Two years after the evacuation of Afghanistan, President Biden seems to prefer cautious engagement with the Taliban over support for fighters who seek to free the country from the yoke of its oppressor. 

Earlier this month American officials traveled to Doha, Qatar, where they met with Taliban representatives to discuss egregious human rights violations by the rulers of the country, but also to talk about humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. At the same time, administration officials are rejecting any help for resistance groups that vie for American support in fighting the religious extremists. 

America “does not want to see a return to violence in Afghanistan, and we do not support armed opposition to the Taliban,” an unidentified Department of State representative told the Voice of America. “We call on all sides to exercise restraint and to engage. This is the only way that Afghanistan can confront its many challenges.”

The National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Massoud, and armed resistance groups led by Sami Sadat and Khoshal Sadat, who are unrelated, are attempting to unseat the Taliban. Yet they are divided and work at cross purpose. “They need to figure out how to work together,” a retired Green Beret lieutenant colonel who fought in Afghanistan, Scott Mann, tells the Sun. 

One stumbling block for unity is that the only support these groups get from America comes from various organizations of veterans like Mr. Mann. Official Washington, in contrast, is completely disinterested in opposing the Taliban, preferring to cooperate with the Islamist extremists instead.   

Since President Biden surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban leadership, the Taliban has given no indication it would alter policies that characterized its rule prior to America’s intervention in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda attack. 

Women especially are hit hard under the new Taliban. An agreement negotiated at Doha under the Trump administration contained promises to maintain rights gained during two decades of non-Taliban rule. Regardless, Afghanistan currently is the world’s most oppressive country toward women.

“I don’t think the Taliban will change,” a Denmark-based human rights advocate, Levsa Bayankhail, tells the Sun. The Taliban “broke all the agreements they made in connection with the Doha agreement, where they expressed that women should have continuous opportunities to work, go to school, and get education.” 

Mr. Biden, instead, seemed impressed by the Taliban’s seeming ability to keep the country calm. “Remember what I said about Afghanistan?” he told a reporter in late June. “I said Al Qaeda would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban. What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right.”

Was he? “It is unclear what press President Biden is reading, but it is beyond clear that what is happening in Afghanistan is anything but positive,” the editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, Bill Roggio, wrote at the time.

Al Qaeda certainly maintains a presence in the country. Last July its top commander, Ayman al Zawahiri, was located at the heart of Kabul, where he had lived comfortably under Taliban protection. A U.S. drone killed him, but war veterans say that Islamist terrorists live on. 

While the Taliban confront the Islamic State’s Kherson group, they let Al Qaeda grow inside Afghanistan. Other Islamist groups, from Africa, Asia, and the Arab world, are flourishing under the Taliban. 

While the Doha agreement that facilitated the Taliban return to power was negotiated by an emissary of President Trump, Zalmay Khalilzad, Mr. Biden was the one who implemented the evacuation of the country under an “ending endless wars” slogan.

Two years on, the administration praises the facade of peace in Afghanistan even as it declines to establish official relations with the Taliban over its human rights violations. Yet, even that may change. 

“The World Has No Choice But to Work With the Taliban”: That is the headline on an essay in Foreign Affairs by the Crisis Group’s Graeme Smith, who has spent time in Afghanistan. It well reflects the White house sensibilities. The essay’s subtitle, “How to Help Afghanistan Without Normalizing Relations,” reflects Mr. Biden’s dilemma.

Ever since America backed warriors in the final days of the last Cold War, Washington has developed a soft spot for Pakistan, which has boasted of backing the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters, according to Ms. Bayankhail. “America has a soft spot for Pakistan, and the Taliban is its product,” she says, pointing to the fundamentalist group’s early and continuous support of Islamabad’s intelligence agencies.      

The Taliban’s 7th century-style rule, turning the country into the world’s worst place for women to live in, and its coddling of violent anti-American Islamists could end up staining Mr. Biden’s legacy, Mr. Mann says. “The big wake-up call will be when Al Qaeda 2.0, or ISIS 2.0 hit the homeland,” he warns.