“You’re all going to die,” the diminutive, senior U.S. intelligence official observed in matter-of-fact fashion to her stunned Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hosts. Her rather blunt appraisal was uncharacteristic of the engagement to which the senior Pakistani officials had grown accustomed and cut to the chase: the consequences of decades of Pakistan’s support to the Taliban, violent Kashmiri liberation groups, […]

Tehran’s policy toward the Afghan Taliban has created new clashes within Iranian government circles. These clashes recently escalated as influential hard-line media and associates of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) made public efforts to portray the Taliban in a positive light.

“This marks the end of a historic chapter — an intense deployment that has challenged and shaped us,” wrote German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on June 29. The occasion was the homecoming of the last German troops deployed in Afghanistan. Over the past 20 years, around 150,000 German troops served in these troubled lands, making Germany the second-largest contributor to […]

One of the doctrinal principles behind U.S. corporate-imperial news coverage and commentary and mainstream US politics is that the United States is a fundamentally benevolent force for good facing difficulties created by evil others and challenging situations not of Washington’s own making. Debate is permissible on immediate strategy and tactics but is not allowed on these core American Exceptionalist positions. […]

The victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan is looking unstoppable as they capture the big provincial cities of Kandahar, Herat and Ghazni without meeting effective resistance from Afghan government forces. Afghan soldiers and security forces are fleeing, surrendering or changing sides as they see no point in dying for a lost cause. The speed of the Taliban success has caught […]

President Biden put a popular flag-waving wrapping on America’s forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in his 4 PM speech on Monday. It was as if all this was following Biden’s own intentions, not a demonstration of the totally incompetent assurances by the CIA and State Department as recently as last Friday that the Taliban was over a month away from being […]

In a bid to reassure the nation, the Taliban on Monday called on all government employees, including women, to return to work. The deputy head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar Abdul Salam Hanafi stressed that diplomatic missions, and military and civilian government employees can work alongside the Taliban without any concerns and that no one’s rights will be […]

The Taliban’s real test begins now as they look to meet the people’s expectations and serve them by resolving problems, a senior official from the group said as the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Reuters reported. In a video released by Taliban on Monday (August 16), Mullah Baradar Akhund, deputy of the Taliban, said it was now time to provide for […]

The Taliban said that while there was little traffic on the roads and many shops were closed Monday, following the take over on Sunday, this was just a temporary situation and that things will return to normal in the next few days. The Taliban is patrolling the city to maintain civil order, and shops, schools, universities, and many institutions are […]

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday night that the Taliban has succeeded in ending the foreign occupation of Afghanistan after 20 years of “struggle”. Addressing his first press conference, Mujahid threw some light on the current situation and reassured Kabul residents that “their security is assured.” He also said that the Taliban has declared a general amnesty to prevent […]