Yes, Taliban Is Like Vietcong — and IS Is Like Khmer Rouge

Mustafa AkyolThe American withdrawal from Kabul in Aug 2021 made many people recall the scenes of the American withdrawal from Saigon in April 1975. That is indeed a helpful analogy, because the Taliban of today has similarities to the Vietcong of the past. Both are popular militia forces mobilized against American forces of occupation, only to establish authoritarian regimes after the latter ’s departure. (The big difference, of course, is that while the authoritarian ideology of the Vietcong wascommunism, that of the Taliban isIslamism— a politicized and oppressive interpretation of Islam disfavored by the majority of the world ’s 1.6 billion Muslims.)Yet there is more to this historical analogy: In 1975, besides the Vietcong, there was another communist militia, which was much more fanatic and bloodthirsty: the Khmer Rouge, the worst of the worst among all communists, which would kill 2 million people in the next 3 years. It was finally overthrown in 1978, thanks to none other than the Vietnamese communists, who helped established a relatively more moderate regime in the neighboring Cambodia.That old distinction between the Vietcong and the Khmer Rouge is somewhat similar to the new distinction between the Taliban and the “Islamic State,” or IS (including its local version, “IS‐​Khorasan,” or IS-K). Yes, Taliban is savage. But since the IS is so much more savage, Taliban appears as a lesser evil, which may even help the U.S. ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs