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).
Counter Punch: High minded academics have been reminding us for years, Orientalism is endemic in the high and low cultures of Western countries. But at a visceral, intuitive level, Islamophobia never used to be – except perhaps in France and England, to the extent that habits of mind that took shape during the days of
The Guardian (UK): The Taliban now control more of the country, about 30%, than at any time since 2001 when they were pushed from power by western and Afghan forces after the Twin Towers attacks. Government forces have lost 19,000 dead and injured in the past 12 months. In October, President Barack Obama announced, clearly with
Michael Hughes: Critics of the war in Afghanistan consider the terrorist attack that killed six Americans near Bagram airbase as yet another indication that it is time for the U.S. to withdraw military personnel from the country post-haste, while proponents of a long-term U.S. military presence perceive it as a reason why the United States cannot
Counter Punch: The Klan has terrorized and killed far more Americans than Islamic terrorists ever have; and despite being America’s oldest terrorist organization, the US government does not officially consider the KKK a terrorist organization, classifying it merely as a “hate group”. Click here to read more (external link).
Robert Fisk: Isis men are now fighting in their thousands in the country we arrived to “liberate” 14 years ago, quite apart from tens of thousands of Taliban “pushing” in to their “heartland” around Sangin. Click here to read more (external link).