The Canadian Army Journal

the super-power of the age. Few governments, if any, achieved any real control over the
county or its population. Persistently economically poor, it can reasonably be argued
that her people never developed a sense of the purpose behind a central government or
what one should expect in the way of benefits from nationhood. In 1973, the military
overthrew the King following a drought and “allegations of corruption.” 4 Ultimately this
coup would lead to further governmental overthrows, which in turn gave rise to a countrywide
insurrection lead by the Mujahidin. This insurrection then gave the Soviet Union
the pretext it needed to invade the country in 1979 (or be invited in according to official
Soviet accounts); this was the singular act most responsible for the ultimate rise of the
Taliban as an entity.
For ten years the Soviets would fight the Mujahidin throughout Afghanistan, before
finally accepting defeat and withdrawing from the country. 5 When they left, the Soviets
turned the country over to their appointed leader, President Najibullah, who was
powerless in exerting any control over the country and its people. Instead, the various
factions of the Mujahidin fell to infighting, with each trying to take Kabul (the nation’s
capital) and assume power. It was the act of leaving Kabul to the Mujahidin, and the tacit
abandonment of Afghanistan by the international community, which, in the words of
Canadian writer Kathy Gannon, “set in motion the chaos that would eventually bring the
Taliban to power.” 6
Formation
That the Taliban “formed in response to the failure of the Mujahidin to establish a
stable government after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 and the collapse in 1992
of the government they left behind,” 7 is generally agreed upon. Indeed, noted scholar
David Edwards has argued that:
This inability on the part of the resistance organizations to work together
provided the opening for the Taliban to challenge and ultimately vanquish the
established parties in most of the country…8 The actual events of the formation, however, receive little consensus, beyond the
fact that a man from the village of Sangesar, named Mullah Mohammed Omar, was the
principle actor in the Taliban’s creation. 9 He has been described as a “simple…former
mujahidin…schooled only at a village madrassa,” 10 while Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid
has described him as “a Robin Hood figure, helping the poor against rapacious
commanders.” 11 Aside from the fact that he played a central role in the founding of the
movement, the stories behind the actual events vary widely.
One account has Omar, incensed upon coming upon the victims of a murder and
rape on the road to Kandahar, spurred into action against the lawlessness afflicting his
country; 12 another has the Prophet Mohammed appearing in a dream and ordering him
to “bring peace to Afghanistan.” 13 Yet another casts him as the “willing puppet of
Pakistan’s secret intelligence agency, the ISI.” 14 In one of the more credible versions,
described by Kathy Gannon, Mullah Omar was travelling to Kandahar from his village
and was stopped no less than five successive times to pay “road-tax,” with each incident
serving to infuriate him more and more. Upon arrival in Kandahar, he then undertook to
do something about the situation, and after gathering a force of between thirty and sixty
men, attacked one of the checkpoints. In amazement, the soldiers at the checkpoint
abandoned their posts, from which a domino effect begins with Mullah Omar and his
men attacking successive outposts and defeating their enemies. Ultimately, he at first
restored law and order to the province of Kandahar, and then began the take-over of
Afghanistan. 15
Canadian Army Journal Vol. 11.1 Spring 2008
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