US politics

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tom Bowman and Audie Cornish at NPR report that all U.S. troops are out of Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war. I teach that war every year, so I’ll still be living with it the rest of my career. But for most Americans, its end should be something to celebrate. Here […]

Donald Trump

The Republican Party’s flirtation with Fascism is becoming a Marriage

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – Republicans love to hijack democratic and progressive concepts, such as “free speech,” and apply them in a hyperbolic context that is counterintuitive to the original intent. While this tactic burgeoned in recent years, Donald Trump’s presidency and toxic wake has elevated the issues and urgency to defeat this. […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan should be Last U.S. War of Empire, Corruption and Poverty

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink) – Americans have been shocked by videos of thousands of Afghans risking their lives to flee the Taliban’s return to power in their country – and then by an Islamic State suicide bombing and ensuing massacre by U.S. forces that together killed at least 170 people, including 13 U.S. troops. Even as […]

Afghanistan

The Taliban reportedly have control of US biometric devices – a lesson in life-and-death consequences of data privacy

The Conversation

By Margaret Hu | In the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and the ouster of the Afghan national government, alarming reports indicate that the insurgents could potentially access biometric data collected by the U.S. to track Afghans, including people who worked for U.S. and coalition forces. Afghans who once supported the U.S. have […]

Afghanistan

The same MAGA mob Who supported Insurrection are Smearing pro-American Afghan Refugees as Dangerous

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Stoking fear of Afghan refugees, Stephen Miller — architect of Trump’s ethno-nationalist agenda — used the Afghanistan withdrawal and the ISIS airport attack as another opportunity to spread Islamophobia. Just hours after Kabul fell to the Taliban, Miller focused on an anti-immigrant message: “It is becoming increasingly clear that […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Who’s Who in the Taliban’s ‘inclusive’ new Administration

The Conversation

By Amalendu Misra | – ( The Conversation) – As western powers frantically scramble to evacuate their citizens and the Afghan nationals who worked for them, the nature of the Taliban leadership’s intentions for how it intends to govern remains obscure. But if various messages fed in recent days to the international media are to […]

Afghanistan

Biden got 117,000 Afghans Out: Contrast that Time Trump Abruptly Withdrew Troops from Syria and refused to Help Kurdish Allies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Richard N. Ojeda, an Army vet and former West Virginia state representative tweeted out an observation that I would like to reinforce: I don’t remember Donald Trump flying one Kurd to safety. He let Turkey slaughter them. They were our allies that served side by side with our troops. Where […]

Afghanistan

Afghan women’s lives are now in danger from the Taliban – but they have always faced male violence

The Conversation

By Jenevieve Mannell | – The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban has undoubtedly put women’s lives in danger and threatened their human rights in new ways. But if we want to help, we need to first understand that Afghan women’s lives were challenging long before the takeover. The threat of violence has long been […]

Bush

Top 4 Times US Troops were Bombed under Republican Presidents and No one Resigned or was Impeached

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The silly season has descended permanently on Washington, D.C., so that minor congressmen are calling for the resignation or even impeachment of President Joe Biden over the ISIL-K bombing at Abbey Gate in the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 26. Chris Cilizza called out the Nikki Haleys, […]