Wandering 40 Years in the Afghan Desert
The Taliban have taken military control, but Afghanistan's future is cloudy. Assumption that the Taliban can, by itself, effectively govern a nation divided by conflicting tribal loyalties and a partially…
Afghanistan
US-Taliban ties on razor’s edge. China is the winner
A panoramic view of Mes Ayna on the gentle hills and craggy mountains in Logar province 40 kilometres south-east of Kabul, Afghanistan, where Chinese firms signed contracts to mine…
Indian Muslims must reject the ‘Islamic Emirate’ in Afghanistan: IMSD
Around 150 Indian Muslims, supported by others committed to secular-democratic politics, have today called upon the Indian Muslim community to reject the idea of the ‘Islamic Emirate’ the Taliban seek…
Afghan Holocaust – The Awful Truth Versus US Alliance Lies
The 20 year Afghan War has ended and the war criminal US, UK, NATO and Australian invaders have all but left a devastated land. The Indigenous Afghan Taliban rapidly and…
Will Americans Who Were Right on Afghanistan Still Be Ignored?
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies America’s corporate media are ringing with recriminations over the humiliating U.S. military defeat in Afghanistan. But very little of the criticism goes…
And so it begins again: The media recycles Afghanistan war lies
In the days following the desperate evacuation of US troops from Afghanistan, the corporate press has launched an international propaganda campaign raising concerns for the “human rights” of residents of…
The Crimes of the West in Afghanistan and the Suffering That Remains
As in Iraq, as in Libya, as in Mali. It is time to finally bury the doctrine of the so-called "responsibility to protect", which was coined at the time of…
Taliban and Al Qaeda: Putting a fox in charge of the chicken coop?
Abu Omar Khorasani was taken from Kabul’s Pul-i-Charkhi prison and unceremoniously shot. The first and only person to have been executed since the Taliban gained full control of Afghanistan, Mr.…
Remembering Afghanistan’s Revolutionary Experiment
After assuming power in Kabul, the Taliban has tried to soften its extremist image. In a press conference on August 17, 2021, the group’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said, inter alia, that they…
America’s Afghan Debacle & West’s Collective Bungle
Taliban’s return to Kabul this week in lightning speed dislodging world’s No.1 self-styled sole Superpower Uncle Sam, is outstanding as much as astounding, considering Taleban’s de facto rag-tag force with…
Who “Lost” Afghanistan, America or India?
I got this on WhatsApp this morning: “If you ever feel useless, just remember … USA took 4 Presidents, thousands of lives, trillions of dollar and 20 years to replace…
Reflections on Events in Afghanistan
Afghan ambassador to Washington Ms. Adela Raz said that President Ghani and his cronies simply emptied the Afghan Treasury and left with the loot…India’s policymakers couldn’t have been unaware that…
Stakes in Afghanistan!
Speculations resting on numerous analyses are being voiced on what does withdrawal of United States from Afghanistan and take-over by Taliban really indicate? The former aspect is being viewed by…
Afghanistan: After Action Report
“To President Theodore Roosevelt - you are like the Wind and I like the Lion. You form the Tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the Ground is parched. I…
Wounded Paternalism: Biden and the US Imperial Complex
Civilisation has tended to be seen like a gift by those claiming to grant it. It is done, in the sense Rudyard Kipling intended it, with solemn duty. It is…
Taliban And India’s Threat Perception
Taliban’s re-capture of Afghanistan was virtually certain after the February 2020 (Doha) US-Taliban deal concerning US forces pull-out from Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s immediate and regional neighbours had plenty of time to…
Biden’s Afghanistan speech: America’s criminal war ends in debacle
On Monday afternoon, US President Joe Biden delivered a nationally televised address in response to the collapse of the US-backed puppet government in Afghanistan. The scale and historical impact of…
