Today's D Brief: Taliban offer amnesty; The moderation question; Who are the Taliban's leaders?; SOUTHCOM assists Haiti; And a bit more.
By Ben Watson
August 17, 2021 11:19 AM ET
The D Brief
The Taliban say they’ve offered amnesty to Afghans who helped the U.S.-led coalition. It’s one of several messages of alleged moderation that the group’s leaders have been communicating since they seized control of the capital city of Kabul on Sunday. “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with full dignity and honesty has announced a complete amnesty for all Afghanistan, especially those who were with the opposition or supported the occupiers for years and recently,” said Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, in a statement Tuesday. The Associated Press noted critically, however, that Samangani’s remarks “remained vague...and no formal handover deal has been announced.”
The Taliban also say they’re “ready to provide women with environment to work and study, and the presence of women in different [government] structures according to Islamic law and in accordance with our cultural values,” Samangani said—though it’s too soon to know precisely how the group intends to follow that guidance.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s message: “I stand squarely behind my decision,” he told the world in an afternoon address Monday from the East Room of the White House. And about those terrible images of Afghans clinging to a U.S. Air Force C-17 as it began taking off, “We were clear-eyed about the risk,” said Biden. “We planned for every contingency, but I always promised the American people that I would be straight with you.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/08/the-d-brief-august-17-2021/184585/
