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#President Ashraf Ghani
gazetteweekly · 2 years
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beardedmrbean · 8 months
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Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Tuesday celebrated the second anniversary of their return to power.
The group took over the Afghan capital Kabul on August 15, 2021. The US-backed government collapsed and much of its leadership, including former President Ashraf Ghani, went into exile.
So far, no country has recognized the Taliban's government in Afghanistan.
Taliban mark 'Independence Day'
Taliban authorities held official events across the country, celebrating what they called "Afghanistan's Independence day from the US occupation."
US-led forces overthrew the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 2001 and withdrew 20 years later.
"On the second anniversary of the conquest of Kabul, we would like to congratulate the mujahid (holy warrior) nation of Afghanistan and ask them to thank Almighty Allah for this great victory," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
"The conquest of Kabul proved once again that no one can control the proud nation of Afghanistan and guarantee their stay in this country," the Taliban government said in a statement.
Taliban spokesperson to DW: 'How can we be against women?' 
Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen denied that the de facto rulers of Afghanistan were anti-woman in comments to DW News Asia.
"How can we be against women?" he said. "They are our mothers, wives, daughters, sisters."
Taliban authorities have imposed a number of restrictions on women, including enforcing a strict dress code in public, barring them from gyms and parks, and keeping women out of secondary and tertiary education.
Shaheen insisted that the Taliban have not denied women the right to education.
He said that the Taliban would reopen schools and universities to girls and women, but did not provide a timeline for this. "There is a committee set up to create an Islamic environment for that," he said.
Shaheen argued that the Islamist group is supporting women's progress by allowing them to study nursing and specialize as doctors.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have allowed for the continued existence female medical professionals so that women do not have to be treated by male staff. 
The UN has accused the Taliban of practicing gender apartheid. On Tuesday, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, said that Taliban rule has "upturned" the lives of Afghan women.
"It's been two years since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan. Two years that upturned the lives of Afghan women and girls, their rights and futures," she said in a statement.
German NGO: Humanitarian situation 'dramatic'
Despite a decrease in fighting, Afghanistan has been grappling with a major humanitarian crisis since the withdrawal of US-led forces and a number of international aid organizations.
The Asia Regional Director of the German humanitarian NGO Welthungerhilfe, Elke Gottschalk, has described the situation in Afghanistan as "dramatic."
She said that 17 million people in the country are threatened by hunger and 29 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid. "You can see this on every street corner," she said in remarks to German public broadcaster ARD.
Afghanistan has a total population of around 42 million.
The country's Taliban rulers imposed a ban on women working in NGOs in 2022, which Gottschalk said brought about additional complications.
She said that while 20% of Welthungerhilfe employees are women, each of these positions had to be negotiated separately and approved by the Taliban.
The head of the Kabul office of Caritas International, Stefan Recker, told Deutschlandfunk radio that two women were still working for the organization but were not allowed to work in the office.
Recker said that the situation in the country was desperate and many people wanted to flee. However, he said he was hopeful because of the improved security situation and the decrease in street crime.
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msexcelfractal · 9 months
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Heads of State who were USA assets
Is there a list somewhere of heads of state who were USA/CIA assets? It's just that there have been so many:
Sanford Dole (1894-1903) The US overthrew native rule and annexed Hawaii as a territory for business purposes under Dole's leadership.
William Taft (1901-1903) The US assumed control of the Philippines with Taft as Governor after suppressing a people's revolution there.
Jorge Ubico (1931-1944) This president of Guatemala allowed US-owned fruit plantations to exploit Guatemalan land and labor. Defeated in a peoples' rebellion!
Carlos Castillo Armas (1954-1957) After the newly-created CIA defeated the people's rebellion in Guatemala, Castillo Armas exterminated the survivors and returned the land to the US fruit company. He was shot dead by a leftist assassin, Romeo Vásquez Sánchez, but Chiquita Banana sadly stayed in control of the country.
Syngman Rhee (1948-1960) He exterminated the labor movement in South Korea for the CIA and retired to Hawaii.
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (1965-1975) President of South Vietnam. He failed to defeat the Viet Cong rebels and had to retire to Massachusetts. The commies won in Vietnam :)
Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) Dictator of Chile for 17 years after a US backed coup deposed Chile's elected president, a leftist. Pinochet tortured and murdered tens of thousands of leftist activists.
