Denyse O’Leary, whom I always read with great interest in our Comments section, chides me for diagnosing our present woes but not proposing solutions.
That ought to be easy. In Afghanistan what needed to be done is almost as old as man. As Victor David Hanson pointed out to Tucker, “This is the greatest loss of military equipment in the history of warfare by one power.”
A 29-year-old Afghan man in Germany repeatedly stabbed a 58-year-old landscape gardener who was working in a park in Berlin, allegedly because he didn’t like the fact that as a woman she was working, police said Sunday.
The man stabbed the woman in the neck several times in the city’s Wilmersdorf district on Saturday afternoon.
A 66-year-old man who saw the attack unfold rushed to help the woman but was also stabbed in the neck by the suspect.
Back to gender studies class you go!
The US State Department has been accused of blocking dozens of Americans from fleeing Afghanistan after failing to tell the Taliban it had green-lighted charter flights.
On Sunday, Reuters reported that the delay had been caused by Biden administration officials not telling Taliban leaders it had approved the departures of the chartered flights from an airport in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, 260 miles north of Afghan capital Kabul.
An exasperated flight organizer hit out at the State Department over the fiasco, saying: ‘They need to be held accountable for putting these people’s lives in danger.’
The Taliban have fought their way to the capital of Panjshir, the last Afghan province holding out against their rule, and seem on the brink of total victory.
The group posted pictures on social media showing Taliban fighters standing in front of the gate of the governor’s compound. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement, saying Panjshir was under the control of Taliban fighters.
“With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war,” he said.
It was just a few weeks ago that President Joe Biden left his vacation in order to handle a couple of photo opportunities. One was to deliver a speech at the White House regarding the crisis in Afghanistan while the other was to conduct an interview with ABC News to try and salvage his credibility.
In the ABC interview, Biden said that he was committed to leaving American troops in Afghanistan until anyone who wanted to leave the country was out. He said that he was committed to providing these Americans a safe exit from the country.
What is life like for those left behind when the last foreign troops flew out of Afghanistan? Four people from cities and provinces around the country told the BBC they had lost basic freedoms and were struggling to survive.
Oh. So it’s sorta like a Covid lockdown.
Hello all, from Siena, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I’m spending the night here before heading out tomorrow with a friend to make a pilgrimage, more on which tomorrow. Meanwhile, Ross Douthat’s column today makes for extremely sobering reading. He writes that America looks like a declining empire – an observation that I have heard again and again over the last eight days from worried European conservatives…
In the aftermath of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, there’s going to be a refugee crisis. The Taliban’s reign will be brutal, but that’s only the start of Afghanistan’s problems. As Andrew Stuttaford explained on August 24, the Afghan economy is going to collapse, and it threatens to undo all of the gains in the standard of living the country made over the past 20 years.
Many who oppose allowing Afghan refugees to resettle in the United States wonder why they don’t go live in other Muslim countries instead. After all, they argue, refugees would be able to assimilate better in countries more similar to the one they are leaving, and the U.S. wouldn’t have to support any new people as they adjust to a completely different culture — win-win.
ROME, Italy — Pope Francis launched an appeal for Afghan refugees Sunday, calling for prayers and generous reception of those seeking asylum.
“In these agitated moments that see Afghans seeking refuge, I pray for the most vulnerable among them,” the pope told the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus address.
“I pray that many countries will welcome and protect those who seek a new life,” the pontiff continued. “I also pray for internally displaced people to have the necessary assistance and protection.”
As the world tries to absorb the shock of Taliban’s return to Kabul, officials in Western democracies are launching a debate on how to deal with the new masters of Afghanistan.
So far the main theme in this debate seems to be a desire to recognize the gun-toting “religious students” as the legitimate government of that long-suffering land. However, to ward off charges of appeasing a terrorist group, Western officials set a number of conditions before the implied recognition is granted. French President Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to Baghdad, has set four conditions while British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has unveiled four conditions of his own.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday that his department has flagged some Afghan evacuees as potential security risks and blocked them from reaching the U.S., and he vowed to make America’s safety the core of the airlift.
Mr. Mayorkas, in his first briefing on the airlift, said those who reach the U.S. will be resettled in the country, and said it’s a commitment the U.S. owes to those who helped the American effort or who face dangers from the Taliban takeover of their home country.
OTTAWA — With the United States and its allies, Canada included, having left Afghanistan firmly in the hands of the Taliban, another world power is stepping into the void to exert its influence on the troubled country — China.
Analysts predict that could transform the recent political foe into an unexpected Western ally on a shared priority: fighting terrorist groups within Afghanistan and preventing them from threatening neighbouring countries.
Sounds a tad optimistic. But then Justin is a miracle worker.
Women who joined Islamic State in Afghanistan give rare insight into international network that bombed airport
In 2017, a group of senior Arab fighters travelled from Syria to Afghanistan, to cement the links between Islamic State cells in the two areas.
They arrived in an international village, where the jihadi families included a blond German husband and wife and French, Russian, Chinese Uyghur and central Asian families, according to a rare testimony by an Uzbek woman who was a member the group.
She spent nearly eight years as a fighter’s wife in eastern Nangarhar province under a web of international jihadi groups that have taken root in eastern and northern Afghanistan, shifting names and allegiances, but currently known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), a reference to the historical name for a cross-border region.
A pregnant woman from California who is stranded in Afghanistan said the Taliban is “hunting” Americans now that the US military has withdrawn from the country.
The woman, identified by her first name, Nasria, to protect her from reprisals, is among the up to 200 Americans still trapped in Afghanistan.
“There’s been days, you know, where I think to myself, ‘Am I going to make it home? Am I going to end up living here? Am I going to end up dying here?’” Nasria told Voice of America in an interview recorded on Friday.
More … Top Republican says Taliban holding Americans
WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says some Americans who have been trying to get out of Afghanistan since the U.S. military left are sitting in airplanes at an airport ready to leave but the Taliban are not letting them take off.
Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas says there are six airplanes at the Mazar-e-Sharif airport with American citizens on board, along with their Afghan interpreters, and the Taliban are “holding them hostage” right now.
I bet all the right people are shocked at this development.
Taliban militants in Afghanistan have shot dead a policewoman in a provincial city, relatives have told the BBC.
The woman, named in local media as Banu Negar, was killed at the family home in front of relatives in Firozkoh, the capital of central Ghor province.
The killing comes amid increasing reports of escalating repression of women in Afghanistan.
The BBC has asked Taliban authorities for comment. The local Taliban promised to investigate, the family says.
