The Amir of The Muslim Congress (TMC), one of Nigeria’s leading Islamic organisations, Dr. Lukman AbdurRaheem has joined the rest of the world to react to the historic US peace deal with the Taliban.
Dr. Lukman described International politics as hypocrisy, saying, “No one could ever believe that one day, the United States would negotiate with the Taliban,once branded as terrorists.”
The varsity don, in his Facebook post, shortly after the US diplomats and representatives of the group signed the deal in Doha, noted:
“It is now crystal clear that the fight against terrorism, which claimed millions of lives and gulped humongous resources of tax payers’ money is only a farce and a orchestrated Hollywood movie.”
Dr. Lukman, who later spoke with Muslim News, said he was not surprised that the US under President Donald Trump didn’t have a choice at this critical time than to seal a deal with the once designated terrorist organisation.
“Election is around the corner and Trump needs to pull out the remaining 12,000 US soldiers from Afghanistan. Americans have lost their finest soldiers to the longest battle ever fought in its history since Washington invaded the country in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attack.
“Trump needs the Taliban, a group that controls about 45% of Afghanistan to get American soldiers back home.”
Number of US troops in Afghanistan rises
By 2008, George Bush had deployed about 50,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. Barack Obama succeeded Bush the following year, when about 68,000 US troops had been deployed in the country. By the end of 2009, Obama sent another 30,000 to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
By 2010, the number of US soldiers had swollen to almost 100,000, while the overall number of foreign troops in Afghanistan stood at 150,000.
Combat mission ends, civilian casualties rise
In 2011, Obama announced the plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. Three years later, some 34,000 soldiers were left in the country.
The same year, NATO announced it would end its combat mission in Afghanistan but would continue to train Afghan soldiers and conducting anti-terrorism operations.
By 2017, the US troops’ level had declined to about 8,400.
Civilian casualties meanwhile rose amid a worsening security situation as the Taliban expanded and strengthened their military campaign in different parts of the country.
As deadly attacks multiplied, new President Donald Trump sent 3,000 US troops to Afghanistan. The US also stepped up air raids, resulting in a dramatic increase in civilian casualties.
…with additional information from Aljazeera English
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