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.
Yesterday morning, a report emerged from The Washington Post that CIA Director William Burns met with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul. This meeting reportedly happened on Monday, August 23. The Post article lists the source for this information as “U.S officials familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.”
Yes, I would think this definitely qualifies as “sensitive” in nature. Everything about this situation in Afghanistan is sensitive. And a bit insane.
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan last week, 20 years after it was removed from power in a US-led military invasion.
Winning that war might just turn out to be the easy part, as maintaining peace and governing the conflict-wracked and impoverished country will be a tough nut to crack, analysts and Afghan officials say.
On Sunday, the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan after a few weeks of stunning military victories.
The armed group had been toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on US soil, but it gradually regained strength, carrying out numerous attacks on foreign as well as Afghan forces in the past 20 years.
The Taliban, which means “students” in the Pashto language, is trying to project a more moderate image this time around, but observers in Afghanistan and internationally remain sceptical. On Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid promised to protect women’s rights and press freedom in the first news conference since the takeover.
The beginning
Turkish showcases domestically-produced stealth fighter jet and drones at International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul.
Turkish showcases domestically-produced stealth fighter jet and drones at International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul.
The pride in Ugur Zengin’s voice is palpable as he stands in front of a full-scale model of Turkey’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jet.
“It’s a very prestigious project and a technical breakout for Turkey that will introduce a lot of new technologies for the whole defence industry,” said Zengin, vice president of the National Combat Aircraft project.
“There will be a very high percentage of local parts in the aircraft.”
The TF aircraft being developed by Turkish Aerospace is arguably the jewel in the crown of an industry that is widely viewed as one of Turkey’s foremost sectors. It featured prominently at the International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul this week.
The fighter, which will replace the Turkish Air Force’s ageing F-4 and F-16 jets, is due to be unveiled to the public in 2023, the centenary of the founding of the Turkish republic, and is expected to be operational two years later.
“All the missile systems will be from local companies,” said Zengin, pointing to rows of missiles produced by Roketsan and Tubitak under the plane’s wings.
“The final objective is to have an aircraft that is 100 percent Turkish, although initially it will use an F110 engine,” he added, referring to the GE Aviation-designed engine built under licence in Turkey.
The introduction of the TF – previously known as the TF-X until passing the experimental stage – has gained added urgency after Turkey was kicked off the US-led F-35 stealth fighter project.
Ankara was removed from the programme in 2019 after it acquired Russian S-400 missile defence systems that the US claimed threatened the F-35’s secrets.
It had ordered more than 100 of the jets and invested at least $1.2bn in developing the fighter with other Western allies.
Washington later imposed sanctions targeting the Turkish defence industry over the S-400 purchase, although these seem to have done little to dent Turkey’s race to produce cutting-edge weaponry.
Turkey has hosted the defence fair every two years since 1993 and this year saw more than 1,200 exhibition stands from 53 countries take part, catering to delegates from 83 nations.
A huge exhibition hall on the western outskirts of Istanbul was given over to the four-day event, where the merchandise on display ranged from infantry boots to 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs and towering armoured personnel carriers to sniper scopes.
Foreign generals, their chests bristling with medals, rubbed shoulders with young Turkish men in jeans and T-shirts eager to try out the handguns on offer and pose for photos clutching assault rifles.
When Al Jazeera attended on Friday, two government ministers – Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank – toured the exhibits followed by a trail of bodyguards, officials and journalists.
“The Turkish defence industry continued to grow stronger even under the conditions of COVID-19,” said Murat Ikinci, general manager at Roketsan, the largest supplier of missiles to the Turkish military and a key player in Turkey’s space programme.
“Now it’s time to show our power to the whole world.”
Speaking at the opening of the fair on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan underscored the importance placed in the industry.
“As a country that was forsaken at the most critical moments of its fight against terrorism and unable to acquire any of the products it needed while its borders were under threat, we were compelled to take steps to meet our own needs quickly,” he said.
The value of defence projects has risen from $5.4bn in 2002 to $55.8bn last year, according to the government’s Defence Industries Directorate, while defence and aerospace exports rose from $248m to $3.1bn between 2002 and 2019.
This growth has been driven by a desire to be “independent of foreign countries and foreign policies”, according to Gurkan Cetin, who leads the robotics and autonomous systems project at Havelsan.
“Turkey has experienced some trouble getting some weapon systems and components in the past and this made us leap forward to provide what we need ourselves,” he told Al Jazeera.
The US, a leading supplier of Turkish weaponry, imposed an arms embargo following Turkey’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus and more recently several NATO countries blocked defence sales after Turkey launched an operation against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria in 2019.
The expansion in the defence sector’s financial muscle has been accompanied by a growing sense of pride in the proven effectiveness of Turkish weapons systems in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Many Turkish weapons systems have been tested in combat, which is important because it shows what they can do in the field,” said Zengin.
Turkey’s aerial drone project, in particular, has caught the eyes of the world, with Qatar, Ukraine, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Tunisia and fellow NATO member Poland ordering armed UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) with a proven track record against Russian-made armour and air defence systems.
Defence analyst Arda Mevlutoglu pointed to the “unprecedented” use of drones in coordination with artillery, manned combat aircraft and electronic assets in recent conflicts.
Missile-laden drones were “extremely effective” against tanks, artillery and fixed positions with the added psychological advantage of publishing images of drone strikes on social media, he added.
All this adds to Turkey’s sense of growing self-confidence in the realm of war.
“We aren’t trying to sell anything here today,” one employee manning the Turkish Aerospace exhibit said. “We’re just here to show the world what we can do.”
Hashmat Ghani, whose brother – former President Ashraf Ghani – fled the country last week, tells Al Jazeera that it is necessary to accept the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan to avoid instability.
Hashmat Ghani, brother of Afghanistan’s deposed President Ashraf Ghani, says he has accepted the Taliban’s takeover of the country but has called for the formation of an inclusive government.
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 news agency that publishes reports in Dari, Pashto and English.
For years the Taliban’s top spokesman shunned the public eye, even as he amassed hundreds of thousands of followers online where he live-tweeted the insurgency.
But days after the Taliban captured Kabul following the collapse of the US-backed government, Zabihullah Mujahid presented himself to the public for the first time in a surprise press conference in the Afghan capital.
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.
Desperate mass evacuation efforts in Afghanistan make it clear nothing went according to plan. There are multiple tragedies unfolding all at once. Will every American get out? How many Afghan nationals, who were promised American protection, will be rescued? And what about the future of everyone else under Taliban rule, especially women and girls?
One group of Afghans deserving of special mention are the thousands of interpreters who were the ears and voices of Americans for the last 20 years. They were given assurances of help, including the chance to get Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for themselves and their families to come to the United States. Now is the time they need to cash in on those promises.
Ahmadullah Sediqi served as an interpreter for four years in Afghanistan and came to the United States on an SIV in 2014. Now he’s a Special Immigrant Visas Ambassador, helping others get their visas with the organization No One Left Behind. He describes the dire situation interpreters face right now as the visa process is in shambles and the Taliban takes hold of the country.