Al Jazeera: Today, the conditions in Afghanistan check every box on the radicalisation checklist: Afghans have suffered trauma and violence. They feel betrayed by an external force that allegedly came to “help” them, but ended up leaving them worse off. They live in economic deprivation with one million children at risk of starvation. They also
Michael Hughes: Considering the Americans – for years – have gone to great lengths to obfuscate the reality on the ground in Afghanistan, it is only fitting that Washington is trying to muddy the waters as to how and why the war ended in such a disastrous manner and who bears the most responsibility. Of
Javid Ahmad via WSJ: The collapse of the Afghan republic was no accident. It was the culmination of many collective failures, but at the heart of the tragedy was the role played by one country: Pakistan. Pakistan has long followed a dual-track approach in Afghanistan, hosting the Taliban on its soil while ostensibly working as
Press TV October 26, 2021 By Syed Zafar Mehdi With the last US troops beating a hasty and humiliating retreat from Afghanistan, the war has entered a new phase, where Americans and Daesh terrorists find themselves on the same side. The resurgence of Daesh terrorist group, on the back of the US exit, has created
ME Reports: Political de-legitimization was the intent behind the use of “warlord.” It is a smart missile that only strikes Tajik, Turk, and Hazara political leaders, but cleverly avoids striking Pashtun warlords. How does one judge if a person is a warlord and engaging in vile conduct? Is he, like the Taliban, killing and bombing
Michael Hughes: When the Taliban first seized power in the 1990s they introduced a twisted Deobandi Sunni-based ideology, with a twist of Wahhabism, completely alien to Afghanistan and anathema to the country’s tradition and culture. As they now re-impose this barbaric creed some commentators are suggesting the doctrine is mixed with elements derived from the
Arthur Herman via The Hill: For more than three decades, our supposed ally in South Asia has systematically lied to and manipulated successive presidential administrations – Republican and Democratic – in ways that have made the U.S. and the world less safe. Islamabad has been the recipient of more than $33 billion in American assistance
Mohsin Dawar via The Diplomat: Pakistan has played an active role in creating, facilitating and supporting the Taliban over the decades, a fact that the state has stopped denying. But it has done so at the very heavy cost of the lives of thousands of Pakistanis and hundreds of thousands of Afghans. Pakistan continues to
Bernard-Henry Levi via The Globe and Mail: I maintain that the nobility, beauty and greatness of humanity belong, in this case, not to the conquerors but to the conquered. Not to the barbarians, but to Ahmad Massoud, whom I did not hesitate to praise last year in the presence of his commanders, saying that a
Bloomberg: The U.S. has abandoned Kabul, but America’s former client in Islamabad still holds leverage over the superpower it helped defeat. For much of the war on terror that began after 9/11, Pakistan played a double game. Click here to read more (external link).