Hamid Karzai (2004-2014) and Ashraf Ghani (2014-2021) Presidents of Afghanistan under US occupation who permitted the US to run torture camps there and to extract gluts of oil and opium.
Juan Guaido (2019-2023) UN backed provisional president of Venezuela who supports US mineral extraction. He lost power to Maduro in January so as of today (July 2023) land reform is back on the table there.
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For all that has been said about Afghanistan, no one has noticed that this is precisely what just happened to political science. The American-led coalition had countless experts with backgrounds pertaining to every part of the mission on their side: people who had done their dissertations on topics like state building, terrorism, military-civilian relations, and gender in the military. General David Petraeus, who helped sell Obama on the troop surge that made everything in Afghanistan worse, earned a PhD from Princeton and was supposedly an expert in “counterinsurgency theory.” Ashraf Ghani, the just deposed president of the country, has a PhD in anthropology from Columbia and is the co-author of a book literally called Fixing Failed States. This was his territory. It’s as if Wernher von Braun had been given all the resources in the world to run a space program and had been beaten to the moon by an African witch doctor.
Meanwhile, the Taliban did not have a Western PhD among them. Their leadership was highly selected though. As Ahmed Rashid notes in his book The Taliban, in February 1999, the school that provided the leadership for the movement “had a staggering 15,000 applicants for some 400 new places making it the most popular madrassa in northern Pakistan." Yet they certainly didn’t publish in or read the top political science journals. Consider this a data point in the question of whether intelligence or subject-matter expertise is more important.
Hanania
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planetarybound · 1 year
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Hurt (Johnny Cash) but you're evacuating Kabul Airport
HistoryFeels 146K subscribers 375,631 views Mar 24, 2022 I hurt myself, today. To see if I still 𝓕𝓮𝓮𝓵
The United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 20-year long war in Afghanistan. On 15 August 2021, the Taliban seized the capital city of Kabul as the Afghan government under President Ashraf Ghani dissolved, the speed of which surprised the US government. With Taliban fighters surrounding the city, the US embassy evacuated and retreated to Hamid Karzai International Airport. On 26 August, there was a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 11 Marines, one Navy Corpsman and upwards of 70 Afghan citizens. A 13th US service member succumbed to his wounds the next day. Following the last US flight, Taliban soldiers entered the airport and declared victory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdra…
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mariacallous · 1 year
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"On Par With Vietnam"
When it comes to the history of U.S. nation-building efforts, it’s hard to do worse than Afghanistan.
That’s according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the U.S. government’s top watchdog office inside the Beltway that was designed to track American funding for the 20-year war and the fledgling government in Kabul, which collapsed last year as the Taliban’s lightning offensive barged into the capital and American forces left in their wake.
SIGAR’s latest report found that the stunning collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s U.S.-backed government was influenced by a failure to recognize that U.S. President Joe Biden was serious about withdrawing American troops, his exclusion from diplomatic talks with the Taliban and the unwillingness of the militant group to compromise, and the stacking of loyalists around the presidential palace that made corruption an endemic problem in Kabul.
But even though the report is not exactly a doorstop by Washington standards—clocking in at just 70 pages—it will also leave Republicans, who won the House with a slim margin, plenty of ammunition to hold Biden’s feet to the fire about the administration’s messy exit from Kabul and the failure to see that Ghani’s government was likely to collapse.
“U.S. efforts to build and sustain Afghanistan’s governing institutions were a total, epic, predestined failure on par with the same efforts and outcome in the Vietnam War and for the same reasons,” said Chris Mason, an associate professor of national security at the U.S. Army War College, who was interviewed for the report.
Strangely enough, there are some residual effects of America’s 20-year involvement in Afghanistan despite its horrific rush to the exit. Although the Taliban have dissolved several of the ministries that the United States helped the Afghans create after its 2001 invasion that followed the 9/11 attacks, the Afghan ministries of finance, health, and the economy as well as the country’s central bank have “continued some basic functions,” SIGAR concluded. And the Taliban have also mostly kept lower-ranking civil servants in their jobs.
