Are the Taliban the legitimate government ?

Question

Has anyone bothered to think that maybe if there were free democratic and and open elections in Afghanistan, no matter how strange it may be to us in the West, the elected government just might be the fundamentalists ? The idea of NATO propping up an illegal puppet regime in Afghanistan is not so odd, when you think that the USA and UK have already engaged in an illegal invasion of Iraq.

Answer 1

For a start, 50% of the population of Afghanistan (as in women) would NEVER vote for the Taliban. Secondly, the Taliban persecuted the Shias and the Hazaras in the north..who make up a large proportion of society...who would never vote for the Taliban. Thirdly, Afghans, if you look at the history of Afghanistan, are not generally 'fundamentalist' and have always been more modern and forward thinking in every aspect of life and culture. So who's left? A small minority of fundamentalist men confined to one particular ethnicity. Not really representative is it?

Edit

That is not to say that I believe the USA invaded Afghanistan for the benefit of the afghan people, on the contrary, their aim was dishonest. However, I'm taking the machiavellian approach to this situation, in so far as, in the end, the afghan people do benefit.

Answer 2

Its an interesting question. Indeed, if we believe in democracy, any country anywhere in the world has a total right to elect whatever kind of government the people believe in. That being said, the US made serious long term mistakes in overthrowing democratically elected leaders our government did not happen to like in the past--Mossadegh in Iran in the early 1950's and Salvador Allende in Chile in the 1970's for example.

By the same token, a government that attacks the United States, or allows or encourages its citizens to attack the United States, has committed an act of war and must be destroyed. Hitler was democratically elected in Germany, the Japanese militarists won fair and square in Japan as well, and both needed to be exterminated. And so it is with the Taliban. Because they encouraged Al Qaeda to attack this country, they need to be exterminated to the last. Had they not attacked this country there would be no problem, but they did. It was a devastating, horrible attack--and look how much worse they intended it to be--the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was intended to murder our Congress, and the one that murdered almost 200 Pentagon workers was intended to murder our President. This is absolutely reckless and unacceptable behaviour. Totally intolerable. To the last man they need to be hunted down and exterminated. Period.

Answer 3

NO

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html

Quote

The Taliban, under the direction of Mullah Muhammad Omar, brought about this order through the institution of a very strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. Public executions and punishments (such as floggings) became regular events at Afghan soccer stadiums. Frivolous activities, like kite-flying, were outlawed. In order to root out "non-Islamic" influence, television, music, and the Internet were banned. Men were required to wear beards, and subjected to beatings if they didn't.

Most shocking to the West was the Taliban's treatment of women. When the Taliban took Kabul, they immediately forbade girls to go to school. Moreover, women were barred from working outside the home, precipitating a crisis in healthcare and education. Women were also prohibited from leaving their home without a male relative—those that did so risked being beaten, even shot, by officers of the "ministry for the protection of virtue and prevention of vice." A woman caught wearing fingernail polish may have had her fingertips chopped off. All this, according to the Taliban, was to safeguard women and their honor.



They are mass murdering, women hating, gay murdering, psychopathic abusive in human scum.


who murder sorry execute by torture any female that waerts trousers, walks outside thehome without their owner ir brother, father or husband, any gays, any lesbians.


And girls getting medical treament or an education and the teacher or doctors

Answer 4

Yeah it could happen in a free election I guess.

I'd love to see how embarassed Dubya and Bliar would look if it did!

Answer 5

When people are afraid to vote for anyone but the Taliban then they are not free.How can they be democratic

Answer 6

yes, they are. Their law is also shariah