Taliban Implements Democratic Agenda, Seizes Personal Weapons from Afghans: Report
Shortly after the collapse of the Afghan government on Sunday, the newly appointed leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, recorded a video for his people.
Baradar congratulated his fellow insurgents on their “unexpected victory” in a message delivered from his new home, the presidential palace in Kabul.
“We have achieved an unexpected victory. Now is the time to test, to show how we serve our people and ensure their future in the best possible way,” he said, according to Breitbart.
Reuters reported that within hours, Taliban soldiers were knocking on the doors of private homes confiscating people’s weapons.
“We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians,” a Taliban official told Reuters.
It’s no surprise this would be the first order of business for the Taliban. Any government that plans to exercise authoritarian control over its people knows they must first disarm them. Every dictator worth his salt knows this.
This is precisely why the Democrats continue to push so hard for gun control laws.
Hitler disarmed the German people. He began, of course, by taking guns away from the Jews.
But disarming Europeans in the 1930s and early 1940s was easy compared to what anti-Second Amendment Democrats in the U.S. are faced with.
The reason is simple: There are a lot of guns in the U.S.
The precise number is difficult to know. Many publications cite figures provided by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey. The most recent survey I could find was from 2017. SAS found that Americans owned approximately 393 million firearms, making us the most heavily armed country in the world.
SAS puts this into some perspective: “The United States has 4% of the world’s population, but its civilians hold almost 40% of the world’s firearms.”
Put simply, Democrats wishing to disarm the country face what is essentially an impossible task.
Gun ownership acts as a deterrent to those who would otherwise take away our liberties in a heartbeat.
At any rate, Kabul resident Saad Mohseni, the founder and director of the Moby Group, a large media company that serves over 300 million viewers in Africa and Asia, described a visit from Taliban soldiers to his company’s compound to a BBC reporter in the clip below.
Frankly, Mohseni’s portrayal of the episode was far less threatening than one might expect, and I would imagine that’s due to his lofty position in the business world. The Taliban soldiers took state-issued weapons away from his security team but allowed them to keep their own weapons.
Although I have no way of knowing, I would expect that would not be the case with a private individual or family.
What is most interesting about the interview is Mohseni’s take on how even the Taliban were caught off guard by the suddenness of the government’s collapse and that they need time to get organized.
Founder of @TOLOnews @saadmohseni tells me about the moment the Taliban entered the compound of the channel. Tolo TV was part of Afghanistan’s vibrant media. pic.twitter.com/hgtCXyzDrw
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) August 16, 2021
BBC reporter Yalda Hakim asked Mohseni to tell her what happened during the Taliban’s visit.
He replied: “It’s routine, probably, for the Taliban. They walked in and they were checking weapons issued by the state. And they were collecting state-issued weapons. So they took those and then they left our guards with their own weapons because we purchased some through the government and purchased some privately.
“It seemed routine. They seemed almost professional. They were polite. We fed them and then they asked if we wanted security inside the compound. We said, ‘No, thank you.’ Because we are afraid of looters and criminal organizations, so they assured us they would keep an eye on the compound and they left.”
Next, Hakim asked if he thinks his broadcasts will continue as previously, before the Taliban took control.
“I suspect not, especially the entertainment programs,” Mohseni replied. “See, what’s happening now is that the Taliban are just beginning to take control. They have no capacity and they actually made that very obvious a few days ago, that they needed a couple of weeks, and that’s why they were hoping that the government would keep together and we would have these talks in Doha in terms of an interim or transitional arrangement and then they would step in in a couple of weeks time.”
“But I think President [Ashraf] Ghani what he did, fleeing the country in the manner that he did, just basically triggered the total collapse of the system. And I think the Taliban are scrambling to take control. They just appointed or are about to appoint a governor for Kabul. So they’re also struggling to maintain peace in the city,” he went on.
“As to whether we’re going to be able to broadcast, I’m not sure. They have to come in. They have to take control. They have to think through what laws they’ll have in terms of the media.”
Seeing the ease with which the Taliban disarms the Afghan people will make the Democrats pea-green with envy. If only it were so easy for them.
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