#Bergdahl deal: Meet Mohammad Fazl

**Posted by Phineas

Among the potential consequences of President Obama’s mind-boggling deal with the Taliban that lead to the release of five high-ranking Taliban, one shouldn’t forget the Afghan people themselves, who suffered mightily under these savages. They now have a very good reason to be afraid, again.

Meet Mohammed Fazl:

Taliban forces led by Mohammed Fazl swept through this village on the Shomali plain north of Kabul in 1999 in a scorched-earth offensive that prompted some 300,000 people to flee for their lives.

Fifteen years later, local residents here are responding with fear and dismay to the U.S. release of the notorious commander, along with four other Taliban leaders in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American prisoner of war who was held by the Taliban. The group released a video on Wednesday showing the hurried handover a few days earlier of the American captive, looking gaunt and dazed.

The villages of Shomali were once the orchard of central Afghanistan, and the plain’s carefully tended vineyards were famous for their grapes.

When the Taliban seized control of this area from their Northern Alliance rivals in 1999, they systematically demolished entire villages, blowing up houses, burning fields and seeding the land with mines, according to two comprehensive studies of war crimes and atrocities during wars in Afghanistan and human rights reports. Mr. Fazl played a major role in the destruction.

“There was not a single undamaged house or garden,” said Masjidi Fatehzada, a shopkeeper in Mir Bacha Kot, the district center. “My entire shop was burned to the ground. There was nothing left.”

(…)

Standing by the grave of his son, Mr. Ahmad’s eyes welled with tears when he learned about Mr. Fazl’s release from a reporter. “If he is released, he will burn our houses again because he doesn’t shake hands with the government,” Mr. Ahmad said.

And Barack Obama let this modern-day Genghis Khan walk free (1) in return for what? A man who abandoned his post, is probably a deserter, and possibly collaborated with the enemy? Okay, that makes the coming mountains of skulls worthwhile, doesn’t it?

This monster was given his parole, just so Barack Obama could keep his promise to close Guantanamo Bay before he leaves office. A mass murderer is let go, because, somehow (maybe with the application of some pixie dust), this exchange might encourage “moderate Taliban” to make a deal. By releasing Fazl and his “colleagues,” Obama replenishes the Taliban while they’re still conducting offensive operations against us and our allies, because this is “how wars end.”

He’s right. That’s how wars end.

It’s called “surrender.”

Meanwhile, my advice to the people of the Shomali plain is this: You have 12 months. Start running.

PS: Lest anyone forget, negotiating with the Taliban is also negotiating with Al Qaeda, for they are very, very close. To replenish the Taliban is to replenish Al Qaeda, the barbarians we’re (supposedly) at war with.

Footnote:
(1) Oh, wait. He’s “in custody” in Qatar, where he’s allowed to cool his heels and live the good life for a year before he can to return to Afghanistan and resume the slaughter. Well, that’s different.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)