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6 | SEPTEMBER 9 • 2021 

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analysis
Islamism’s Brutal Face Is Back 
on Display in Afghanistan and Iran
A

ny notion that 
the worst days of 
Islamist terrorism 
are long behind us was 
brutally shattered at Kabul 
Airport on Aug. 
26, as a terrorist 
bombing ripped 
indiscriminately 
through Afghan 
civilians and 
U.S. and other 
foreign ser-
vicemen trying 
to complete the desperate 
evacuation of thousands of 
people for whom Taliban 
rule represents the most ter-
rible fate.
Gen. H.R. McMaster, 
a former U.S. national 

security adviser who served 
as deputy commander of 
the international force in 
Afghanistan, put it succinctly 
in the hours that followed 
the bloodshed in Kabul. 
“Maybe this moment is 
the time that we can stop 
our self-delusion that these 
groups are separate from one 
and other and recognize that 
they are utterly intertwined 
and interconnected, and 
what we are seeing is the 
establishment of a terrorist, 
jihadist state in Afghanistan,” 
McMaster, a visceral critic of 
the U.S. withdrawal strategy 
pursued by both the Trump 
and Biden administrations, 
observed in a BBC interview. 

“And all of us will be at 
much greater risk as a result.”
His underlying argument 
is that talking up divisions 
between the Taliban and 
fellow Islamist fanatics —
such as ISIS-K, the Afghan 
branch of the Da’esh terrorist 
organization in Iraq and 
Syria that carried out the 
Kabul Airport bombing — 
elides the point that these 
groups are united in their 
fundamental worldview. On 
the ideological front, the 
late Al-Qaeda leader Osama 
bin Laden’s promise of a war 
against “crusaders and Jews” 
still holds firm, which means 
terrorism against Western 
interests and Western targets, 

most of whom will be 
defenseless civilians. It also 
means, for those unfortunate 
enough to live under the 
direct rule of the Islamists, 
that ordinary Muslims will 
continue to be their principal 
and most numerous victims.
The “intertwined” 
connections described by 
McMaster inside Afghanistan 
can be seen in the region 
more broadly. At the same 
time that the Taliban have 
conquered Afghanistan, Iran 
has appointed a new cabinet 
composed of men with 
a direct, personal role in 
terrorism, torture and other 
systemic violations of human 
rights, all of whom have 

Ben Cohen
JNS

PURELY COMMENTARY

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