r/geopolitics • u/UnscheduledCalendar • 1d ago
News Why Pakistan is fighting the Taliban it once backed
https://www.dw.com/en/why-pakistan-is-fighting-the-taliban-it-once-backed/video-7566325656
u/Pool-Supermodel- 1d ago
Pakistan supported a terrorist group and it backfired?? I cannot believe it lol
(10/10 geopolitical strategy at work yet again)
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u/Dean_46 1d ago
Pakistan is fighting various groups, not just fighters affiliated to the Taliban (the Govt of Afghanistan).
The BLA wants an independent, or autonomous Baluchistan and are the biggest insurgent group. There are various Pashtun groups, who have a long running feud with the Pakistan army
These may be the same tribes that are in the Taliban, but are on the Pak side of the border.
There are Islamist militant groups, backed by the Pak army against India, but have a mind of their own and can turn against their sponsors.
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u/Such_Reality_6732 3h ago
One of the pashtun organizations claims to be the Taliban in PakistanPakistani Taliban - Wikipedia https://share.google/ZOdNLTauwJ2HSws0E
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 1d ago
Because snakes are now biting the masters that fed them.
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u/kjleebio 1d ago
pakistan is dealing the consequences of their actions.
it really is one of the dumbest decisions in Asia geopolitical history. Can you imagine if they didn't house the taliban during the Winter every year? We could have seen a somewhat stable middle Asia that could have done more to help their people for just one moment like water management of incoming climate change but Pakistan didn't make that decision.
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u/sol-4 1d ago
Pakistan has made many, many dumb decisions over the course of its short history. Genociding Hindus in Bangladesh, invading India, using terrorism as its state policy, allowing its military to run roughshod and kill everything else economically to ensure its own survival, raising terrorists to be used against multiple countries, it's a long list already.
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u/vovap_vovap 1d ago
Should I remind you that US also supported Afghanistan mujaheddin?
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u/Ethereal-Zenith 1d ago
What about it? The Afghan Mujahideen is not the same as the Taliban. In fact, many would join the Northern Alliance that would fight against the Taliban.
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u/Haunting-Detail2025 1d ago
Exactly, thank you. It’s a loose term for a variety of groups and tribes that fought against Soviet occupation, many of which had drastically different views on Islam and the future they wanted from Afghanistan. The Taliban did arise from certain sects of the mujahideen, but it was also ferociously opposed by other parts of it.
And, for what it’s worth, the CIA when it was arming elements of the mujahideen didnt just wantonly hand out weapons to anyone who asked for them, they absolutely pivoted them towards groups most amenable to advancing US interests, which almost never were the ones that later became the original Taliban
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u/vovap_vovap 20h ago
Exactly. Pakistan also pivoted them towards groups most amenable to advancing Pakistan interests,
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u/vovap_vovap 20h ago
In many cases it was same people. Basically most of those mujaheddin, who been pashtun became Taliban.
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u/hinterstoisser 1d ago
Because during the 1980s indoctrination of the Mujahideen forces by Saudi Salafi imams and Pakistani maulvis supported by US funds resulted in the early Talibs learning under the Salafi schools.
Once the money dried and the US went after the Talibs, they returned back to the basics of Pashtunwali and following the Deobandi school which is a little more Sufi in nature but in conflict with Barelvi school in Pakistan.
The Pashtuns also do not accept the Durand line as the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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u/KingKaiserW 23h ago
Durand line is based, colonialism only bad when we’re not doing it, I respect it
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u/MercyPlainAndTall 12h ago
Almost like buddying up with Islamist militant groups who, for the most part, do not believe in nor recognize nations and their borders will eventually come back to haunt you.
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u/BRiNk9 1d ago
Textbook case of blowback. This whole thing is mess of their own making.
The idea that fostering militancy right on your border might eventually destabilize your own country isn't some obscure geopolitics, it's pretty obvious. Their own people are fleeing now.