CIA Won't Back an Afghan Resistance Anytime Soon, If Ever
Central Asia's former Soviet states are now back in Moscow's orbit, for starters, depriving the agency of once friendly staging grounds.
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Appeals from Afghanistan’s last standing resistance leaders for U.S. support are almost certainly going to fall on deaf ears in Washington, longtime observers say. Even if the U.S. and its NATO allies had a deep desire to re-engage the Taliban on the battlefield—which they don’t—the new political landscape across Central Asia essentially forbids it.
Earlier this week Afghanistan’s self-proclaimed Acting President Amrullah Saleh, who fled to the northern Panjshir Valley, appealed for Western aid via Twitter, saying he was “reaching out to all leaders to secure their support and consensus.” At about the same time, Ahmad Massoud, 32, son of the legendary anti-Soviet resistance leader and “Lion of the Panjshir” Ahmad Shah Massoud, took to the opinion page of The Washington Post to say he couldn’t hold out much longer without foreign support.
“The mujahideen resistance to the Taliban begins now. But we need help,” the headline said.
“The United S…