NOVANEWS
Biden says that the Taliban is not our enemy in Afghanistan
Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama. (Photo: Wiki Commons)
By Anderew Freeman
One of the most interesting recurring themes in the book 1984 was the idea that the ruling political class would always be at war, but would constantly change who they were at war with to confuse the general population. The books protagonist Winston Smith noticed that the government would constantly change their stance, one day they were at war with East Asia, and the next day they were not.
Like many situations described in 1984 this setup is eerily similar to what we see today, where the government is fighting Al-Qaeda in one country, but then fighting with them and supplying them with arms in other countries. Recently, Joe Biden made a telling remark about the Taliban that is a perfect example of this confusing tactic that is used in 1984, and by today’s politicians.
In a recent interview, Biden said that:
“Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests. If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us. So there’s a dual track here:
One, continue to keep the pressure on al Qaeda and continue to diminish them. Two, put the government in a position where they can be strong enough that they can negotiate with and not be overthrown by the Taliban. And at the same time try to get the Taliban to move in the direction to see to it that they, through reconciliation, commit not to be engaged with al Qaeda or any other organization that they would harbor to do damage to us and our allies.”[1]
However, no one that was paying attention could forget about the fear mongering media campaign that was waged against the Taliban in the American mainstream media just years ago. Additionally, there is another contradiction in this statement, because while the US government claims to be waging a “war on Terror” against Al-Qaeda, they have supported and supplied Al-Qeada in Libya, Syria and many other countries in the middle east. To make matters even more confusing, the government in Afghanistan that Biden seems so interested in removing from power, is actually a puppet regime that was put into place by the US.
Sources:
[1] Joe Biden On Iraq, Iran, China and the Taliban – The Daily Beast
