"When you say things like, 'We have to wipe out the Taliban,' what does that mean? The Taliban is not a fixed number of people. The Taliban is an ideology that has sprung out of a history that, you know, America created anyway"

Arundhati Roy’s statement challenges the conventional narratives surrounding geopolitical conflicts and military interventions, particularly regarding the war in Afghanistan. The call to "wipe out the Taliban" is contested here as an oversimplified and problematic objective. Roy questions what it actually entails to eliminate the Taliban, explaining that the group cannot be reduced to a finite list of individuals or merely an organization that can be disbanded through force. Instead, the Taliban represents a set of ideas, deeply rooted in a long historical context, societal structures, and responses to foreign influence.

By suggesting that the Taliban is not simply a group but an ideology, Roy brings to light the futility of approaching ideological conflicts solely through military might. Ideologies are persistent and adaptive, surviving the destruction of individuals and institutions. They reinvigorate themselves in new forms, often in response to perceived injustices or external threats. The implication is that even if military campaigns succeed in killing or capturing specific leaders, the underlying resentments, grievances, and social conditions that gave rise to the ideology persist, possibly giving birth to new iterations or movements with similar beliefs and objectives.

Roy further complicates the topic by asserting that the history from which the Taliban arose was, in part, created by American actions. This highlights the cyclic nature of intervention and resistance, recalling how US support for mujahideen groups during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s contributed to the circumstances leading to the Taliban’s emergence. Policies pursued in the name of strategy or containment may generate unintended consequences, creating an environment where radical ideologies flourish.

Her perspective is ultimately a call for a more nuanced understanding of conflict, one that acknowledges the enduring life of ideologies and the deep interconnections between history, society, and foreign policy. Superficial or unilateral attempts to "eradicate" such movements ignore their complex roots and may only perpetuate an endless cycle of violence and resistance.