Prospects for the resumption of the Afghan peace talks at Doha on January 5 look bright despite the recent spike in violence involving the Taliban, Afghan government forces and the US Air Force, which have caused large scale civilian casualties. A groundswell of opinion has formed about the critical need […]
Tag: Taliban
Russia, Bountiful Hoaxes And The New York Times
There is a delicious irony in the Russia Bounty scandal. The Russians, funding the very entity that was financed, at least in a previous incarnation, by the Central Intelligence Agency, to supposedly kill the warriors of a country that had funded them. The karmic wheel of boggled minds finds its […]
The Truth About Russian-Taliban Ties Is As Intriguing As The Fake News About Them
Russia doesn’t exploit the Taliban as a proxy for killing Americans, but seeks to nurture equally close relations with it along the lines of the ones that it presently enjoys with Pakistan. Moscow seems to believe that the group will likely return to power one of these days (ideally through […]
Russian Bounty Killing Forces Trump’s Hands On Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan
As expected, the controversy over Russia’s alleged bounties for killing American and NATO troops in Afghanistan is steadily snowballing. The New York Times has come out with more leaks such as bank transfers from accounts identified with the Russian military intelligence to the Taliban, “hawala” transactions as well as the […]
The Taliban Scores A Coup
It threatened to disappear under the viral haze of COVID-19, but February 29 saw representatives from the US and Taliban, loftily acknowledged as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, sign the “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan”. After two decades of conflict, the agreement sets in motion the process that should […]
Intra-Afghan Dialogue Gets Kickstarted
Three significant things about Ashraf Ghani’s swearing-in ceremony in Kabul on Monday augur well for the implementation of the US-Taliban pact signed in Doha on February 29. One, the US officials, civilian and military, made a full court appearance at the ceremony in Kabul, affirming their reconciliation with Ghani. The […]
End Stupid Bush’s War Today!
After 19 years of war, over $1 trillion in spending, 2,400 dead and a torrent of lies, the US may now be facing an end to its longest war. The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. There were three reasons: 1. to cover up the humiliation of the tough-talking Bush administration […]
Trump Puts Taliban Deal Back On Track
A mini mutiny in Kabul against the US-Taliban deal has been nipped in the bud and it should sound warning bells in Washington that the real threat to peacemaking in Afghanistan comes from one principal source — the interest groups that monopolise state agencies and are loathe to transfer power. […]
Will Afghan Peace Deal Be Sustainable?
Being optimist, I also praise the Afghan peace agreement signed on 29 February 2020 in Doha, the capital of Qatar, between the US officials and Taliban which is aimed at ending the United States’ longest war, fought in Afghanistan since 2001. The signing ceremony was attended by the representatives from […]
Afghan Peace Comes With Caveats But Can’t Be Snuffed Out
The chasm between illusion and reality in politics remains perennial. Wars seldom ended according to the script of peace agreements. The fall of Saigon in April 1975 ending Vietnam War, with defeated Americans hastily retreating in helicopters from the rooftop of their embassy, was not anticipated in the Paris Peace […]
The Afghanistan Papers
Afghanistan is a famous desert for empires, a burial ground which has consumed those in power who thought that extra fortification and trading most might benefit them. It remains a great, and somewhat savage reminder about those who suffer hubris, overconfidence and eagerness in pursuing their agendas. But the country […]
Afghanistan: Graveyard Of Empires
The last week, the venerable Washington Post newspaper revealed a bombshell, 2,000 page, secret Pentagon report detailing the astounding failure of US war strategy in Afghanistan, America’s longest war. Americans have been fed a steady stream of lies about the Afghan War, concluded the Post. So asserted this writer in […]
Comments