The Taliban, according to Wikipedia, which also refers to itself by the name of its state, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi-Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, and jihadist political movement in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has been a strong opposing force years , which disturbed the peace of the previous government before taking over power. Having obtained top grade military weapons, latest inventions which helps them in adapting and re-strategizing to new tactics of war, new frameworks which assisted in tracking down and locating enemies and assets, and new weapons to improve their fighting skills more proficiently than previously.
Be that as it may, Afghanistan is unique. There has been innovative technological advancement such as the development of robot and solar powered drones fighting aerially for instance.
It’s no news that the US made series of tactical advancements to subdue the talibans over the years using sophisticated hi-tech weapons to no avail, why because the innovative technological advancements that have occurred during the 20 years of war have in fact helped and benefited the Taliban more than the West, which made it a win-win situation for the talibans.
Ok, let me make this statement much more clearer, from my perspective. It seemed as if the west payed little or no attention to using more sophisticated weapons to combat the talibans during the war. For instance, the first airstrikes in 2001 were led by B-52 planes from the US and exact models of planes were used at the end of the war by the US also. This probably was because the war wasn’t directly connected to them if you know what I mean…
But the Taliban, made waves in their end trying to improve their machinery and arsenals as though their lives depended on it and yes it did!. They started this war with AK-47s and other local, conventional and traditional weapons, however today they have high end devices portable communication devices, modern laptops and the web, not simply only to work on their weapons and their command system but to perform underground operations that greatly positively impact their activities.
One key example: roadside bombs, or IEDs. These simple weapons caused more allied casualties than any other.
Originally activated by pressure plates, like mines, they had evolved by the midpoint of the war so that the Taliban could set them off with mobile phones from anywhere with a cell signal. Because the Taliban’s technological baseline was lower, the innovations
they have made are all the more significant.
According to technological review journals, the real technological advancement for the Taliban took place at the strategic level.
Acutely aware of their past shortcomings, they have attempted to overcome the weaknesses of their previous stint in government.
Between 1996 and 2001, they preferred to be reclusive, and there was only one known photo of their leader, Mullah Omar.
Since then, though, the Taliban have developed a sophisticated public affairs team, harnessing social media domestically and abroad. IED attacks would usually be recorded by mobile phone and uploaded to one of the many Taliban Twitter feeds to help with recruitment, fundraising, and morale.
Also another point of view on how they have impacted Afgan’s tech space is the
technique of automatically scraping social media for key phrases referring to
Pakistan’s security service, which has a
relationship with the Taliban and then
unleashing an army of online bots to send messages that attempt to refashion the image of the movement.
The new Taliban regime looks promising as the initial fear of them causing havoc on arrival has been dismissed. Instead we are seeing normal men with just a different political agenda. The future of Afghanistan’s technology is yet to be determined but we’ll be keeping a close watch over the years with our fingers crossed.
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