Cry, the Beloved Humanity
Some countries are in shambles. Some countries are in a wreck — war torn, poverty-ridden, divided deeply from the world where such expressions are only hyperboles and not a reality.…
The Taliban take Kabul
It unfolded as a story of fleeing. The Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, taking flight to Tajikistan, giving little clue of his intentions to colleagues. The fleeing of the infamous Abdul…
Ashraf Ghani and the Fate of Afghanistan
On August 11, 2021, Pakistan’s Prime Minster Imran Khan said, “I tried to persuade the Taliban... three to four months back when they came here…The condition is that as long…
What starts in Afghanistan does not stay in Afghanistan: China, India, and Iran grapple with the fallout
Taliban advances in Afghanistan shift the Central Asian playing field on which China, India and the United States compete with rival infrastructure-driven approaches. At first glance, a Taliban takeover of…
A Taste of Panic: The Taliban Continues its Advance
The historical vectors are moving with conviction and purpose; the weak and lacking in conviction are in retreat and the gun is doing the talking. The government of Afghan President…
US Empire’s Afghan Ponzi Scheme Comes to Ignoble End
The United States lost the Afghanistan War a long time ago, as is quickly becoming apparent as the Taliban take city after city. After 2002, it was never clear what the…
US troops return to Afghanistan as regime disintegrates
The first of some 3,000 US soldiers and Marines ordered by the Biden administration back into Afghanistan began arriving at Kabul’s international airport Friday as six more of Afghanistan’s provincial…
US sending 3,000 troops to Afghanistan as major cities fall to Taliban
The Pentagon announced Thursday that the US is sending 3,000 US soldiers and Marines into Afghanistan with the ostensible mission of securing US diplomatic facilities in Kabul and organizing the…
Ending 20 years of occupation war in Afghanistan
Taliban WAS the Government of Afghanistan for 4 Years When USA Invaded & Put in a Drug Lord Regime and For 20 Years the Taliban Continued To Govern Half of…
US intelligence warns Kabul could fall within one month
The collapse of US-backed Afghan security forces in the face of a nationwide offensive by the Taliban insurgency has led US military and intelligence officials to warn that the fall…
Biden Must Call Off the B-52s Bombing Afghan Cities
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas J. S. Davies Nine provincial capitals in Afghanistan have fallen to the Taliban in six days - Zaranj, Sheberghan, Sar-e-Pul, Kunduz, Taloqan, Aybak, Farah, Pul-e-Khumri…
UK scripts new Afghan plot for US
As often in modern history, Britain provides the plot for Washington to act. Russia, China, Iran are in the US crosshairs and Washington’s future agenda is principally oriented to blocking…
Afghanistan, Failure and Second Thoughts
It is a country other powers simply cannot leave alone. Even after abandoning its Kabul post in ignominy, tail tucked between their legs, Australia is now wondering if it should…
China explains its Afghan motivations
Contrary to the paranoia in the western (and Indian) media, Wang prioritised China’s security concerns in the prevailing situation in 3 main directions - namely, prevent the present conflict from…
America’s Afghan War Is Over, So What About Iraq – and Iran?
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies At Bagram air-base, Afghan scrap merchants are already picking through the graveyard of U.S. military equipment that was until recently the headquarters…
Afghanistan, Iran And USA
Introduction On July 7, 2021 Iran hosted talks between the Afghan Government and Taliban (the Taliban delegation was led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai). The same day, the Taliban attacked…
America- Led NATO in Afghanistan: Crimes against Humanity Call for Accountability
“We Are Going to Lose the War in Afghanistan and it will Help Bankrupt us. One of our major strategic blunders in Afghanistan was not to have recognized that both…
A hybrid war to replace Afghan ‘forever war’?
