The US State Department released its long-awaited after-action report on the botched 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan on Friday. The assessment blamed the snafu primarily on the insistence of Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden on going ahead with a full military withdrawal. The decision to “end the US military …
Read More »Earthquake kills at least 280 in Afghanistan
At least 280 people have been killed and many others are injured after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Afghanistan early on Wednesday, the ruling Taliban’s official news agency Bakhtar has said. The epicenter was located some 44 km (27 miles) from the city of Khost in the southeast of the …
Read More »‘If they find us here, we’ll be punished’: RT report on ‘secret schools’ for girls in Afghanistan
“There is an underground project in Kabul called ‘Course in memoir writing for wounded girls.’ Would you be interested to see it?” I was asked last week. These days, education for girls is probably the most ambiguous topic of Afghanistan’s new era. The Taliban is to some extent demonstrating its commitment …
Read More »Biden confuses Afghanistan & Ukraine
US President Joe Biden has mixed up the countries of Afghanistan and Ukraine, despite them being more than 3,000km apart, in what was the second major geography gaffe by a senior American official in just one day. The president needed two attempts to get his country choice correct when answering …
Read More »Leaked notes show chaotic planning of US evacuation from Afghanistan
US President Joe Biden’s administration was still scrambling to organize the evacuation of allies from Afghanistan mere hours before the Taliban took over Kabul in August, leaked notes from a White House meeting indicate. Axios obtained the notes from a White House Situation Room meeting on August 14, 2021, which …
Read More »Russian plane flies abandoned pets out of Afghanistan
Five months after the end of the US airlift stranded them in Afghanistan, some 156 dogs and 133 cats are finally on board an Il-76 chartered from a Russian transport company Aviacon Zitotrans, which departed Kabul on Sunday and is bound for Vancouver, Canada. “The plane is a total beast, …
Read More »Could Ukraine become Russia’s new Afghanistan?
Speculation has run high in Western capitals in recent weeks that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could trigger a ‘guerrilla war’ with US-made weapons, creating an Afghanistan-like quagmire for President Vladimir Putin. In reality, though, should such apocalyptic events ever transpire, an anti-Russian insurgency seems unlikely for a range of …
Read More »Kazakhstan crisis is consequence of US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia claims
Last week’s disturbances in Kazakhstan were fuelled by the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, allowing “jihadists” to attempt to undermine constitutional order in Kazakhstan, Russia’s ambassador in Washington has claimed. According to Anatoly Antonov, the country has been overrun by “radicals manifesting dehumanizing ideologies.” “Thousands of jihadists and marauders tried …
Read More »Afghanistan, Covid variants, gas, space tourism: The news that defined 2021
Biden takes charge of a divided America Conducting his campaign largely virtually from the confines of his Delaware basement, Joe Biden promised voters a return to the staid ‘normality’ that characterized Washington, DC in the pre-Trump era. While Biden’s message won out, his inauguration in January did little to heal …
Read More »Marine who blasted Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal discharged
Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller went viral in August after he published a Facebook video criticizing US military leadership for the way it handled the Afghanistan withdrawal that same month. Scheller, who lost a personal acquaintance in a terrorist suicide bombing attack during the withdrawal, said in the video that he …
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