The Trump Administration released its 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy in May of this year. Parts of it are serious work. It correctly identifies ISIS-Khorasan and al-Qaeda as threats capable of striking the American homeland. It makes a reasonable case for treating hemispheric cartel networks as a first-tier priority. It acknowledges Iran as the central state sponsor of regional terrorism. On the core mechanics of counterterrorism, targeting, partner force development, and WMD prevention, it holds up.

But it does not minimize Afghanistan. It does not deprioritize it. It leaves it out entirely. A 16-page counterterrorism strategy that names ISIS-Khorasan as a top-tier threat to the United States does not contain a single substantive reference to the country where ISIS-K is based, where it recruits, where it trains, and from which it has planned attacks that reached as far as Moscow and Vienna. That country is Afghanistan. And it is simply not in this document. This is not a minor oversight. It is the central failure of the strategy.

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In the last few decades, we’ve seen war after war, regime after regime, but no force has hollowed out Afghan society from the inside quite like this wave of religious extremism that began in the refugee camps of Pakistan and now sits on the throne in Kabul. The Taliban are not a return to tradition. They are a foreign virus, cultivated in foreign madrassas, injected into Afghan veins by foreign intelligence agencies, and now rotting the heart of our homeland from within.

What kind of country bans its daughters from going to school? What kind of leadership locks women inside their homes like criminals? What kind of government fears books, music, art, or science? Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban have pushed over three million girls out of school. Women have been fired from ministries, banned from traveling freely, and erased from public life. Every day, millions of Afghan girls wake up knowing they may never step inside a classroom again. That is not Islam. That is cowardice.

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The same hands that hold prayer beads hold sticks and rifles. The same mouths that chant verses issue death threats to journalists, activists, artists, and teachers. This is not faith, it is weaponized fear. They burn books and call it purity. They ban music and call it modesty. They execute justice without trial and call it God’s will. But the Afghan people know better. We have lived Islam as a tradition of compassion and wisdom. What they offer is a prison.

And the damage goes far beyond morality. Under Taliban rule, the economy is collapsing. Banks are barely functioning. Trade has slowed to a crawl. The UN says 90% of our people face hunger. The World Bank says shutting out women has slashed our economy in half. That’s not spiritual governance; that’s national suicide.

The Taliban say they’ve brought security. But what they’ve really brought is silence. They’ve made people too afraid to speak, too exhausted to resist. But silence is not peace. Beneath the surface, there is fear, resentment, and rage. Ethnic minorities are still being persecuted. The Hazara, in particular, continue to face systemic violence and displacement. The press is muzzled. Civil society is suffocating. The Taliban might have shut down the wars in the streets, but they’ve started wars in the souls of the people.

And as always, the world watches, sometimes in horror, sometimes in complicity. Some foreign governments flirt with the idea of normalization, as if the Taliban are just another conservative regime. But there is no future in appeasement. This is not a difference of culture; it’s a crisis of humanity, and it’s a crisis that’s often perpetuated by neighboring countries and, at times, global powers.

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So what do we do? First, we tell the truth, without apology and without fear. The Taliban do not represent Afghanistan. They represent the failure of decades of foreign policy, the cowardice of powerful nations, and the betrayal of every Afghan who hoped for something better. And they are not inevitable. They can be challenged. They must be challenged.

Afghanistan needs a complete political reset. Not a deal behind closed doors, not a foreign-designed peace process, but a genuine national reawakening. That means a convention of the people, not just the powerful. It means putting women, minorities, youth, and the diaspora at the center of building what comes next. It means refusing to build another government that rewards guns and punishes books.

And we must think beyond just politics. The real battle is for the soul of Afghan society. We must rebuild schools, not just buildings. We must invest in local leaders, not warlords. We must support teachers, doctors, artists, and farmers, not those who live off fear. Every village needs infrastructure, every child needs education, and every woman needs freedom to walk, work, and speak. These are not luxuries. They are foundations.

To the world, we say this: do not speak of peace while shaking hands with tyrants and extremists. Do not fund reconstruction while ignoring human rights. Do not recognize a regime that refuses to recognize the humanity of its own people. Recognition must be earned, and this regime deserves none.

To the Afghan people — those still inside and those in exile — we say this: there is no savior coming. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the only force strong enough to rebuild this country. Not the mullahs. Not the generals. Not the diplomats. Us. The people. The poets. The parents. The exiles. The dreamers. The fighters. The ones who never gave up on the idea that Afghanistan can still be something more than this.

We know what kind of future we want. It is not ruled by fear. It is not wrapped in black flags and closed doors. It is a republic. It is plural. It is just. And it will be born not in foreign capitals but from the courage of the Afghan people reclaiming what is theirs.

Let no one mistake this silence for consent. Let no one call this collapse a solution. The Taliban are not Afghanistan. They are the barrier to its future. And that future is still ours to win.