Trump decided last month to pull half of the 14,000-strong force from Afghanistan
- Africa (127)
- Animals (1)
- Asia (703)
- Authoritarianism (125)
- Cats (1)
- Culture (372)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (179)
- Dissent (266)
- Economy (557)
- Education (59)
- Elderly (2)
- Energy (919)
- Environment (1,181)
- Europe (642)
- Featured (2,092)
- fiction (5)
- Food (7)
- Guns (9)
- History (186)
- Human Rights (912)
- Immigration (17)
- International (636)
- Islamophobia (263)
- Juan Cole (264)
- Latin America (52)
- Latinos (3)
- leisure (21)
- media (343)
- Middle East (6,317)
- Arab World (4,241)
- Iran (688)
- Israel (648)
- Israel/ Palestine (1,595)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (235)
- Turkey (369)
- military (103)
- Modernism (1)
- nationalism (98)
- NATO (4)
- Natural Disasters (11)
- nuclear weapons (41)
- Patriarchy (1)
- Peace (63)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Popular Culture (22)
- Poverty (6)
- privacy (19)
- racism (259)
- Rape (5)
- religion (726)
- Rights (124)
- Romance (1)
- science (98)
- Secular (West) (7)
- Secularism (20)
- Sexual Assault (2)
- South Pacific (1)
- Spirituality (20)
- Statelessness (14)
- Surveillance (255)
- Terrorism (1,005)
- Tolerance (4)
- Uncategorized (8,023)
- United Nations (64)
- Urbanization (3)
- US Foreign Policy (448)
- US politics (2,940)
- Anti-War Movement (5)
- Campaign Finance (23)
- Censors (21)
- Central Intelligence Agency (56)
- Civil Rights (75)
- Constitution (237)
- crime (3)
- Democratic Party (438)
- Democratic Socialists of America (2)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drone Warfare (24)
- Espionage (108)
- Ethnicities (218)
- Far Right (156)
- FBI (34)
- Foreign Policy (193)
- Gay Rights (12)
- Guns (59)
- Immigration (148)
- Israel Lobbies (73)
- Marijuana (1)
- Militarization (207)
- National Security State (363)
- Native Americans (20)
- Nuclear arsenal (5)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (254)
- Police (19)
- prison reform (3)
- Puerto Rico (25)
- Religious Right (1)
- Reproductive Choice (7)
- Republican Party (1,710)
- Supreme Court (41)
- Voter suppression (18)
- Whistleblowers (3)
- Xenophobia (7)
- Veterans (18)
- Voting Rights (4)
- War (228)
- Western Religion (347)
- White Supremacists (46)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (259)
- workers (112)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (111)
Taliban
With US Troop Pull-Out, Afghans Fear Return to Taliban Era
President Ghani said last month nearly 30,000 Afghan security forces had been killed since the start of 2015
Parade! How Trump Redefined Victory in Afghanistan as “Attacking our Enemies”
New York (Tomdispatch.com) – 4,000,000,029,057. Remember that number. It’s going to come up again later. But let’s begin with another number entirely: 145,000 — as in, 145,000 uniformed soldiers striding down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s the number of troops who marched down that very street in May 1865 after the United States defeated the Confederate […]
Afghanistan: Taliban Advances Cast Doubt on Trump’s Double-Down Policy
By Thomas WATKINS | – Washington (AFP) – A year since President Donald Trump unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan, a fresh wave of violence and bloodshed has assailed the war-torn nation and overshadowed some small glimmers of progress. Each successful attack represents a massive setback not just for the Afghanistan government, which is pushing for […]
If US Special Ops are Winning War on Terror, why have they lost 1/2 of Afghanistan?
New York (Tomdispatch.com) – A U.S. drone strike in Yemen. (I could be talking about 2002 or 2018.) Missions by Green Berets in Iraq. (I could be talking about 2003 or 2018.) While so much about the War on Terror turned Global War on Terrorism turned World War IV turned the Long War turned “generational […]
On Memorial Day, US Troops still Dying in Afghanistan but 1/2 the Country is Lost
The Afghanistan government controls only about half of Afghanistan, 229 of 407 districts. Maybe because it is a bad news story, our Afghanistan War, the longest in our history, keeps slipping our minds, along with thoughts of the Americans still fighting there. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, has issued a report […]
To Fight Talibanism, Pakistan finally gives Rights to People in Tribal Areas
Pakistan’s restive tribal areas may finally be allowed to enter the political mainstream
Afghanistan: How a Shrine Bombing in Kabul tells us Trump’s Surge won’t Succeed
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – This year, the merriment of Now-Ruz in Kabul was marred by a suicide bombing that killed at least 33 persons and wounded 68, according to the Afghani Ministry of Health. The perpetrator was allegedly a member of ISIL (which really needs another name, since it isn’t […]
Despite Trump Surge, Taliban Attack Afghan Army Post, Killing 18 Soldiers
TeleSur | – – A bomb attack also took place in the capital Kabul killing at least one person. Islamic State group in Afghanistan claimed responsibility. Taliban militants have attacked an Afghan army post and killed 18 government soldiers, the defense ministry said Saturday, while a suicide bomber in the capital killed one person and […]