The Americans, like the British and the Soviets before them, dug their own graveyard in Afghanistan. The Carthaginian general Hannibal, who came close to defeating the Roman Republic in the Second Punic War, committed suicide in 181 BC in exile as Roman soldiers closed in on his residence in the …
Read More »Afghanistan: The First Mistake
Establishment journalists and politicians are despairingly asking: Why did we fail in our well-meaning efforts to help the Afghan people? What were our mistakes? But they ignore their first mistake: creating the Taliban. The USA’s attempts to dominate Afghanistan and its resources began 40 years ago when Jimmy Carter in …
Read More »Turkey won’t accept ‘refugee burden’ from Afghanistan
Turkey, which already hosts more than 300,000 Afghans, has warned it doesn’t have the resources to accept additional migrants from the war-torn country. Turkey cannot accept the influx of migrants fleeing Afghanistan, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned on Sunday, as foreign governments scrambled to evacuate their citizens and at-risk …
Read More »Taliban victory inspires pro-Iran militias in Iraq
The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has encouraged Sunni extremist armed groups in Syria and pro-Iran Shiite militias in Iraq. As the world focuses on the end of the US military presence in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s rapid takeover of most of the country, culminating with the handover of Kabul on …
Read More »Britain must give Afghan refugees the chance to thrive
An imaginative programme of integration is needed, involving above all lessons in English and job opportunities Nato’s 20-year involvement in Afghanistan has come to an ignominious end with thousands of people who worked with Western forces and other organisations still trapped in the country. Questions will be asked for some …
Read More »How the defense industry helped prolong the war in Afghanistan
CACI is a well-known company with a $907 million contract in Afghanistan — it also has undisclosed ties to think tanks opposed to withdrawal. Weapons firms and defense contractors consume over half of the Pentagon’s $740 billion budget and the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan poses a threat …
Read More »The dangerous rise of a new stab-in-the-back myth
The foreign policy elite are focused on defending their reputations and privileges, not in confronting failure in Afghanistan. When the Nazi Party consolidated power in Germany in 1933, they enshrined into their version of history the myth that the German Army had not lost in the Great War but had …
Read More »Lessons From The Taliban: Only A Secular Democracy Can Keep India Integrated – OpEd
The Taliban’s capture of power in Afghanistan has grave geostrategic ramifications. It signals Islamic resurgence, affecting not only the wide swathe of Muslim nations stretching from North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Central Asia, Gulf nations, South Asia, to Southeast Asia, but also countries with large Muslim populations. Is it …
Read More »Reports That Turkey Poised To Recognize Taliban As Afghanistan’s Government
NATO member Turkey is reportedly nearing a deal to recognize Afghanistan’s Taliban government and operate the Kabul airport in partnership with Qatar, paving the way for the Islamist group to attract foreign aid and investment. The agreement is awaiting approval by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will be finalized …
Read More »Belarus: Afghan, Iraqi Migrants Stuck In Limbo
Rawa Yasen, from the northern Iraq city of Ebril, has been living in a forest on the border between Belarus and Latvia for more than a week now. The 19-year-old and his parents are among dozens of people, including babies and children, forced to sleep rough and light fires to …
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