Afghanistan

By Ann Jones | (Tomdispatch.com) | — I went to Kabul, Afghanistan, in March to see old friends. By chance, I arrived the day after a woman had been beaten to death and burned by a mob of young men. The world would soon come to know her name: Farkhunda. The name means “auspicious” or […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Endless War: Between the US, Taliban and ISIL

contributors

By Brian M. Downing | (Informed Comment) | – War is largely a seasonal activity in Afghanistan. Winters are harsh and fighters need to work fields and tend herds. With spring, another fighting season is underway. This year will be different from its many predecessors. US ground troops are no longer engaged in large numbers; […]

Afghanistan

The Middle East Policy of President Bernie Sanders

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Bernie Sanders opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation of that country. Sanders wanted to get out of Afghanistan from 2011 much faster than the timetable announced by President Obama. Obama has now more or less extended a US military presence in Afghanistan, advertised as […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s China Card

contributors

By Dilip Hiro | (Tomdispatch.com) – Call it an irony, if you will, but as the Obama administration struggles to slow down or halt its scheduled withdrawal from Afghanistan, newly elected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is performing a withdrawal operation of his own. He seems to be in the process of trying to sideline the country’s major […]

Afghanistan

Lynching Farkhunda: Birth of Gender Equality and Accountability in Afghanistan?

contributors

By Solaiman M Fazel | (Informed Comment) The brutal murder of a 27 year old Afghan female student, Farkhunda, at the hands of an angry mob in front of the Shah-e Do-Shamshira Mosque near downtown Kabul was not only a heinous crime, but it also reveals the collective irresponsibility and ineffectiveness of the police officers […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan Wakes Up To Daesh/ ISIL Threat

contributors

By Qadir Habib and Michael Scollon | (RFE/RL) – After consistently rejecting the idea, Kabul could no longer ignore what self-declared recruiters and fighters had been telling them for months — the Islamic State (IS) group had indeed arrived in Afghanistan. “Islamic State or those people who call themselves Islamic State are active in some […]

Afghanistan

Even Other Terrorists Denounce Taliban School Attacks In Pakistan

contributors

Cenk Uygur (The Young Turks) | — “”In one of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s history, militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday launched a brazen attack on a military-run school in the city of Peshawar. Officials said the eight-hour siege left at least 141 people dead, most of them students. Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed […]

Afghanistan

Desperate Pakistani Taliban, on the ropes, attack Army School in Peshawar: Large scale Casualties

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — On Tuesday, six members of the Movement of Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or TTP) invaded a school for children run by the Pakistani army in Peshawar The Pakistani military counter-attacked, with early reports of dozens killed and wounded in the cross fire. Some of the Taliban were wearing suicide […]

Afghanistan

Enter the Dragon: China offers Iraq Aerial Strikes on ISIL/ Daesh

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — The list of powers eager to see Daesh (what Arabs call ISIS or ISIL) defeated grew larger this weekend with a report in the Financial Times that Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim Jaafari received a pledge from his counterpart Wang Yi that China would intervene against Daesh from the air. It […]