The watchdog also cast blame on the United States for failing to help tackle Afghan corruption and its lack of ability to properly oversee elections, which were consistently weighed down by allegations of fraud. Ghani and his loyalists didn’t help matters either. Michael McKinley, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, told SIGAR that the Afghan president consistently suggested development goals that were “completely off the charts” and that his apparent “separation from Afghan reality” was concerning.
Ghani was “living in fantasyland,” McKinley said.
For those interested, the SIGAR report is here
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Amna Nawaz serves as co-anchor of PBS NewsHour.
Prior to joining PBS NewsHour in April 2018, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network’s livestream coverage of the 2016 presidential election. Before that, she served as foreign correspondent and Islamabad Bureau Chief at NBC News. She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian America platform, built in 2014, to elevate stories from America’s fastest-growing and most diverse population.
At the NewsHour, Nawaz has reported from the White House, across the country, and around the world on a range of topics including politics, immigration, foreign affairs, education, gun violence, criminal justice reform, the climate, culture, and sports.
She also serves as an NBC News and MSNBC contributor. Throughout her career, she has covered major events such as the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol; the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; the elections and inaugurations of President Joe Biden, President Donald J. Trump, and President Barack Obama; Hurricane Katrina; the 2010 Haiti earthquake; the U.S. war in Afghanistan; and the September 11th attacks.
Nawaz has interviewed multiple heads of state and international leaders including Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. She has interviewed numerous lawmakers and administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Nawaz has also interviewed newsmakers across industries, including acclaimed director Ava Duvernay, actor Riz Ahmed, WNBA star Sue Bird, and country singer Reba McEntire.
Nawaz was part of NewsHour’s team honored with a Peabody Award in 2023 for its coverage of the gun violence epidemic in America, including her on-the-ground coverage of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. She was also part of the team honored with a Peabody Award in 2022 for Newshour’s coverage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Nawaz previously won a Peabody for her documentary work on 2019’s “The Plastic Problem,” examining global plastic pollution and efforts to address it. Her other documentaries include “Raising the Future,” a 2021 documentary on America’s childcare crisis; and 2022’s “Life After Lockup,” which followed the lives of four formerly-incarcerated people to track the challenges of re-entry after prison.
In 2020, Nawaz hosted a criminal justice podcast, “Broken Justice,” which was named a finalist for the Silver Gavel Awards, honoring work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system. She also hosted 2021’s “The Longest Year,” a pandemic-focused podcast series on the many ways Covid-19 changed Americans’ lives.
Nawaz has hosted three seasons of the primetime PBS series, “Beyond the Canvas,” featuring profiles and interviews of some of the world’s leading artists, musicians, and creators.
In 2019, Nawaz became the first Asian American and the first Muslim American to moderate a presidential debate.
While at ABC News, Nawaz hosted the documentary, “Roberts County: A Year in the Most Pro-Trump Town,” following four families’ lives over President Trump’s first year in office. She also hosted the podcast series, “Uncomfortable” for ABC News Radio, featuring in-depth, one-on-one conversations with thought leaders on the issues dividing America. While at NBC News, she was the first foreign journalist to gain access to North Waziristan – then the global hub of Al Qaida and the Taliban - while pregnant with her first daughter.
Nawaz was a Fall 2021 Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asian American Journalists Association, the South Asian Journalists Association, and the Inter-American Dialogue.
In 2023, Nawaz was named an A100 honoree by Gold House. She was the recipient of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies’ Vision Award and the Media Award from the Muslim Affairs Public Council’s Media Award in 2022. She has also been honored with the American Muslim Institution’s Excellence in Media Award in 2018 and an Emmy award as part the 2009 NBC News Special “Inside the Obama White House.”
She is the first-generation American daughter of Pakistani parents, born and raised in Virginia. Nawaz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she captained the varsity field hockey team and studied abroad at the University of Zimbabwe. She later earned her master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
She lives with her husband, Paul, and their two daughters in the Washington, D.C. area.
Join Amna Nawaz and more at #UJCSummit23 on Dec. 1st in NYC. Visit ujcsummit.lnk.to/ujc23 to register.
