Abdul Haq was perhaps the most highly regarded Afghan leader and Taliban opponent. Here is what he said shortly before being killed in October 2001:
<<< The anti-Taliban campaign needs two stages: a military strategy to split and
remove the Taliban, which should be carried out by Afghans themselves, not
the US; and a Loya Jirga to create a future government, including
representatives of all ethnic groups and tribes.
The second stage is actually much more important than the first, and rather
than war, we should be concentrating on avoiding bloodshed as far as
possible. Because the Taliban are like a crystal ball. They are very hard, but
brittle. If they are hit in the right way, they will shatter into a million pieces.
But bombing the whole of Afghanistan is not the right way. Instead, we
should undermine the central leadership, which is a very small and closed
group and which is also the only thing which holds them all together. If they
are destroyed, every Taliban fighter will pick up his gun and his blanket and
disappear back home, and that will be the end of the Taliban.
So instead the US should keep up the pressure, but not bomb. But the US is
trying to show its muscle, score a victory and scare everyone in the world.
They don't care about the suffering of the Afghans or how many people we
will lose. And we don't like that. Because Afghans are now being made to
suffer for these Arab fanatics, but we all know who brought these Arabs to
Afghanistan in the 1980s, armed them and gave them a base. It was the
Americans and the CIA. And the Americans who did this all got medals and
good careers, while all these years Afghans suffered from these Arabs and
their allies. Now, when America is attacked, instead of punishing the
Americans who did this, it punishes the Afghans.” >>>
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