Asia

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

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

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 […]

Afghanistan

Taliban Consider Iran-Style Supreme Leader as they Kill Three Protesters demanding Restoration of National Flag

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Taliban announced Thursday that they are considering a “leadership council” government for the country. But it sounds to me like a Sunni knock-off of the Khomeinist model in Shiite Iran. This in the wake of violent suppression of flag protests on Thursday that bode ill for any sort of […]

Afghanistan

The Taliban’s conquest of Kabul threatens the lives and safety of girls, women and sexual minorities

The Conversation

By Deeplina Banerjee< | - The world watched in shock as Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, fled the country on Aug. 15. The Taliban occupied Kabul, the country’s capital, and international news channels and social media began to be flooded with devastating pictures of Afghans desperately attempting to escape the impending Taliban regime. Afghanistan’s […]

Japan

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Near-Meltdown is a Lasting Tragedy

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – In 2011 the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami devastated northeast Japan, taking the lives of more than 18,000 people and triggering one of the worst industrial accidents in history: the crippling breakdown of the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power plant. Three of the plant’s six reactors suffered […]

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 […]

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 […]

Afghanistan

Taliban “Islam” versus the Islam of the Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – British academic Abdul-Azim Ahmed of Cardiff University, an expert on mosques in the UK, complained on Twitter that he was invited onto television to debate whether the Taliban represent Islam: Just had a call from a journo asking if I could go on live to debate whether the Taliban represent […]