From the graves of the jihadists across Afghanistan, Abdullah Azzam had hoped, would rise the fragrant scent of martyrdom: Instead, the fetid stench of disillusion suffused the air. For a decade, the legendary Islamist leader had forged the global jihadist movement in the Afghan crucible, funding and mentoring the leaders of the mujahideen, as well as al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Yet, Azzam recorded, the jihad had receded into oblivion at the moment of is triumph against the Soviet Union, “because of the misdirection of the Afghans themselves.”
“Instead of directing their guns against the unbelievers of India to liberate Kashmir, and to the Russians to liberate Tajikistan, they went at each other’s throats in a genocidal power-struggle for the remains of Kabul,” Azzam argued.
“They chose carrion over Paradise.”
Later this week, the Taliban is expected to install Maulvi Hassan Akhund as the Islamic Emirate’s new raees-ul-wazara, or prime minister. From American…