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Afghanistan

What next after 20 years of war in Afghanistan?
Afghanistan, USA

What next after 20 years of war in Afghanistan?

British academic Anatol Lieven provides his insights on the US legacy and the Taliban’s rise By JAMES CARDEN On Monday, August 30, a C-17 transport plane took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, signaling the end of America’s longest war. It was a war that took the lives of at least 48,000 Afghan civilians, 2,461 US service members, 66,000 Afghan national military police, and 1,144 NATO allied service members. The Cost of War Project at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, estimates that the post-9/11 wars launched by the United States have resulted in nearly 1 million killed and more than 38 million people displaced, with the US government having spent $6.4 trillion and rising...
Biden Exits Afghanistan, Heads in the Wrong Direction
Afghanistan, USA

Biden Exits Afghanistan, Heads in the Wrong Direction

BY JOHN V. WALSH Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain On August 31, Joe Biden accepted the inevitable and announced the final departure of all open military personnel from Afghanistan. Perhaps, the most important part of the speech had to do with the future, and here Biden was unequivocal: “And here is the critical thing to understand: The world is changing. We’re engaged in a serious competition with China. We’re dealing with the challenges on multiple fronts with Russia. ….We have to shore up American competitiveness to meet these new challenges and the competition for the 21st century.” A major motivation for getting out of Afghanistan is to give the US a freer hand to bring down China and Russia.  And this is not to be a peaceful “Pivot.”  Th...
Stimulated instability in Af-Pak region
Afghanistan, Pakistan & Kashmir

Stimulated instability in Af-Pak region

By Brig. General Asif H. Raja  Part-1 Asif Haroon Raja Afghan Jihad against the Soviets Pakistan under Gen Ziaul Haq was sucked into the Afghan Jihad as a result of forcible occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Red Army in Dec 1979. The Soviet intervention displaced 6 million Afghans, out of which 5 million were accommodated by Pakistan. About 3 million refugees are still residing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan and other parts of the country. The Afghan Mujahideen and tribesmen from FATA and Malakand Division took part in the Jihad. Once the US came forward in support of the resistance war against the Soviet forces in June 1981, Jihad was glorified by the West and the Mujahideen were given the name of holy warriors. 1.3 million Afghans lost their lives in figh...
Who Represents Afghanistan: Genuine Activists vs ‘Native Informants’
Afghanistan

Who Represents Afghanistan: Genuine Activists vs ‘Native Informants’

Displaced Afghans from the northern provinces are evacuated from a makeshift IDP camp in Share-e-Naw park to various mosques and schools on August 12, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. People displaced by the Taliban advancing are flooding into the Kabul capital to escape the Taliban takeover of their provinces. (Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) The war in Afghanistan has ended, hopefully for good, but the conflict on who represents the people of that war-torn country remains unresolved. RAMZY BAROUD Scenes of thousands of Afghans flooding the Kabul International Airport to flee the country as Taliban fighters were quickly consolidating their control over the capital, raised many questions, leading amongst them: who are these people and why are they running away? Until ...
Women’s Rights: Afghanistan and Beyond
Afghanistan

Women’s Rights: Afghanistan and Beyond

Candles and flowers decorate a makeshift memorial for US Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old US Army specialist, at Power House Gym on August 14, 2020, in Houston, Texas. Guillen's murder the subsequent suicide of the chief suspect, US Army specialist Aaron Robinson, has put a spotlight on sexual harassment in the US military. The American military, which purports to be supporting women's rights in Afghanistan, could hardly be said to value women's rights in its own ranks. Rape has long been a side effect of militarism and war, and any discussion—let alone investigation—of it has long been avoided. ROBERT C. KOEHLER Suddenly there's major concern across the country—from the mainstream media to every last rock-ribbed Republican—for the rights of Afghan wom...
Horizon scanning in Afghanistan
Afghanistan, USA

