Recently, some prominent figures who were accused of corruption and suspicious acts in favor of the Taliban during the former regime have returned to Afghanistan in response to the invitation of the Taliban.
During the former regime, one of the concerns that some political activists and analysts were constantly warning about was Taliban’s infiltration and presence of elements allied with Taliban ideology who were constantly and effectively working for Taliban within the ranks of republic regime. Their mafia network had infiltrated from the presidential palace to the Ministries of Education, Information and Culture, Higher Education, and Hajj and Endowments. In a soft way, without arousing the sensitivities of the people of Afghanistan and the international community, they enabled the ground for the spread of the Taliban and, like termites, killed the regime’s affiliates and pushed it to its final defeat. In fact, the fall of the country to the control of the Taliban would not have been possible without such influencers and western decorated the Taliban within the ranks of government. If such a catastrophe had happened in another country with a stable and disciplined government, such people would definitely be treated as traitors.
The Taliban infiltrators used to oppose and challenge any strategic critique against the Taliban extremism and ideology. They sought to seize all the resources influencing the public mindset and public opinion. They saw the country’s curriculum, the Islamic culture of universities, Friday prayers, and radio and television programs as strongholds for extremism, dogmatism, medieval prejudice, and religious hatred, using these platforms in their favor. All their efforts were allocated and focused on preventing the society from moving forward, especially the younger generation and did their best in limiting from access to facilities that could lead them towards decision making roles. They trapped the young generation in the cage of tribal and rural mentalities.
Some of these Taliban infiltrators, apparently of course, believed in the Taliban ideology, and in practice competed with the liberals in drinking alcohol, and not only in the usual way, they also had provincial networks throughout the country that provided them with prostitutes and women. Public embezzlement was also recorded in embezzlement and theft. Because by building imaginary schools, like imaginary soldiers and imaginary projects, they had snatched the lead from everyone. They were the epitome of imaginary projects and portfolios, and the only thing that was not imaginary in their work was to enrich their accounts with millions of USD that would turn into luxurious buildings inside and outside, plus profitable companies that would suffice for their next seven generations. This, of course, was apart from the mysterious relationships they had with various intelligence apparatuses.
Just as such a negative record does not bring pride to anyone and does not boast of any people or group, joining to the a terrorist group does not secure them any pride or change any thing about their past portfolio, even if they promise to join their imaginary allies. Just as these elements were the cause for the collapse of the former regime, they will be the cause of the fall of any other system that embraces them.