Afghanistan

By Azeta Hatef | – Devastating photos and videos emerged from Afghanistan as the Taliban regained control of the country and U.S. troops prepared to withdraw in August 2021. A video of 19-year-old Zaki Anwari and others falling to their deaths as they clung to the side of a U.S. evacuation airplane circulated in the […]

Afghanistan

America’s Toxic Militarism has left Afghanistan, but Afghan Women are still Living with its Consequences

Ann Jones

By Ann Jones | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – I know, I know. It’s the last thing you want to hear about. Twenty years of American carnage in Afghanistan was plenty for you, I’m sure, and there are so many other things to worry about in an America at the edge of… well, who knows […]

Afghanistan

How ethnic and religious divides in Afghanistan are contributing to violence against minorities

The Conversation

By Abdulkader Sinno | – Close to a hundred Afghan Shiite Muslims were killed in attacks on mosques in October 2021. One such attack took place on Oct. 15, when a group of suicide bombers detonated explosives at a mosque in Kandahar. Just over a week before that, at least 46 people were killed in […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Taliban Forcibly Evict Minority Shia — Hazaras Targets of Collective Punishment

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (New York) – Taliban officials in several provinces across Afghanistan have forcibly displaced residents partly to distribute land to their own supporters, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of these evictions have targeted Hazara Shia communities, as well as people associated with the former government, as a form of collective punishment. […]

Afghanistan

How US-Soviet Cold War Competition led to Fall of the Afghan Left and Collapse of the Country into Fundamentalism

Middle East Monitor

By Luis Edel Abreu Veranes | – From the turbulent 1970s ( Middle East Monitor) – With its geographic centrality on the Asian continent, Afghanistan has historically become a corridor and civilisational interstice between Persian and Hindustani empires and peoples flowing in from the north. Some were Turkic-speaking, who marked and shaped the ethnic synthesis […]

Afghanistan

Celebrating Rep. Barbara Lee, our Cassandra who warned against the Failed 20-Year Wars

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – For decades, I kept a poster on my wall that I’d saved from the year I turned 16. In its upper left-hand corner was a black-and-white photo of a white man in a grey suit. Before him spread a cobblestone plaza. All you could see were the man and the stones. […]

Afghanistan

Leaving Afghanistan was a No-Brainer – the Rise of Illiberal Schmittian Regimes is now the big Danger to U.S.

Scott Corey

By Scott Corey | – (Special to Informed Comment) – On October of 2009, I published an essay on Informed Comment advocating that the US recommit to Afghanistan, with a planned date for withdrawal designed to pressure the Afghan government to better performance. The Obama administration later adopted a policy along similar lines. Although Mr. […]

Afghanistan

Afghan women have a long history of taking leadership and fighting for their rights

The Conversation

By Wazhmah Osman and Helena Zeweri | – Ever since the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan, the question in much of the Western media has been, “What will happen to the women of Afghanistan?” Indeed, this is an important concern that merits international attention. The Taliban has already imposed many restrictions on women. At the same time, […]

Afghanistan

Collective Punishment as War Crime: 90% of Afghan Families Lack enough Food because the West is Punishing the Taliban

Foreign Policy in Focus

By John Sifton | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation is spiraling into catastrophe. Millions of Afghans are now facing severe economic stress and food insecurity in the wake of the Taliban’s August takeover, set off by widespread lost income, cash shortages, and rising food costs. Officials with the UN […]