Michael Hughes: The visit by a 15-member delegation of senior Pakistani lawmakers to Kabul was supposedly designed to assure Afghan leaders that Islamabad was committed to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. However, at the same time, in a meeting on April 30, the head of the delegation called on Afghanistan’s head of
RT: The US knows exactly what it is doing in Afghanistan. It is trying to egg on Taliban and ISIS fighters so that it could create more chaos, and thereby justifying its intervention, says Catherine Shakdam, Shafaqna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies. Click here to read more (external link). Related Few clues on casualties at site
Michael Hughes: ISIS is the primary enemy of external actors while, inside Afghanistan, the Taliban have a higher probability of capturing Kabul and beheading any government officials insane enough not to have fled. Hence, dropping a 21,600 pound bomb on ISIS caves in Nangarhar – as was down by the U.S. on April 13 – does
Michael Hughes: The White House seems to be singing from a different song sheet about the situation in Sangin than America’s military brass, evidenced by its reluctance to rubber stamp the Pentagon’s position that the key district in southern Helmand province was not overrun by the Taliban recently. This could be a case of simple miscommunication
Michael Hughes: From the grave existential philosopher John Paul Sartre can shed light on why US politicians, such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham – two warmongers who never came across a Muslim country they would not bomb – continue to call for more troops in Afghanistan despite clear impediments, ranging from sanctuaries in Pakistan
Michael Hughes: President Donald Trump wants the United States to prevail in more wars, like the good old days. This is a dangerous mindset in the face of the unwinnable conflict in Afghanistan, especially given Trump has surrounded himself with security advisors eager to boost troop levels and hawks in Congress willing to fund their designs.
Common Dreams: I had recently been asked to give a talk about “being an American Muslim in the United States.” Although wary of the uses and abuses of the term, I obliged. Islam is a religion propelled by values, not race nor, theoretically, by blind tribal allegiances, I explained. The ‘American Muslim’ identity which has been
Evening Standard (UK): Internal instability in the war-torn country is being made far worse by the unhelpful policies of its neighbours. President Trump’s three major security appointments all have a profound interest in the country, which separates them from President Obama’s. Defence Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser H R McMaster and Homeland Security chief John Kelly all
Al Jazeera: A resurgent Russia is making new inroads into Afghanistan, not in the way the former USSR did, but by aligning itself with some of the very extremists whose leaders were involved in the defeat of the Soviet Union’s decade-long invasion of Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Michael Hughes: Shortly after President Donald Trump drew national opprobrium for daring to suggest that the United States was not “so innocent” when it came to killing, military forces under his command – as if on cue – killed 18 noncombatants, mostly women and children, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. This latest episode of so-called collateral damage