US politics

An Afghan American scholar describes his fear-filled journey from the chaos at Kabul airport to a plane bound for home in the US

By Hanif Sufizada | – Editor’s note: Afghan scholar Hanif Sufizada, who works at the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha, got caught in Kabul during the chaos of the U.S. military pullout, when thousands of Afghans fled to the airport, seeking a way out of the country. Editor Catesby Holmes […]

Afghanistan

Biden: After Trump-Taliban Treaty, Draw-down, Staying in Afghanistan would have Required a New War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden on Friday gave some further insight into his decision to leave Afghanistan, and refuted some of his critics’ talking points concisely and convincingly. Let me back up and explain that the Military-Industrial Complex spokespersons, like Gen. (ret’d) David Petraeus, criticized Biden for being unwilling to stay in […]

Afghanistan

Why Biden Is Right to End the War in Afghanistan

Peter Certo

Now our obligation is to those Afghans living with the consequences of our four decades of intervention

Afghanistan

Afghan troops sought safety in numbers – igniting a cascade of surrender

The Conversation

By Todd Lehmann | – The swift collapse of the Afghan military in recent days caught many in the U.S. by surprise, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the months after President Joe Biden’s April 2021 announcement of the troop withdrawal, intelligence reports warned that the Afghan military might not fight […]

National Security State

Despite Departure from Afghanistan, America still Has an Archipelago of 750 Military Bases around the World

Tomdispatch

By Patterson Deppen | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was the spring of 2003 during the American-led invasion of Iraq. I was in second grade, living on a U.S. military base in Germany, attending one of the Pentagon’s many schools for families of servicemen stationed abroad. One Friday morning, my class was on the […]

Afghanistan

Public Opinion largely Supportive of Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal, despite Angst over Chaotic Process

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The abrupt collapse of the government of President Ashraf Ghani and his supposed 300,000 security forces in the past two weeks clearly caught the Biden administration by surprise. It is the most serious crisis yet for the new administration, and has shaken public confidence in the president, giving him the […]

Immigration

From farm to table, immigrants feed America

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Lauren Irwin, Natalie Saenz and Priya Bhat/News21 ( Cronkite News ) – As the sun beats down on a family farm in McFarland, California, immigrant workers duck under a leafy canopy of cotton-candy grapes for a moment of relief. It’s 5:56 a.m., and temperatures are quickly rising. Draped in cotton from fingers to toes, […]

Afghanistan

Why did a military superpower fail in Afghanistan?

The Conversation

By Arie Perliger | – The speed and efficiency with which Taliban forces were able to complete the occupation of most of Afghanistan, as well as the quick collapse of the Afghan government, has led to criticism of President Joe Biden’s decision to end U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and of the withdrawal’s logistics. But […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is not the only place at risk of takeover by extremists: US has Dangerous Homegrown Radicals trying to Overthrow our Government

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – It’s as if a sudden natural disaster has just struck Afghanistan. The scenes from the capital Kabul reflect the kind of panic that comes when a Category 5 hurricane makes landfall, when the waters rise and the levees are breached, when a forest fire jumps over a fuel break […]