Many Americans might regard their government’s grand strategic objectives in this respect as lacking any morals, ethics, or principles considering that they now largely align with China’s, Pakistan’s, Russia’s, and even the Taliban’s despite the public having been made to think over the years that all four of them are their enemies. Afghan Ambiguity Average…
For twenty years, two dominant narratives have shaped our view of the illegal US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and neither one of these narratives would readily accept the use of such terms as ‘illegal’, ‘invasion’ and ‘occupation.’ The framing of the US ‘military intervention’ in Afghanistan, starting on October 7, 2001, as the official…
The key takeaway is that the US’ technological superiority was irrelevant during its War on Afghanistan and the human sources that it depended on for intelligence were too unreliable. History will testify that there has never been a greater intelligence failure for the US than the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. Contrarian voices might bring up…
The Taliban is doing everything in its power to rehabilitate its international image and appears to keenly understand that its prior hosting of various armed groups that fought against other countries was the single-greatest reason why it was ostracized by the international community. Some Indian commentators are fearful of a potential Taliban-Kashmiri alliance after one…
It was 20 years ago today. Asia Times published Get Osama! Now! Or Else… The rest is history. Retrospectively, this sounds like news from another galaxy. Before Planet 9/11. Before GWOT (Global War on Terror). Before the Forever Wars. Before the social network era. Before the Russia-China strategic partnership. Before the Dronification of State Violence….
Russia ideally hopes to broker a rapprochement between the Taliban and India in order to restore the latter’s influence in Afghanistan and thus balance out Pakistan’s existing influence in the country as well as China’s emerging influence there. The Kremlin would likely do this without any extra incentive since it aligns with its envisioned 21st-century…
