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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

What’s the Future of the Taliban?

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Barack, Washington, Wickenden, News, Obama, Politics, Wnyc, Lizza, President

4.33.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began less than three weeks after the September 11th attacks, and forces finally withdrew just weeks before the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. The Taliban are once again in power, and claim to have adopted more permissive stances on issues like women’s rights and education. “We should be very skeptical of these sorts of claims,” Anand Gopal, who has reported extensively on the group, says. While Taliban senior leadership and diplomats may crave foreign recognition and investment, many supporters feel “that the Taliban should be trying to return to the nineteen-nineties,” Gopal tells David Remnick. “There’s a minority of the movement who say all the right things, who are a little more polished, who’ve spent time outside the country. But they don’t really have the power on the ground.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:48.1

This is the Politics and More podcast.

0:50.9

I'm David Remnick.

0:53.7

Now, it's impossible to calculate all the many consequences of September 11th, to our lives,

0:59.3

to foreign and domestic policy, and to the shape of the country.

1:02.8

But certainly the most immediate policy consequence was the United States' invasion of Afghanistan.

1:09.6

It began just weeks after the attacks,

1:12.0

and that long and bloody episode has now just ended.

1:15.9

The Taliban, which had sheltered al-Qaeda's leaders,

1:18.5

are fully in charge of that country once again.

1:21.7

So what now?

1:23.8

Anon, hi.

1:24.9

Hi.

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