Why can’t we all get along? That was the plea from the Taliban terrorist-controlled Afghanistan government Friday as it expressed concern over the progress of the Russia-Ukraine war, cautioning respect for civilians is vital while urging restraint from all combatants.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and expresses concern about real possibility of civilian casualties,” the statement, which the Taliban government spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi posted on social media, began. “The Islamic Emirate calls for restraint by both parties. All sides need to desist from taking positions that could intensify violence.”
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in line with its foreign policy of neutrality, calls on both sides of the conflict to resolve the crisis through dialogue and peaceful means,” the statement continued. “The Islamic Emirate also calls on parties to the conflict to pay attention to safeguarding the lives of Afghan students and migrants in Ukraine.”
The fact a violent, fully fledged Islamic terror group that holds government through no other means than the point of a gun is wringing its hands over events thousands of miles away will strike the world as a supreme piece of irony.
The data below is from Linda Bilmes of Harvard University’s Kennedy School and from the Brown University Costs of War project.
American service members killed in Afghanistan through the 20 years to April last year was 2,448, with U.S. contractor losses at 3,846 and Afghan national military and police losses at 66,000, as Breitbart News reported.
The totals elsewhere were just as grim.
Afghan civilians lost was estimated at 47,245, while Taliban and other opposition fighters lost numbered 51,191. There were 444 aid workers killed while journalist deaths came to 72.
Since taking power, the Taliban has been consistently criticised for its treatment of women, the murder of opponents and the suppression of all dissent.
More broadly, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime has killed or disappeared 47 ex-members of Afghanistan’s former government security force since it deposed Kabul’s U.S.-backed government.
Taliban fighters patrol along a street during a demonstration by people to condemn the recent protest by the Afghan women’s rights activists, in Kabul on January 21, 2022. (Photo by Mohd RASFAN / AFP) (Photo by MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images)
As Breitbart News reported, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented “the summary execution or enforced disappearance of 47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) — military personnel, police, intelligence service members, and paramilitary militia — who had surrendered to or were apprehended by Taliban forces between August 15 and October 31, 2021.”
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