Michael Hughes: First, the United States – in cahoots with Pakistan – gave Afghanistan the “freedom fighters” during the jihad against the Soviets, led by the likes of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Osama bin Laden, which eventually morphed into the Taliban movement. Now, yet another made-in-the-USA religious extremist Frankensteinian creation has reared its ugly head in Afghanistan,
Pepe Escobar via Counter Punch: In the end, everything comes back to Helmand. Why Helmand? My Pashtun interlocutors loosen up and say it with a mouthful: it’s all about the involvement of the CIA in the heroin trade in Afghanistan; “The Americans simply can’t let it go.” Click here to read more (external link).
The Washington Post: The modest number of U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan operate with one hand tied behind their backs — at a time when Afghan forces, though fighting hard, are struggling. That should be changed. We should unleash our airpower in support of our Afghan partners in the same way that we support
Xinhua: “This time, the talks are different than the previous ones because of the participation of China and the U.S. in the quadrilateral conference, which made it more significant and raised the rays of hope among Afghans,” Sayed Jafar Rastin, a university professor and political analyst, told Xinhua on Tuesday. Click here to read more (external
Counter Punch: In Kabul, where the Afghan Peace Volunteers have hosted me in their community, the U.S. military maintains a huge blimp equipped with cameras and computers to supply 24 hour surveillance of the city. Remotely piloted drones, operated by Air Force and Air National Guard personnel in U.S. bases, also fly over Afghanistan, feeding U.S.
CounterPunch: The Islamic caliphate in any form, much less in image of the fetishized first caliphate (632-661 C.E.), is an utter impossibility, even though the romance of a unified Muslim ummah, free of foreign occupations, comprised of all ethnic communities and denominations, devoted to peace, social justice, piety, and glorification of One God, is a dream
Khyber News: The Afghan Taliban have launched an unprecedented winter surge that points to a desire for an upper hand in peace talks, analysts say, while some suggest rogue Pakistani elements may be bolstering the effort to derail overtures by Islamabad to India. Click here to read more (external link).
Daily Record: The news reports out of Afghanistan this year surely have been bleak — the Kandahar airfield tragedy and other high-profile attacks in Kabul in recent days, the temporary loss of the city of Kunduz to the Taliban this fall, the highest refugee flows out of country in a decade, and so on. But Afghanistan
Carolyn Coe: They have descended from homes built on the mountainside. Women sit together in the cemetery not to mourn but to wait for the duvet distribution to begin. When I approach them, each woman extends a hand in greeting. Some have the needed small stamped pieces of paper to receive two duvets but most don’t.
Counter Punch: The resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where they recently mounted a major military operation in Helmand province in the south and where throughout the rest of the country they are increasingly active, is emphatic evidence that NATO’s prolonged military mission there has been a dismal failure. Click here to read more (external link).