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recentlyheardcom · 6 months
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NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s External Affairs Ministry is examining a letter from the Afghan Embassy that says it plans to cease all operations in the Indian capital by Saturday, an official said Friday.India has not recognized the Taliban government which seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. It evacuated its own staff from Kabul ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago and no longer has a diplomatic presence there.To date, the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi has been run by staff appointed by the previous government of ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, with permission from the Indian authorities.However, the Afghan ambassador has been out of India for several months and a steady stream of diplomats has departed for third countries, reportedly after receiving asylum, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.India has said it will follow the lead of the United Nations in deciding whether to recognize the Taliban government.Afghan embassy officials in New Delhi couldn't be reached on Friday.The Afghan media outlet TOLO said it had obtained the letter detailing the embassy’s grievances conveyed to the Indian External Affairs ministry.The letter said the embassy’s decision to permanently cease all operations by the end of September stems from its inability to maintain normal functioning due to “the absence of diplomatic consideration and systematic support” from the Indian External Affairs Ministry.Last year India sent relief material, including wheat, medicines, COVID-19 vaccines and winter clothing to Afghanistan to help with shortages there.In June last year, India sent a team of officials to its embassy in Kabul.
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blogynews · 7 months
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Unveiling the Astonishing Truth: Joe Biden's Explosive Role in Afghanistan's Collapse, His Surprising Confession of Weariness, Detailed in New Book
According to a new book titled ‘The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future’ by Franklin Foer, US President Joe Biden had an explosive reaction when he was informed that then-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had fled Kabul prior to the Taliban’s takeover of the city. The book reveals that Biden was on vacation at Camp David when National Security…
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blogynewz · 7 months
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Unveiling the Astonishing Truth: Joe Biden's Explosive Role in Afghanistan's Collapse, His Surprising Confession of Weariness, Detailed in New Book
According to a new book titled ‘The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future’ by Franklin Foer, US President Joe Biden had an explosive reaction when he was informed that then-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had fled Kabul prior to the Taliban’s takeover of the city. The book reveals that Biden was on vacation at Camp David when National Security…
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blogynewsz · 7 months
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Unveiling the Astonishing Truth: Joe Biden's Explosive Role in Afghanistan's Collapse, His Surprising Confession of Weariness, Detailed in New Book
According to a new book titled ‘The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future’ by Franklin Foer, US President Joe Biden had an explosive reaction when he was informed that then-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had fled Kabul prior to the Taliban’s takeover of the city. The book reveals that Biden was on vacation at Camp David when National Security…
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shahananasrin-blog · 8 months
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[ad_1] The Taliban on Tuesday is celebrating their second anniversary of returning to power in Afghanistan with a spokesman for the Islamist group hailing the "conquest of Kabul" that unfolded as American troops were withdrawing from the country. On Aug. 15, 2021, the Taliban entered Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul as former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country and its military collapsed. Today, Afghanistan’s new Islamist rulers have declared a public holiday and are expected to hold parades and gatherings to commemorate their takeover, according to Reuters. "On the second anniversary of the conquest of Kabul, we would like to congratulate the mujahid [holy warrior] nation of Afghanistan and ask them to thank Almighty Allah for this great victory," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was quoted as saying. "Now that overall security is ensured in the country, the entire territory of the country is managed under a single leadership, an Islamic system is in place and everything is explained from the angle of Sharia," he added. DEADLY EXPLOSION ROCKS AFGHAN HOTEL: AT LEAST 3 DEAD, DOZENS INJURED  Taliban fighters patrol on the road during a celebration marking the second anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, Aug. 15. (AP/Abdul Khaliq)Reuters reports that security is tight in Kabul on Tuesday, with Taliban soldiers stepping up their surveillance. However, countries around the world continue to refuse to recognize the Taliban’s