen it in terms of how the moderate, Doha-based political Taliban are accommodating the Haqqanis \u2013 an extremely sensitive business.<\/p>\n<p>Abdul Haqqani will be the acting minister for higher education; Najibullah Haqqani will be minister of communications; and Khalil Haqqani, so far ultra-active as interim head of security in Kabul, will be minister for refugees.<\/p>\n<p>The next step will be much harder: to convince the urban, educated populations in the big cities \u2013 Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif \u2013 not only of their legitimacy, acquired on the frontlines, but that they will crush the corrupt urban elite who plundered the nation for the past 20 years.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?resize=780%2C1386&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?resize=768%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?resize=864%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 864w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?resize=1152%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?resize=400%2C711&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?resize=300%2C533&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E-s5-oEXsAEt2VN.jpeg?resize=706%2C1255&amp;ssl=1 706w\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>The full list of the 33 appointees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>All that while engaging in a credible, national-interest process of improving the lives of average Afghans under a new Islamic system. It will be crucial to watch what kind of practical and financial help the emir of Qatar will offer.<\/p>\n<p>The new cabinet has elements of a Pashtun<em> jirga <\/em>(tribal assembly). I\u2019ve been to a few, and it\u2019s fascinating to see how it works. Everyone sits in a circle to avoid a hierarchy \u2013 even if symbolic. Everyone is entitled to express an opinion. This leads to alliances necessarily being forged.<\/p>\n<p>The negotiations to form a government were being conducted in Kabul by former president Hamid Karzai \u2013 crucially, a Pashtun from a minor Durrani clan, the Popalzai \u2013 and Abdullah Abdullah, a Tajik and former head of the Council for National Reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p>The Taliban did listen to them but, in the end, they de facto chose what their own<em> jirga<\/em> had decided.<\/p>\n<p>Pashtuns are extremely fierce when it comes to defending their Islamic credentials. They believe their legendary founding ancestor, Qais Abdul Rasheed, converted to Islam in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad, and then Pashtuns became the strongest defender of the faith anywhere.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/hqdefault.jpeg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>Qais Abdul Rasheed. Image: YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Yet that\u2019s not exactly how it played out in history. From the 7<sup>th<\/sup> century onwards, Islam was predominant only from Herat in the west to legendary Balkh in the north all the way to Central Asia, and south between Sistan and Kandahar.<\/p>\n<p>The mountains of the Hindu Kush and the corridor from Kabul to Peshawar resisted Islam for centuries. Kabul, in fact, was a Hindu kingdom as late as the 11<sup>th<\/sup> century. It took as many as five centuries for the core Pashtun lands to convert to Islam.<\/p>\n<h4>Islam with Afghan characteristics<\/h4>\n<p>To cut an immensely complex story short, the Taliban were born in 1994 across the \u2013 artificial \u2013 border between Afghanistan and Pakistani Balochistan as a movement by Pashtuns who studied in Deobandi madrassas in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>All the Afghan Taliban leaders had very close connections with Pakistani religious parties. During the 1980s anti-USSR jihad, many of these Taliban (\u201cstudents\u201d) in several madrassas worked side by side with the mujahideen to defend Islam in Afghanistan against the infidel.<\/p>\n<p>The whole process was channeled through the Peshawar political establishment \u2013 overseen by the Pakistani ISI, with enormous CIA input, and a tsunami of cash and would-be jihadis flowing from Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab world.<\/p>\n<p>When they finally seized power in 1994 in Kandahar and 1996 in Kabul, the Taliban emerged as a motley crew of minor clerics and refugees invested in a sort of wacky Afghan reformation \u2013 religious and cultural \u2013 as they set up what they saw as a pure Salafist Islamic Emirate.<\/p>\n<p>I saw how it worked on the spot. As demented as it was, it amounted to a new political force in Afghanistan. The Taliban were very popular in the south because they promised security after the bloody 1992-1995 civil war.<\/p>\n<p>The totally radical Islamist ideology came later \u2013 with disastrous results, especially in the big cities. But not in the subsistence agriculture countryside, because the Taliban\u2019s social outlook merely reflected rural Afghan practice.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?w=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=1568%2C1046&amp;ssl=1 1568w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/asiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Taliban-Muslim-Prayers-August-2021.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>Muslims offer prayers standing next to automatic rifles during a Friday noon prayer in the Abdul Rahman Mosque in Kabul on August 20, 2021, Photo: AFP \/ Hoshang Hashimi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Taliban installed a 7<sup>th<\/sup> century-style Salafi Islam crisscrossed with the Pashtunwali code. A huge mistake was their aversion to Sufism and its veneration of shrines \u2013 something extremely popular in Islamic Afghanistan for centuries.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s too early to tell how Taliban 2.0 will play out in the dizzyingly complex, emerging Eurasian integration chessboard. But internally, a wiser, more traveled, social media-savvy Taliban seem aware they cannot allow themselves to repeat the dire 1996-2001 mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>Deng Xiaoping set the framework for socialism with Chinese characteristics. One of the greatest geopolitical challenges ahead will be whether Taliban 2.0 are able to shape a sustainable development Islam with Afghan characteristics.<\/p>\n<p><em>_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pepe-escobar.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-193880\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pepe-escobar-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pepe-escobar-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pepe-escobar-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pepe-escobar.jpeg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/em><em>Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian independent geopolitical analyst. He is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for <\/em>Asia Times Online<em>. He has been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9\/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thesaker.is\/hybrid-war-hyenas-tearing-brazil-apart-pepe-escobar\/www.amazon.com\/Globalistan-Globalized-World-Dissolving-Liquid\/dp\/0978813820\/\" >Globalistan<\/a><em> (2007),<\/em> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad\/dp\/0978813898\" >Red Zone Blues<\/a><em> (2007), <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thesaker.is\/hybrid-war-hyenas-tearing-brazil-apart-pepe-escobar\/www.amazon.com\/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar\/dp\/1934840831\" >Obama Does Globalistan<\/a><em> (2009), <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Empire-Chaos-Pepe-Escobar\/dp\/1608881644\" >Empire of Chaos<\/a><em> (2014) and <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thesaker.is\/hybrid-war-hyenas-tearing-brazil-apart-pepe-escobar\/www.amazon.com\/2030-Pepe-Escobar\/dp\/1608880354\/\" >2030<\/a><em> (2015), all by Nimble Books.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/asiatimes.com\/2021\/09\/what-to-expect-from-taliban-2-0\/\" >Go to Original \u2013 asiatimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 Sep 2021 &#8211; A wiser, better-traveled and social media-savvy Taliban will strive to avoid the many dire mistakes of its 1996-2001 rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":194724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[219],"tags":[93,484],"class_list":["post-194723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-asia-2","tag-afghanistan","tag-taliban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}