On March 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of State wept crocodile tears by honoring seven courageous Afghan women who were recently assassinated in Afghanistan. This is a flat contradiction because the U.S. has also been trying to legitimize and empower those assassins.

In February 2020, the United State signed a peace deal with the Taliban and forced the Afghan President to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The prisoner release was a part of the U.S.-Taliban accord. As a result, the Taliban are now stronger than ever, both politically and militarily.

By abandoning Afghanistan and legitimizing the Taliban, the U.S. is letting those “courageous” Afghan women and journalists to be slaughtered by the insurgents.

Since the peace deal, the Taliban have intensified vicious attacks against the Afghan forces. They have also started a violent assassination campaign targeting journalists, women, judges, lawyers, and other members of the elite educated population.

Two of the key achievements during the past two decades of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan are this: strengthened independent media and women’s access to education and employment. The U.S. is now putting everything, including these key achievements, in jeopardy.

The reports from the Taliban-controlled territories show Taliban to be full of the same violent extremism of 1998. You cannot change this product of Pakistani madrasas – religious schools – by giving it a political recognition.

In 1998, the Taliban banned television, music and cameras. They stopped women from working and going to school. They continue to do so in 2021, threatening and killing women and journalists. As reported by Washington Post, the militants “remain rooted in an extreme interpretation of Islamic Law that appears to leave no room for compromise with the more liberal laws.” They continue to incarcerate, terrorize and torture their fellow Afghans for minor violations, such as using a smartphone.

In June 2020 Human Rights Watch reported that the Taliban continue to threaten and attack journalists for critical reporting; they prohibit watching television and impose restrictions on smartphones. According to the report “very few Taliban officials permit girls to attend school,” although their officials in Doha say they no longer oppose girls’ education.

In 2015, Taliban stoned to death a 19-year-old woman accused of adultery. A recent video emerged on social media on April 13, shows Taliban lashing a woman in Herat province for talking to a man on the phone. Many of such brutal incidents occur daily in the Taliba-controlled territories but only a few get filmed and appear on social media. This is a shame for the United States who failed to root out these thugs. And after two decades of war, the U.S. is now signing deals with them that will pave their way for seizing the power again.

More disastrous is that the Taliban are lying about cutting ties with al-Qaeda – the international terrorist organization behind 9/11 attacks. The Taliban and al-Qaeda have shared interests, common ideology and a common enemy. Former Taliban governor Abdul Salam Hanafi told Susannah George of the Washington Post that “it’s a bond that cannot be broken.” Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the UN’s Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Taliban monitoring team told BBC’s Secunder Kermani that al-Qaeda is still “heavily embedded” within the Taliban. The al-Qaeda “…do a good deal of military action and training action with the Taliban, and that has not changed,” he said.

The U.S. went into Afghanistan to eradicate terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, but there are more terrorist groups in Afghanistan today than in 2001. The Taliban are stronger than at any point since 2001, thanks to the U.S.-Taliban deal.

Leaving now is leaving a disaster behind.

If the U.S. is so eager to leave Afghanistan, goodbye! And thank you for everything.

But please don’t try to legitimize and bring back the Taliban to power through undemocratic means and behind closed door deals. The elected Afghan government has several times called upon the Taliban to come and run for public offices through a democratic election, monitored by the international entities such as the United Nations. This is the best offer that can be given to a militia group and is way more than what they deserve.

Don’t compromise on the core values of democracy. Respect the blood of thousands of brave soldiers, both American and Afghan, who gave their lives to bring us to where we are today.

And please realize and acknowledge that this is not an Afghan civil war. This is a war against international terrorism threatening everyone. That Afghanistan is on the front line of this war should not mean that this is our war alone. We the Afghans have suffered the most from the war against terror. The result should be something better than surrender.