Tag: Global War and Violence

Go back to Afghanistan? Men like McMaster and Panetta are addicted to war / How the American empire dug its own grave / Let’s Take the Profit Out of War

All empires die. The end is usually unpleasant. The American empire, humiliated in Afghanistan, as it was in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, the Bay of Pigs and in Vietnam, is blind to its own declining strength, ineptitude and savagery. Its entire economy, a military Keynesianism, revolves around the war industry. Military spending and war are… Read More Go back to Afghanistan? Men like McMaster and Panetta are addicted to war / How the American empire dug its own grave / Let’s Take the Profit Out of War

Dilip

Bhaskar Sunkara: The media is lambasting Biden over Afghanistan. He should stand firm

NB: Will someone ask America’s spin-artists a simple question: who gave the American establishment the right to carry out ‘nation-building’ projects wherever and whenever they deem fit? Have they noticed that this ‘building’ more closely resembles a wrecking ball? DS During the Trump years, publications like the New York Times and Washington Post presented themselves… Read More Bhaskar Sunkara: The media is lambasting Biden over Afghanistan. He should stand firm

Dilip

Book review: Approach to Battle: Training the Indian Army during the Second World War

Approach to Battle is an excellent and meticulously researched narrative of pure vanilla military history. It explores the transformation of the Indian Army from a bloated, undertrained, and poorly led force during World War I and the early years of World War II into a fighting machine that gave the British Empire one of its most… Read More Book review: Approach to Battle: Training the Indian Army during the Second World War

Dilip

In pictures: Afghans mark Independence Day as challenges to Taliban rule rise

The Taliban celebrated Afghanistan’s Independence Day on Thursday by declaring they beat the United States, but challenges to their rule ranging from running a country severely short on cash and bureaucrats to potentially facing an armed opposition began to emerge. The holiday commemorates the 1919 treaty that ended British rule in the central Asian nation.… Read More In pictures: Afghans mark Independence Day as challenges to Taliban rule rise

Dilip

The Bush administration made a catastrophic mistake in Afghanistan in 2001 / Afghanistan: The End of the Occupation

At a U.S. Special Forces camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan, on December 5, 2001, the Taliban offered an unconditional surrender. Furthermore, they would disband and disarm: a military force would no longer exist. George W. Bush ignored the offer and continued attacking the Taliban until the end of his term. If only in self-defense the Taliban… Read More The Bush administration made a catastrophic mistake in Afghanistan in 2001 / Afghanistan: The End of the Occupation

Dilip

Mariam Veiszadeh: As an Afghan Australian, I watch in despair as the west cuts and runs / Afghanistan – “We Tried to Tell You” / Polly Toynbee: The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris

The anger and hurt many of us feel is palpable as the reality is that the Taliban would have not risen to have such power and influence, had they not had initial backing from western forces. Combined with a complex multitude of ethnic factions, a power vacuum, an already largely corrupt government weakened further by… Read More Mariam Veiszadeh: As an Afghan Australian, I watch in despair as the west cuts and runs / Afghanistan – “We Tried to Tell You” / Polly Toynbee: The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris

Dilip

John Dower: How Americans Remember (and Forget) Their Wars / Simon Jenkins: It has taken 20 years to prove the invasion of Afghanistan was totally unnecessary

Some years ago, a newspaper article credited a European visitor with the wry observation that Americans are charming because they have such short memories. When it comes to the nation’s wars, however, he was not entirely on target. Americans embrace military histories of the heroic “band of [American] brothers” sort, especially involving World War II.… Read More John Dower: How Americans Remember (and Forget) Their Wars / Simon Jenkins: It has taken 20 years to prove the invasion of Afghanistan was totally unnecessary

Dilip

Gautam Mukhopadhaya: What Kabul means in Delhi

Three questions loom uppermost in the minds of observers in India. First, what accounts for the near-total capitulation of the 300,000-350,000 US and NATO trained and equipped Afghan Army and Police forces, the ANDSF, without much of a fight barring a few honourable exceptions in Lashkargah, Herat and Taloqan, against lightly armed insurgents estimated to… Read More Gautam Mukhopadhaya: What Kabul means in Delhi

Dilip

Major Danny Sjursen, US Army (retd) – A Life and Nation Transformed: 20 Years from the War on Terror

Being a member of the US Army wasn’t all that dangerous before America set off on its quixotic post-9/11 adventures. This was no longer the case when I was serving at the height of both “surges” to nowhere-but-failure in 2007 (Iraq) and 2011 (Afghanistan). During a 2007 spent driving down Baghdad’s bomb-laden streets and dallying around… Read More Major Danny Sjursen, US Army (retd) – A Life and Nation Transformed: 20 Years from the War on Terror

Dilip