Category: South East Asia

ISIS attack leaves Biden with four bad options

What now? Two explosions outside Kabul airport killed at least 13 people on Thursday. According to Fox News, at least 10 U.S. service members were also killed. A preliminary but high confidence intelligence assessment has been made that ISIS-Khorasan is responsible. More fatalities are expected.

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Who Are the Anti-Taliban Resistance Forces and for How Long Can They Last?

After the Taliban swiftly swept away, without much of a resistance, the Afghan Army and government on the heels of the U.S.-led coalition’s withdrawal from the country, chaos has gripped Afghanistan. Panicked Afghan civilians, desperate to leave a country under Taliban rule, have flooded the Kabul airport. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Western countries are airlifting out thousands of Afghans as […]

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Urban Warfare: What’s Next for the American Military?

The U.S. military has been fighting the Global War on Terror (GWOT) for more than two decades now. This means that for the first time in American history a servicemember can have both enlisted and retired during an active war. Further, at no time in its history has the U.S. sustained urban combat for this length of time. Seemingly, with […]

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Implications of Taliban takeover for the United States

America has reached the peak of its loss of power and authority, a decline that started on Sep. 11, 2001, and that has culminated in the Taliban’s recent takeover of Afghanistan. After this process, it is now a question of how the balance of power in the world will shift The Taliban’s control of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the […]

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Taliban appoint obscure figures in senior intelligence and security positions

A NUMBER OF OBSCURE figures, largely unknown to Western observers, have been appointed to senior security and intelligence positions by the Taliban, just days after their return to power in Afghanistan. Some of the names of senior officials have been made public by news agencies in the Middle East. Others were publicized on Tuesday by Pajhwok Afghan News, an independent […]

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Shia Clerics: Taliban Must Ensure Equal Role for All

The Shia Ulema Council at a press conference on Tuesday urged the Taliban to ensure that they will treat all faiths and ethnicities with equality and justice. They said the next government should ensure the participation of all religions and ethnicities. The clerics called on the Taliban to ensure the safety and security of women and minorities. “The Shia people […]

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Taliban and Al Qaeda: If there’s no war, there won’t be an alliance

The U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan was about counterterrorism. Had it not been for a traumatic terrorist attack in the United States, 20 years of U.S. warfare in Afghanistan never would have occurred. Most Americans would have been oblivious to events there, and U.S. policymakers would have given the country only the minimal attention it had received ever since U.S.-aided […]

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How Afghanistan withdrawal could lead to a harder policy against China

Biden is getting attacked on all sides for putting its ‘credibility’ on the Taiwan issue at risk. Will he cave to it? In an interview on Wednesday, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked President Biden whether the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan called into question the credibility of America’s commitment to its allies and partners, particularly Taiwan. “Look, America cannot be […]

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Germany, Turkey, US talk with Taliban on evacuation deadline

Germany, Turkey, the US and Taliban have discussed keeping the Kabul airport open beyond August 31 deadline to evacuate more Afghans from Afghanistan. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the media on Monday that leaders of G7 member countries should coordinate evacuation from Kabul airport and think about extending the evacuation deadline beyond August 31. He said that Germany, US, […]

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CIA Director Met with Taliban Leader in Kabul

CIA Director William J. Burns had a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar Monday in Kabul. The former deputy secretary of state was sent to attend the clandestine rendezvous by President Biden amid the chaotic circumstances surrounding the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover. Anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the matter confirmed the development to the […]

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