leadership in Afghanistan. The United Nations Human Rights Office released a joint statement this week signed by more than two dozen "human rights experts" in opposition of the changes the Taliban has incorporated within Afghanistan under their Islamist brand of rule. "Two years ago, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Since then, the policies they have imposed on the Afghan population have resulted in a continuous, systematic and shocking rescinding of a multitude of human rights, including the rights to education, work, and freedoms of expression, assembly and association," it said. "Consistent credible reports of summary executions and acts tantamount to enforced disappearances, widespread arbitrary detention, torture, and ill treatment, as well as arbitrary displacement have caused increased concern." ARMY VETERAN SEEKS TO SAVE AFGHAN COMMANDO STUCK IN TURKEY, LIVING IN FEAR OF TALIBAN  People protest in Parliament Square at the anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in London, on Tuesday, Aug. 15. (AP/Frank Augstein)"The hardest hit are women and girls, ethnic, religious and other minorities, people with disabilities, displaced persons, LGBTQ+ persons, human rights defenders and other civil society actors, journalists, artists, educators, and former government and security officials," the statement continued. It added the Taliban has "introduced the use of cruel and undignified punishments, such as stoning, flogging and burying under a wall in contravention of international human rights standards."  More than a dozen Taliban fighters pose for a photograph in Kabul, Afghanistan, celebrating the country's Independence Day on Aug. 19, 2021, just days after their takeover two years ago. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The statement called for the Taliban to "immediately reverse course on the treatment of women and girls," "reopen schools at all levels and universities for girls and women and fulfill the right to education" and to "end reprisals against former government and security officials as well as civil society members," among other demands.  Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital. [ad_2]
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williamkergroach55 · 8 months
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Meeting with Cao (The Maiden of Lôgar, chapter 2)
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Liang arrived promptly at 9 p.m. in the lobby of the Himalaya Serviced Residences in Chongqing. Cao, his employer, quickly descended after Liang announced himself at the reception. It was rare for Cao to bother coming down himself. Usually, Liang had to wait for an hour before Cao would have him brought up to the lobby in the elevator. Only once had Liang caught a glimpse of Cao's apartment entrance. It was a hallway adorned with precious wood panels and art objects. Liang knew that Cao's apartment was inhabited by exquisite creatures, often the most beautiful girls in the network controlled by his employer. Cao kept them until he got tired of them. One day, one of them had been sent by Cao to the lobby to deliver a sealed envelope to Liang. Cao had done so because the mission was simple and "honest." It had only happened once...
Liang: "Hello, Cao."
Cao: "Yes, Liang, finally you're here!"
Liang internally noted that he was on time and that Cao had just arrived. Clearly in a bad mood, and visibly having a rough day, Cao barked more than he spoke in the vestibule.
Cao: "Liang, listen up. You need to exfiltrate Wazhma, Ashraf Ghani's niece, the former president of Afghanistan. She's carrying an enormous amount of top-quality lapis lazuli, a royal blue without a trace of white calcite, and high-quality rubies, including one known as the "Sunset Ruby," referring to the famous "Sunrise Ruby," a 4.8-gram pigeon blood red, approximately 24 carats. These gemstones will be our payment. Ghani's niece must keep the "Sunset Ruby" with her."
Liang: "Enormous, Cao. What do you mean? How much lapis lazuli and rubies will I have to transport?"
Cao: "I don't know, but it must be "enormous." The lapis lazuli must be of royal blue, nearly calcite-free. You know the quality I expect. As for the rubies, they should be of good quality too. The girl will be carrying the "Sunset Ruby." We agreed that you won't touch it."
Liang listened attentively, knowing the risks involved in such a mission. Wazhma would be carrying the "Sunset Ruby" with her, intending to present it to her uncle, securing the Ghani family's financial future for generations. As for him, he would be burdened with the rest. He hoped he wouldn't have to transport a ton of precious stones through the mountains, filled with bearded bandits.
Liang: "Can I count on any support on the ground in Afghanistan?"
Cao nodded and revealed that the Ghani clan had its own men in the region. To ensure the operation's success, Liang would need to contact a certain Baqir in Kabul. Baqir would be in charge of guiding Liang to Wazhma, and together, they would head to the Pakistani border for the final stage of the journey. Liang hoped that Baqir could be trusted.
Cao: "Baqir will be your contact on-site. Trust him, and do as he says. Here are his contact details."
Cao handed Liang a piece of paper with a phone number and an address in Kabul. The tension was palpable. Cao seemed preoccupied, and he appeared eager to resolve another matter quickly. Liang later learned that Cao had ordered the killing of five men that night.
