South Asia

(Tomdispatch.com) – On February 4, 2002, a Predator drone circled over Afghanistan’s Paktia province, near the city of Khost. Below was al-Qaeda’s founder Osama bin Laden — or at least someone in the CIA thought so — and he was marked for death. As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld put it later, both awkwardly and […]

Afghanistan

Top Five Countries that will Present Foreign Policy Challenges in 2020

The Conversation

By Catesby Holmes | – Where will the world’s attention turn in 2020? The United States’ impeachment trial of Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s long-awaited Brexit are sure bets. And after the U.S. military withdrawal from northern Syria in October, Bashar al-Assad may well win his civil war this year. Many other countries will […]

Afghanistan

‘Art-ivist’ Omaid Sharifi: “There is so much more the world should know about Afghanistan”

contributors

By Lin Xin and Luzie Mayer | Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung: The Green Political Foundation | – Interview: Omaid Sharifi is a pioneer Afghan activist and one of the co-founders of ArtLords, an artist association which has been attracting widespread international attention in recent years. How did you start your career as a painter and artist? I am […]

Hindu Nationalism

Are the Hindu Supremacists trying to Israelify India?

Middle East Monitor

Reducing Muslims to Statelessness or 2nd Class Citizenship

Afghanistan

Has the Climate Crisis in Afghanistan Displaced more People than the War?

contributors

By Fariba Housaini | – ( TheThirdPole.net ) – It has been two years since severe drought forced twenty nine-year old Amena and her four children to leave their village Petaw Qol in Waras. Now, they reside in Bamyan city. “My husband is blind and I was responsible for the farming. Wells gradually dried up […]

India

As India’s Hindu Supremacist Gov’t Moves to deprive 1.5 mn Assamese Muslims of Citizenship, a Solidarity Network Emerges

The Conversation

By Anuradha Sen Mookerjee | – The state of Assam in India is currently burning with violent protests against a new citizenship law passed by both houses of the Indian parliament in early December. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will ease the Indian citizenship process for undocumented migrants in India who come from Pakistan, Afghanistan […]

Afghanistan

An Afghan Perspective on 18 Years of Washington’s Lies about the War and our Suffering

contributors

By Basit Muhammadi | – (Special to Informed Comment) – On December 9, The Washington Post revealed interviews with American officials in Afghanistan who intentionally falsified facts regarding the 18-year conflict. In one of the interviews, Bob Crowley, a counterinsurgency adviser to U.S. military commanders in 2003, remarked that data “was altered to present the […]

Afghanistan

In Wake of “Afghanistan Papers” Scandal, Trump to Yank Out 4,000 Troops

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – VOA reports that Trump will pull 4,000 US troops from Afghanistan, leaving less than 9,000 in country. Of the 13,000 US troops now in Afghanistan, 8,000 are training the Afghanistan National Army, while 5,000 are actively engaged in counter-terrorism operations. Last week Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that any […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan War and ‘War on terror’ rage on because the West won’t learn from 20 yrs. failure

Open Democracy

By Paul Rogers | – Eighteen years ago the head of the UK’s military warned against relying on military solutions alone. But governments still aren’t listening. Things are not going as well in Afghanistan as the US government would have you believe. Not from a US point of view, anyway. This week The Washington Post […]