Month: August 2021

Massoud’s father may be a household name, but that’s no guarantee Macron will arm guerrillas in the Panjshir Valley.

America may have abandoned Afghanistan, but the most prominent anti-Taliban rebel in the country is pinning his hopes on support from France.

For Ahmad Massoud, France is the most natural place to turn as he tries to marshal a resistance army in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul. After all, his father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, the “Lion of the Panjshir” is close to a household name in France and lives on (after his assassination in 2001) as the country’s epitome of a freedom fighter thanks to his battles against the Soviets and Taliban in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Panjshir Valley north of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul is the final major centre of resistance to the Taliban, but analysts say the fighters gathered there will struggle if the Islamist hardliners launch a full-scale attack.

Surrounded by the high peaks of the Hindu Kush north of Kabul, the Panjshir has long had a reputation as a bastion of resistance — legendary military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud successfully defended it during the Soviet-Afghan War and the civil war with the Taliban up to his death in 2001.

With desperate Afghans clinging to departing American airplanes, the fall of Afghanistan is being compared to the American evacuation of Saigon in 1975. The Taliban takeover may also preview how President Joe Biden would handle a military confrontation with China, perhaps over Taiwan.

As vice president, Biden got control of China policy through the work of longtime Democrat activist Thomas Donilon. Despite a questionable record as a lobbyist with Fannie Mae, then President Obama picked Donilon for national security adviser, which even troubled leftist writers such as Robert Scheer of Truthdig.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is concerned about the prevailing humanitarian needs within Afghanistan, and urges support to ensure that all those requiring assistance “are not forgotten.”

The situation on the ground across the country remains extremely fluid. While widespread fighting has decreased since the takeover of the country by the Taliban on Sunday, the full impact of the evolving situation is not yet clear. Many Afghans are extremely anxious about what the future holds, the report notes.

Who are the Taliban? We still see this question floating around a fair amount on social media and online. People also tend to confuse them with al-Qaeda. Now that the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan at a lightning pace over the last two weeks they claim to have been “reformed.”

Hallelujah! Can I get an “Amen!”

Yeah. Right.

In early July, as the Pentagon was accelerating the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, U.S. counterterror analysts circulated a confidential report highlighting a worrisome development thousands of miles away.

The Taliban’s media-savvy spokespersons send deceptive signals that appear socially and politically acceptable, while the organisation continues to pursue their military, ideological objective on the ground

As the Taliban take over Kabul for the second time in three decades, many questions are waiting to be answered. One that has occupied important editorial spaces across the world is that of the Taliban makeover — “has the Taliban really changed?” This is a hugely important question as the answer to this would have implications for tens of thousands of Afghans, especially women. Many voices including within the Taliban claim it has learnt from its mistakes and is now more pragmatic and less extremist.

Al-Qaeda has not been eliminated from the Afghanistan-Pakistan (AfPak) region, and the group still enjoys significant support in the broader regional jihadist landscape.

To counter the aggressive U.S. counterterrorism campaign, al-Qaeda altered its organizational structure and strategy in AfPak, strengthening its roots in the region to ensure its survival.