The Ghani clan had its own men in the region. To ensure the operation's success, Liang would need to contact Baqir in Kabul. Baqir would be in charge of guiding Liang to Wazhma, and together, they would head to the Pakistani border for the final stage of the journey. Liang hoped Baqir was reliable.
Cao: "Liang, you know what you have to do."
Cao abruptly turned and left without saying goodbye. This signified that Liang had "accepted" the mission, and he had to succeed. He knew the fate of the precious stones rested in his hands. The triad only accepted completed missions. Failure meant death, sooner or later.
The stage was set for a thrilling adventure that would take Liang from the familiar streets of Chongqing to landscapes traumatized by decades of war in Afghanistan. The destiny of Wazhma, the legacy of the Ghani family, and most importantly, Cao's satisfaction now depended on Liang's shoulders.
#TheMaidenofLôgar #Adventure #Espionage #PreciousStones #Rubies #LapisLazuli #Risk #AfghanistanMission #Triad #EliteTraining #Chongqing #HimalayaResidences #NewSulkRoad #Action #Thriller #Destiny #Courage #Fiction #WritingCommunity #Readers #WazhmaAyoubi #WangXueqi #Agoda
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theechudar · 1 year
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Top US Official Blames This Afghan Prez for Being Hurdle in Peace Talks
Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghanistan President who fled the country when the Taliban grabbed power in Kabul, was “a total fraud” solely focused on his own desire to stay in power and a big hurdle in any peace talks, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said. In his book titled ’Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,’ Pompeo claims that both Ghani and Afghanistan’s former…
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gbwhtspro · 1 year
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"Ex-Afghan President Total Fraud, Hampered Peace Talks": US Ex Top Official
He claims that Ashraf Ghani won his reelection mainly because of massive electoral fraud. Washington: Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghanistan President who fled the country when the Taliban grabbed power in Kabul, was “a total fraud” solely focused on his own desire to stay in power and a big hurdle in any peace talks, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said. In his book titled ‘Never…
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mariacallous · 1 year
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In contrast to that Walt piece which basically said that if Russia is defeated in Ukraine it would be bad for US foreign policy? comes this.
The 21st century has been one long catastrophe for U.S. foreign policy. A series of failed military interventions and other mishaps has squandered the country’s power and reputation, even as old rivals such as Russia revived their fortunes and new rivals such as China have continued to rise. In the blink of an eye, the notion of a post-American world has gone from specter to cliché. Contempt for the United States and the West more generally clearly contributed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and opponents of even indirect U.S. involvement in the conflict portray it as yet another example of misguided military adventurism.
In fact, the opposite is true. This time, for a change, somebody else is playing the reckless foreign invader while the United States is sensibly counterpunching and enabling the victim to resist. Washington is picking its allies smartly and working with them closely. Instead of repeating recent U.S. strategic mistakes, the Biden administration is avoiding them, pursuing a fundamentally different approach. And it’s working.
After holding on to Kyiv in the spring and fighting a grinding war of attrition over the summer, Ukrainian forces have surged forward this fall, sending Russian forces reeling and retaking large chunks of territory lost earlier in the conflict. Moscow has responded by rushing forward sham referendums to whitewash its claims to the occupied Donbas region and parts of southern Ukraine while frantically mobilizing hundreds of thousands of additional troops, spurring protests across the country. The war has many stages yet to run, and not all of them will be as heartening as recent weeks. Still, September’s developments show that Kyiv is on the right track and Washington is backing the strong horse.
I was in Kyiv as the counteroffensive exploded, discussing the conflict with Ukrainian and Western officials and experts, and saw that the success of recent operations was no accident. The challenge now is staying the course until the full gains of victory can be reaped—for Ukraine and the United States.
Ukraine’s success has been driven by four factors: leadership, morale, competence, and foreign support. Commentators have focused mainly on the last one, and it is true that weapons, intelligence, and economic aid supplied by the United States and Europe have been crucial. Without substantial help from its friends, Ukraine could never have achieved what it has. It is equally true, however, that foreign support would have yielded little without Ukrainians’ desire and ability to fight. What distinguishes this conflict from recent U.S. fiascoes—from Iraq to Afghanistan—is not the outside aid provided but the local factors that have allowed that aid to be used effectively.
