Brutality re-engulfs Afghanistan

Accounts of beheadings, amputations and women being whipped by advancing Taliban hordes is the grim new reality of life in Afghanistan following the US-led coalition’s retreat. Even the gloomiest forecasts about the outcome of NATO’s withdrawal did not predict the speed, scale or brutality of the medieval-minded Taliban’s takeover and the collapse of the Western-trained Afghan National Army.

Islamist fighters have seized more than 150 administrative districts in a few weeks, stockpiling weapons, armoured vehicles and military hardware left by the departing forces, Ben Packham reported on Saturday. On the Taliban’s way to Kabul, many districts have fallen without a shot being fired. Videos provided to Packham by the Afghan embassy showed Afghan soldiers executed after surrendering, Taliban fighters braying “Allahu Akbar” before cutting the head off a young man identified as a civil servant and women being whipped for defying sharia law by going out without a male chaperone. George W. Bush, who sent US forces to Afghanistan in 2001 after lining up Australia and other countries as coalition members, spoke bitterly last week of what lies ahead. Afghans were being abandoned to be “slaughtered”; Afghan women and girls would suffer unspeakable harm. “It breaks my heart,’’ Mr Bush said.

Improvement in the dire situation of women and girls was one of the coalition’s big achievements. Girls accounted for a record 3.8 million of nine million schoolchildren and one-third of university students. Women made up 28 per cent of the parliament. Under Taliban theocracy, girls’ schools are being shut and desperate families flee to save their daughters from Islamic State-style forced marriage or enslavement. Yet US President Joe Biden, who inherited Donald Trump’s decision to leave, seems unconcerned. Asked about the developments last week, he said: “I want to talk about happy things, man.” Maintaining that insouciance in the face of an escalating tragedy will reflect badly on his presidency. It could also have major consequences for the West in dealing with Islamist terrorism.

For Australia, the onslaught underlines the need for a quick, generous response to hundreds of Afghans who worked as interpreters, aid workers and security guards during our 20-year presence. With their immediate families, an estimated 1500 people are seeking resettlement here. Ensuring no Taliban sympathisers slip in is vital. But we need to stand by our friends.