Taliban

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Afghanistan, coverage of foreign events, Dictatorship, foreign correspondents, foreign news coverage, Haqqani Network, human rights, Pakistan, Pakistan military intelligence (ISI), Totalitarian regimes September 15, 2021

Afghanistan faces famine, economic collapse as international community poses conditions for aid

The key point is that the international community should not deny to the people of Afghanistan–the individual life-and-blood human beings–the aid they need to survive, on the theory that withholding aid will make the Taliban respect human rights. For examples of the challenges of survival these human beings face, see Espinosa and Follorou, above.

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U.S Foreign Relations August 21, 2021

The Media: Debates on Afghanistan are as if it were in another time, on another planet

30 years ago, perhaps, the United States still had a foreign policy elite which led public opinion on complicated foreign policy issues, about which the average American was ignorant and didn’t have a clue.
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So, in this media environment, where there are few editors and producers capable of finding and using the best expert opinion from the foreign policy elite–people who really know what they are talking about–it is not surprising that so much discussion focuses on interviews or discussions with individuals with no deep foreign policy expertise on Afghanistan.
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The battle was never about whether the U.S. would win the war against the Taliban. It was always about whether the Afghan people would win their struggle for a civilized, and democratic, future. 70,000 Afghan soldiers, over the years, gave up their lives in pursuit of that goal.

But the United States lacked what has been called ” strategic patience”.

Joe Biden was right about one thing. The victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan was due to a failure of government leadership and the lack of a will to fight.

But the failure of government leadership and the lack of a will to fight were, most decisively, not those of Afghanistan, but rather those of the United States.

In one of the great ironies of history, Joe Biden and America, in 2021, have dealt a great body blow to Afghan dreams and aspirations for a civilized and even a democratic future.

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Afghanistan, Biden Administration, elections, Intelligence, Joe Biden, Taliban, U.S. news coverage July 5, 2021

The Afghan government could fall quickly

A thousand Afghan military have crossed over into Tajikistan, seeking asylum. They were fleeing the Taliban, who have cut off access to Badakhshan province, including access to the regional center of Konduz in the North. The Washington Post’s Berger reports:
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It looks like Biden, unless he changes course on Afghanistan, will, like Lyndon Johnson, be remembered for his disastrous military and foreign policy decisions, and not for his domestic accomplishments.

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U.S Foreign Relations March 21, 2021

Biden’s looming foreign policy catastrophe in Afghanistan

The agreement is an abomination. It reflects a policy of Donald Trump which was aimed primarily at giving him an advantage in the 2020 presidential election.

It pursues the wrong goal, and was negotiated by the wrong people. It is strongly opposed by the Afghan Government of Ashraf Ghani, leading experts, and many allies whose forces (primarily from the NATO countries, in addition to the U.K and Canada ) have fought and died alongside American and Afghan soldiers, all in pursuit of what the U.S. held out to be the goal of establishing a democratic state governed by law.

Now, the United States has joined with Russia in convening a conference in Moscow attended by Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. Notoriously uninvited and absent were the Europeans and the NATO members who helped make up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from 2001-2014, and its follow-on successor, “Operation Resolute Support”, which in principle has been focused on training.

The reason the Europeans were not invited is blazingly clear: They would never go along with a settlement which sells out the democratic government of Afghanistan, established pursuant to elections in 2018 (legislative) and 2019 (presidential), and made up of the two leading presidential candidates in 2019 and their forces. Nor would the Europeans be likely to go along with a settlement that surrenders the future of Afghan women to the Taliban.

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Barack Obama, China, CIA, Crimes Against Humanity, Culture and Communication, Dictatorship, extrajudicial execution, extraordinary rendering, extraordinary rendition, France, History, human rights, internal supporters of human rights, International Law, Iran, Israel, kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Middle East, NATO, Nobel Lecture, Nobel Peace Prize, Nuclear Proliferation, Oslo, Russia, self-defense, Serbia, syria, Taliban, targeted assassinations, targeted killings, Torture, U.N. Charter, U.N. Convention Against Torture, U.N. Security Council, U.N. Torture Convention, U.S. Intervention, U.S. Military, United Kingdom, United States, use of force March 3, 2012

Passivity in the Face of Terror in Syria, Threats of War in Iran — Obama’s Debacle in Syria—Update #2 (March 3, 2012)

For earlier articles on Syria by The Trenchant Observer, see the Articles on Syria page. A Hard Truth:  Obama is a Weak Leader on Foreign…

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Abdoulah, Abdullah, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, CIA, Dictatorship, elections, Hamid Karzai, human rights, Intelligence, internal supporters of human rights, International Law, Justice Department, NATO, Pakistan, Pakistan military, State Department, Taliban, U.S. Military, United States September 18, 2010

Fighting corruption and other challenges in Dexter Filkins’ Corrupt-istan

To the Observer, the idea of trying to make Karzai a more central player in efforts to root out corruption in his own government sounds like giving Al Capone a more central role in cleaning up Chicago.