The Taliban Are Bored, Hate Their 9 - 5 Jobs, And Miss The Easy, Good Ol' Days Of Jihad

Earlier this week the Afghanistan Analysts Network did a deep dive on how members of the Taliban are doing now that 20 years of war is over & they've traded in their AKs for office work. Guest author Sabawoon Samim interviewed 5 of them - 1 sniper, 2 commanders, and 2 infantry type fellas - and if you didn't know they were, well, the Taliban, you might think you were listening to a vet buddy here in the states. 

Here's some excerpts of their complaints:

Former commander Omar Mansur, 32, a married father of five on high rent, traffic & lack of freedom:

I haven’t brought my family to Kabul. The rent of houses is very high for us since our salary is no more than 15,000 afghanis [roughly 180 USD].

What I don’t like about Kabul is its ever-increasing traffic holdups.

Another thing I don’t like, not only about Kabul but broadly about life after the fatha [victory], are the new restrictions. In the group, we had a great degree of freedom about where to go, where to stay, and whether to participate in the war.

However, these days, you have to go to the office before 8 AM and stay there till 4 PM. If you don’t go, you’re considered absent, and [the wage for] that day is cut from your salary.

Former sniper Huzaifa, 24, a married father of two on suddenly having to face the consequences of what 'winning the war' looks like:

In the time of jihad, life was very simple. All we had to deal with was making plans for ta’aruz [attacks] against the enemy and for retreating. People didn’t expect much from us, and we had little responsibility towards them, whereas now if someone is hungry, he deems us directly responsible for that.

Much like Mansur, Huzaifa also lamtented the lack of freedom compared to wartime:

There is another thing I dislike and that’s how restricted our lives are now, unlike anything we experienced before. The Taleban used to be free of restrictions, but now we sit in one place, behind a desk and a computer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Life’s become so wearisome; you do the same things every day. Being away from the family has only doubled the problem.

A commander named Kamran, 27, was bummed that it used to just be him, his motorcycle and his walkie talkie out doing Taliban things, but now they're all scrounging for government jobs and you need a car for that. He noted, "Many of us have now caged ourselves in our offices and palaces, abandoning that simple life." 

And Taliban fighter Abdul Nafi, 25, felt that now, even if you fought nobly in the war and gave your all, it seems the new government, also made of fellow Taliban, don't care about the little guys and they don't get any support. "This isn’t true of all of them, but many of the leaders have turned their backs on their comrades of the hard times."

Sad! 

But, unnecessary reminder as we surpass day 500 of them kicking little girls out of school and other such awful things, don't feel too bad for 'em. They're still pretty awful all-around. 

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