The British newspaper Daily Telegraph did some kite-flying in the weekend that London is considering open-ended deployment of a contingent of elite special forces to Afghanistan “ to provide training…
Biden Acknowledges “Over The Horizon” Air Attacks Planned Against Taliban
“Over-the-horizon” air operations, possibly directed at the Taliban, may rely very heavily on drone assassination and drone targeting for manned aircraft. On July 2, fleeing questions from reporters about U.S. plans…
Leaving Bagram Airbase: The Day the US Imperium Turned Tail
From the Bagram Airbase they left, leaving behind a piece of the New York World Trade Centre that collapsed with such graphic horror on September 11, 2001. As with previous…
Taliban has won the war in Afghanistan, says Lord Dannatt, former British army head
The Taliban has “prevailed” in its battle with the West in Afghanistan, said General Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army as it emerged all UK and U.S.…
The Long Crusades of Western Imperialism
In late April 2021, US President Joe Biden announced a withdrawal from Afghanistan. In other words, the US has been trounced in Afghanistan by its very own jihadist Frankenstein, the Taliban. The…
USA’s Hypocritical Dealings with Taliban
Speculations abound over Taliban’s aim to exploit the vacuum left by the partial withdrawal of US-NATO troop to seize control of the capital Kabul and re-establish an Islamic Emirate, similar…
Pakistan’s Geopolitical Game in Afghanistan
On June 14, 2021, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke at the inaugural Pakistan-Afghanistan Bilateral Dialogue in Islamabad. His tone was mildly aggressive. Talking about USA’s pullout from Afghanistan,…
Leave Kabul: Foreign missions prepare for evacuation
In the wake of U.S. and NATO troops withdrawal, foreign missions in Kabul are preparing for evacuation. Media reports said: The U.S. Defense Department and the State Department are drawing…
Afghan nationalism faces existential challenge — Part 2
India is hardly in a position to assert on the Afghan chessboard… The bottom line is that New Delhi is highly unlikely to do anything that may undermine the US…
Afghan nationalism faces existential challenge — Part 1
Afghan conundrum is mutating The commencement of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has got off to a flying start. So…
China blocks US bases in Central Asia
Photo taken on May 9, 2021 shows the books of students who were killed in a car bomb attack in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua). Over 80…
Endless, Unfulfilled Yearnings For Peace in Afghanistan
One of the world’s most inspiring movements for peace involved the Pashtun community. It was led by Badshah Khan, and earned the highest praise from Mahatma Gandhi who visited the…
US-Taliban acquiesce to live and let live
But the US withdrawal is no longer conditions-based, which means the Taliban have achieved their number one objective without bending on any of the key issues such as their continuing…
Kabul School Bombing A Dreadful Reminder of Dangers Ahead
When children leave school for the day they are in a joyous mood. They are happy to be going home, and yet they have so much to tell their friends…
The True Meaning of the Afghan “Withdrawal”
Many of us have had a recurring nightmare. You know the one. In a fog between sleeping and waking, you’re trying desperately to escape from something awful, some looming threat,…
Breakthrough in Afghan peace process!
The “extended Troika” on the Afghan problem comprising the United States, Russia, and China — and Pakistan — have announced in Doha on April 30 Friday a road map in…
Is America hoping its withdrawal from Afghanistan makes that war-ravaged country China’s problem now?
A car bomb attack in Pakistan, possibly aimed at a Chinese diplomat, has demonstrated just how important peace and stability in the region is to Beijing and its $65 billion…
Reports from Afghanistan: General’s comment, blast, cost
U.S. general: Afghan forces could face 'bad possible outcomes' A May 2, 2021, Washington datelined AP report said: Afghan government forces face an uncertain future and, in a worst-case scenario,…
Tradeoff for US vaccine unthinkable
The big question is whether the US is relenting on the vaccine front with a view to cut a deal with India on Afghanistan. But if past experience is…
The Graveyard of Empires Redux
America's Ruinous Pursuit of Mission Impossible in Afghanistan On May 1st, the date Donald Trump signed onto for the withdrawal of the remaining 3,500 American troops from Afghanistan, the war there, already 19 years…
Biden’s Drone Wars
On Thursday, April 15, the New York Times posted an article headed, “How the U.S. Plans to Fight From Afar After Troops Exit Afghanistan,” just in case anyone misunderstood the…
Chronicle of the unavailing Afghan war
The occupation of Afghanistan became an end in itself, with war profiteering turning into a roaring business with money, women, drug trafficking, foreign bank accounts, contractors — all thrown into…
Reactions to U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
Reactions to the U.S. decision to withdraw troop from Afghanistan are mixed. A few are of disappointment. Media reports said: ‘Not what we’d hoped for’: UK military chief disappointed Britain’s…
Empire’s Afghan War: A lost war, a profitable war
Afghan-chessboard is difficult. Now, with the US president’s latest Afghan-move, the chessboard is going to be more difficult, and more complex. It’s now neither a Stunning Queen Sacrifice nor a…
U.S. Joins Past Empires In Afghan Graveyard
Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies An Afghan taxi-driver in Vancouver told one of us a decade ago that this day would come. “We defeated the Persian…
India should welcome the end of US occupation of Afghanistan
A Taliban unit in Laghman, Afghanistan, Dec. 2020 (File photo) To be sure, the “forever war” in Afghanistan is ending on a sombre note. The US has barely managed to…
Annual Subscription
Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us
