Three Years Later, Afghanistan Still Resists

“Three years ago today, on August 15, 2021, Kabul fell, and with it, the dream of a free Afghanistan. Everyone watched our allies cling to American cargo planes as we retreated. When their hope outlasted their strength, they fell to their deaths. For most Americans, that was the end of the story.” – Will Selber, The Bulwark

Afghanistan has rarely, if ever, made the news in the United States since the summer of 2021. After Donald Trump’s chief critic, rival, and successor chose to stick to the Pumpkin Plutocrat’s surrender “agreement” to the Taliban in 2020, the war became one of those rare areas of bipartisan comity. Domestic culture wars even managed to move aside the tales of pro-American Afghans’ desperate attempts to reach the U.S. (which Selber documents), let alone the fate of Afghans left behind.

However, those Afghans did not have the luxury we did. They could not simply ignore what the Taliban were and are doing to their country, again. So they took up the fight once more. Three years later, despite practically no support from the rest of the world, the National Resistance Front (among other anti-terrorist resistance groups) is still fighting the good fight (Luke Coffey, Eurasia News).

The first winter the NRF spent in the rugged mountains of Panjshir was solely about survival. By the summer of 2022 it had started to carry out ambushes and limited attacks against Taliban forces in provinces near Panjshir and the predominantly ethnically Tajik regions of northeastern Afghanistan. Since then, the scope of its attacks has expanded to include eastern Afghanistan and Kabul.

During the spring and summer months, not a week goes by without the NRF attacking Taliban positions somewhere in the country. A quick tally of social media posts shows that it has already launched about 160 attacks this year.

Interestingly, there have even been several attacks in the past month on Taliban targets in Herat province, hundreds of kilometers from the NRF’s typical area of operations. It has also hit targets in the heart of Kabul, which is considered to be the Taliban’s sanctuary.

Lest anyone think this is just about finding Talibs to shoot, the NRF is also part of a broader process designed to bring attention to efforts (however small at the moment) to end Taliban rule and bring Afghanistan back into the democratic world. Known as the Vienna Process, its most recent gathering was just two months ago (Amu TV).

Even the aforementioned Selber has noticed (Long War Journal).

With a dedicated following in the U.S., the NRF is entering its third fighting season, primed to expand its operational footprint throughout the country. The NRF has claimed most of its recent attacks in Kabul. The NRF will likely focus on more targeted attacks following their unsuccessful defense of Panjshir in late 2021-2022.

“In our third year of fighting, our attacks are more targeted and strategic,” Mr. Nazar told Long War Journal.

The NRF’s natural support base is throughout northern Afghanistan, particularly in Panshjir province, which is also Massoud’s birthplace. However, the NRF acknowledged that it will need broad support base to achieve its democratic, decentralized and pluralistic vision of Afghanistan.

“After the fall of the previous government, remnants of the Afghan National Security Forces joined the NRF,” said Mr. Nazar, “But we also have Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and more inside the NRF.

Selber caveats this with the obvious truth: the NRF and it various pro-democracy counterparts are too small and divided to bring the Taliban down in the immediate future. The NRF itself has repeated pleaded for outside help. I humbly submit we have every reason to give it to them.

Again, neither party likes to admit just how bad the decision to leave Afghanistan was. It’s still that bad. However, providing support for NRF and others in the pro-democracy, non-terrorist resistance can remind the world (and certainly Afghans themselves) that an end to American military deployment does not mean an end to American attention paid.

The cost to American prestige (and Americans’ mental health, which Selber has painfully counted over the years) would be immediately reduced. The reason is this: in providing support to the NRF, America can acknowledge that the war in Afghanistan did not end; we have allies still in the fight; and we are determined to ensure the Taliban does not win – notwithstanding the 2001 withdrawal.