Horizon scanning in Afghanistan

Mohamed El-Doufani* writes: The Taliban are back in control of Afghanistan and the United States and its satellite states are out, having invested trillions of tax dollars propping up a corrupt client regime (and domestic Western beneficiaries). The speed of the collapse of the US client regime in Kabul has shocked many, but many others well versed in the reality of Afghanistan had predicted that that would happen once the US and its satellites withdrew their forces. Amid the noise, propaganda, tears, wishful thinking, handwringing and general chaos, it may be foolhardy to make predictions about the future of Afghanistan. However, there is enough information at this very early stage to offer some postulates on how the situation in that country might develop. 1. Within a ...
On Afghanistan and Legitimate Resistance: Should Hamas, Hezbollah Learn from the Taliban?
Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, USA

On Afghanistan and Legitimate Resistance: Should Hamas, Hezbollah Learn from the Taliban?

BY RAMZY BAROUD The resulting victory of the Taliban will extend well beyond the borders of Afghanistan.  Taliban patrol the streets in Kabul, Afghanistan on September 11, 2021. Photo by Wali Sabawoon, Anadolu Images An urgent task is awaiting us: considering the progression of events, we must quickly liberate ourselves from the limits and confines placed on the Afghanistan discourse, which have been imposed by US-centered Western propaganda for over 20 years, and counting. A first step is that we must not allow the future political discourse pertaining to this very subject to remain hostage to American priorities – successes, failures and geostrategic interests. For this to happen, the language itself must be confronted. This is critical if we are to truly glean valu...
Did ‘Israel’ Supply Intel on Kabul Strike that Killed 10 kids? Remember Soleimani?
Afghanistan, USA, ZIO-NAZI

Did ‘Israel’ Supply Intel on Kabul Strike that Killed 10 kids? Remember Soleimani?

By VT VT: Our sources say Israel declared war on Mark Milley, who kept Trump in check with some exceptions, for 4 years. Trump did attack Syria on Israel’s orders based on a supposed gas attack staged by the White Helmets with Israel’s full participation.  VT had people at ground zero watching the whole thing set up like a TV production, Turkish and Israeli agents gathering with al Qaeda, then Reuters came.  Then trucks from Turkey carrying chlorine gas…Mitsubishi flatbeds.  Want the license numbers? https://southfront.org/wp-content/plugins/fwduvp/content/video.php?path=https%3A%2F%2Fsouthfront.org%2Fai-powered-assault-rifle-that-turns-killing-into-a-video-game%2F&pid=2378 Russian jammers sent most our missiles into the water…others landed peacefully a...
Afghanistan drone strike the Pentagon previously described as “righteous” killed as many as 10 civilians, officials say
Afghanistan, USA

Afghanistan drone strike the Pentagon previously described as “righteous” killed as many as 10 civilians, officials say

BY SOPHIE REARDON https://www.cbsnews.com/video/pentagon-admits-drone-strike-killed-afghan-civilians/ A U.S. drone strike launched in Afghanistan late last month killed as many as 10 civilians, and not an ISIS-K terrorist as the U.S. military previously reported, the Pentagon acknowleged Friday. General Frank McKenzie, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, called the strike "a tragic mistake" during a news conference Friday afternoon.https://2ce37ebce1a7224a8fe4dc0b13de3815.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html An investigation by Central Command determined that the August 29 strike in Kabul, which Joint Chief Chairman General Mark Milley previously described as a "righteous strike," killed an innocent aid worker — identified by frien...
Afghanistan: The USA’s Illusory Achievements
Afghanistan, USA

Afghanistan: The USA’s Illusory Achievements

By Jim W. Dean, by Viktor Mikhin, with New Eastern Outlook, Moscow, and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa. [ Editor’s Note: We are on the front end of a deluge of Afghanistan excess media coverage, partially fuelled by there being little news coming out daily, as the new government process will be slow and nothing sexy about it to sell to readers. That has created an unfortunate void which is being filled by ‘non news’, endless opinion material about what should or could have happened. All of this is based on a fantasy that the ending of the Afghanistan war would somehow avoid being a big mess. We senior citizens at VT kn...