Jack the Insider: Mullar Omar’s replacement will be worse

The spiritual leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar is dead again. According to reports, Omar died two years ago and then again yesterday, leaving the tantalising prospect the gnarled, one-eyed terrorist might be planning a big finale at some point down the track.
In truth, rumours of his demise had not been greatly exaggerated in the past. It seems Omar may have shuffled off two years ago and the Taliban have only now acknowledged it, keen not to lose influence at the negotiating table with the Afghanistan government.
The death of the supreme commander of the extremist Islamist group whose social policies belong somewhere between the Mesozoic and Palaeozoic ages, is cause for celebration. Described by his followers as a quiet and scholarly man, he was viciously anti-American and while his relationship with al-Qa’ida and Osama bin Laden in particular was strained from time to time, he broadly endorsed and provided logistical support for terrorist attacks on the US.
After the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington DC, the accusing fingers quickly pointed to Afghanistan, al-Qa’ida and its Talib host. The response was swift and brutal but not sustained. Under a military pounding from the US and its allies, the Taliban scattered but the Bush administration fixed its focus on the war in Iraq instead and the Taliban, like the vermin they are, returned. Their attacks continue to this day and have spread beyond the borders into Pakistan.
The official biography of Omar is extraordinarily vague with large, gaping holes in detail. There is no exact year of his birth, let alone a date. He may have been born in Kanadahar province or Uruzgan province. No one is quite sure.
Little is known of his life before the Soviet-Afghanistan War. Once the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Omar quickly became the apple of the West’s eye when he fought with the anti-Soviet mujahideen. He lost his right eye after being struck by shrapnel in a battle in Jalalabad in 1989, leaving him with a ‘give the kiddies nightmares’ appearance, befitting of an international gangster.
Almost two metres tall, he might have been a handy cricketer if he’d been thrown a ball instead of becoming better acquainted with an AK-47.
After the Soviets left Afghanistan with their tails between their legs in 1989 and the collapse of the Najibullah government, Afghanistan plunged into bitter battles between various mujahideen and Afghan warlords.
Omar founded the Taliban with less than 50 followers in 1994 five years after the Soviets had fled Afghanistan. By 1996, he was running the country when the Taliban seized control of Kabul. Omar preferred to continue with the fighting in the northeast of the country and despite being Afghanistan’s nominal head of state, he visited the capital city only twice.
Under Omar and the Taliban, Afghanistan was plunged into a fundamentalist Islamic nightmare. Women were denied the right to go out in public, girls prohibited from education. Detractors were brutally murdered. It was the world’s first real glimpse of an Islamo-fascist state.
The Taliban leader has not been seen in public since 2001. This has made peace negotiations fraught. In 2010 the US conducted talks with the Taliban in Qatar, strictly on the business of prisoner handovers. The word came back that Talibs around the table were acting with Omar’s authority and the POW exchange took place.
More recently peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have stalled. It’s said with Omar gone, the Taliban will fragment and any enduring peace looks a long way off.
What is more troubling is that Islamic State has its eye on Afghanistan. IS has only a small presence in Afghanistan but it is growing. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s boss has mocked the Taliban’s negotiations with the Afghan government. There will be no peace if al-Baghdadi has his way.
The question over who is a more vicious oppressor — the Taliban or IS — is a strange one to contemplate, especially for those suffering at first hand. In the West, few will mourn Mullah Omar’s death but there is real concern that what is coming to replace him is bound to be even worse.

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