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Viewpoint by Manish Rai
KABUL (IDN) — The Taliban now control almost the whole of Afghanistan including the capital city, Kabul, almost two decades after they were driven out by US troops. It was widely expected that after the United States’ complete withdrawal the Taliban will make significant territorial gains.
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — In journalism proverb, Afghanistan is a convenient shelter, the writer’s fantasy island from topical issues at home. In the current deluge of news from that country, however, that proverb appears to have lost its meaning.
There’s no need for escape to Afghanistan; the traffic is the other way, while Afghanistan’s mythical status is being supplanted by lies, damned lies.
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — As the US airlifts its diplomats and embassy staffers, along with thousands of local Afghan employees, from the chaotic capital of Kabul, the United Nations has followed in its footsteps by relocating some of its more than 300 international and 3,400 national staffers who were tasked with peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan.
UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said August 18 that some of these staffers were traveling from Kabul to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where they will continue their work remotely.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) — The year 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the closure of the Semey test site, the 76th anniversary of the United Nations, Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, of the first atomic testing Trinity, 51 years of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), 25 years of the The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which is not entered into force, collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and extension of New START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) until February 2026.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The Soviet Army invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979 and withdrew, exhausted and demoralized, 10 years later. In Moscow a joke had long circulated: “Why are we still in Afghanistan?” Answer: “We are still looking for the people who invited us.”
The same is true for the Americans and NATO who are now moving through the exit door. They came to obliterate Al Qaeda after 9/11, 2001.
By Mahendra Ved, LOKMARG
MUMBAI (IDN) — Buzkashi, the national game of the people of Afghanistan, has horsemen competing to possess the headless body of a goat. In one of the world’s most enduring ironies, the country has itself become the goat, being dragged and tossed around. A horrified world watches as an elected government is losing out to the Taliban, a group of women-hating men poised to take control.
They have rendered impotent and helpless the outsiders, all powerful, that have been either backing them diplomatically and militarily, or opposing them meekly, with wordy resolutions.
By Kelsey Davenport, Julia Masterson, and Sang-Min Kim
While Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy, Julia Masterson is research associate, and Sang-Min Kim is Scoville Fellow at the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared in Arms Control Now of the Association on August 11, 2021.
WAHINGTON, DC (IDN) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pledged to pursue “smart engagement” in order to lift sanctions on Iran during his Aug. 5 inauguration speech.
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — As the US pulls out of Afghanistan after a 20-year occupation, the Afghans have once again ousted one of their ruling powers, first the Brits, then the Soviets, both in a bygone era, and now the Americans.
The triple debacle may well be reflected in an old adage attributed to Afghans: "You have the watches, we have the time."
But the ultimate victims are Afghan civilians who have been caught in cross-fires for decades under military forces unleashed by three permanent members of the UN Security Council.
By David Robie
The writer, Dr David Robie, is editor of Asia Pacific Report, founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review and former director of the Pacific Media Centre.
AUCKLAND (IDN) — Pacific journalism educators are worried that the global covid pandemic has threatened media development programmes in a vast region of island microstates at a time when expertise in health and climate change reporting has never been greater. The news media industry in some countries has recognised this need and is trying to boost resources and human skills.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — By any reasonable measure violence should have had its day. Throughout our long history violence and war have solved little. In most cases, if not all, war could have been pre-empted by deft diplomacy and non-violent action.
Take Afghanistan where after America’s longest ever war the US and its allies are finally withdrawing their troops.
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