Spencer Ackerman reports that the Taliban is reaching to align itself with the protesters in Egypt:
It doesn't matter to the Taliban that Egypt lacks the 98,000-strong U.S. troop presence that Afghanistan has, nor that President Obama, at the very least, offered Hosni Mubarak the bare minimum of support against the uprising. For the purposes of their propaganda, the Taliban claim the mantle of the Egyptians, who proved that an “arsenal of weapons, huge army and foreign support is no guarantee for continuation of power; nor they can prevent the caravan of the aspirations of the people from forging ahead.”
But the Taliban have to be cautious about praising a revolt animated by civic principles more than Islamic ones. Egypt's “real phase of trial has just began,” the statement reads, as the Egyptians must “carve out a new political life and direction as a Muslim nation.” It's hardly clear that religion is at the forefront of Egyptian minds right now, but that just goes to show the Taliban flailing.
Driving out the Soviets and establishing the Taliban government in Afghanistan is the extremists' greatest victory--one they hoped to repeat by luring the U.S. there. Yet it resulted in the creation of a government so repressive and brutal that last year, a survey showed that a majority of Afghans supported the presence of a foreign military in their country. That's extraordinary when you think about it--the Islamic government the Taliban erected was so terrible that it makes foreign military occupation popular.
That really isn't much to be proud of. Egyptians, on the other hand, just deposed a dictator through strategic nonviolence--without the widespread bloodshed and brutality that characterized the Taliban's rise and rule. The Taliban is desperate to align themselves with the Egyptian protesters because, in the event that Egypt successfully transitions to a democracy, given a choice who would possibly decide to do things their way?
There are a an infinite amount of things that could go wrong between now and September's elections. But if it ultimately works out, Egyptians may have made the Taliban obsolete.