As the Taliban approached Kabul in August 2021, for example, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani hastily fled the country, contributing to a collapse and rout of government forces. He now lives comfortably in the United Arab Emirates while his people suffer.
Six months later, as Russian forces approached Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was offered the same option. He chose to stay, saying, “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.” Zelensky’s bravery and defiance inspired Ukrainians and the world at large, and ever since, his personal leadership and nightly eloquence have anchored the Ukrainian resistance.
Ukrainians in general, meanwhile, responded to the Russian invasion with a surge of patriotism and fortitude. Ordinary citizens have done whatever they could to fight back, helping to harass and stall the early Russian thrusts toward the capital, providing endless streams of real-time intelligence, and disrupting the occupation of conquered territory. They have maintained their resolve despite suffering enormous casualties and privation, bristling rather than buckling at Russian atrocities and targeting of civilian infrastructure. And the Ukrainian armed forces have pursued their jobs with grim determination, running toward the fight rather than away from it and performing extraordinary feats of bravery and sacrifice. (It clearly helps to be fighting to avenge your father or liberate your mother.)
Passion, finally, has been matched with performance. Kyiv has fought an agile, networked war, making excellent use of advanced communications technologies, drones, and cutting-edge high-tech weaponry. Its forces have displayed creativity and initiative from the bottom up, learning and adapting throughout the conflict and consistently staying steps ahead of their enemy.
The contrast with Russia is striking. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership has been erratic, the morale of Russian forces is low, their performance has been fumbling, and Western sanctions are squeezing the Russian military machine and degrading its operations. The latest mobilization is so unpopular that potential recruits have been fleeing the country and shooting up draft offices. The combination of Ukrainian overachievement and Russian underachievement has offset the difference in resources between the two sides, allowing Ukraine to fend off and push back a seemingly much stronger foe.
Ukraine’s ability to transform outside support into battlefield success has turned the war from a regional tragedy into a hinge of history. The Donbas is now the field on which Western democracies and Eastern autocracies are battling for the future of world politics, with other countries waiting on the sidelines to see who wins.
Should Russia, backed by China, manage to achieve its goals, the narrative of Western decline would be confirmed, and the liberal international order would be dealt a crushing blow. But should Ukraine, backed by the United States and Europe, manage to preserve its freedom and territory, the narrative would be upended, and that order will gain a new lease on life.
Success would also turn the page on one of the most depressing periods in the history of U.S. foreign policy. The 9/11 attacks shattered the country’s sense of omniscience and invulnerability. The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq destroyed Washington’s credibility. The depredations of the so-called global war on terrorism gutted its moral standing.
The disastrous interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya squandered its power and authority. The 2008 financial crisis and rising inequality tarnished the image of the U.S. economic system. And the Trump era, culminating in the failed putsch of Jan. 6, 2021, tarnished the image of the U.S. political system.
Ukraine offers the opportunity for a reset across the board. By providing accurate intelligence about Russian intentions and the war’s progress, Washington is restoring its credibility. By helping to prevent war crimes rather than committing them, it is regaining its honor. By strangling the Russian economy while its partner crushes the Russian military, it is accumulating power and respect. And it is gaining all these benefits with no American casualties and a relatively small amount of aid—a tiny fraction of the annual U.S. defense budget.
At this point, Moscow is trapped in an imperial war of choice gone bad. Putin has three basic options. He could move to extricate himself from the conflict, abandoning his grand ambitions and angering Russian hawks. He could redouble his conventional efforts by mobilizing Russia’s full national resources for the war, angering the country’s silent majority. Or he could try to break Ukraine’s will with nuclear weapons, mass civilian casualties, and other kinds of full-scale terror warfare, angering everybody except his fanatical base. All the choices are lousy, so for now he is trying to muddle through and play for time, hoping to hang on until Western support for Kyiv falters. Hence, the partial mobilization of reservists, the referendums, and the latest nuclear threats. (Pro tip: Anybody who says “I’m not bluffing” is bluffing.)
Putin remembers that, in 1762, a sudden regime change in Moscow allowed Prussia’s Frederick the Great to miraculously escape defeat in the Seven Year’s War and hopes that history will repeat itself two and half centuries later, with Berlin and Moscow swapping roles—or with isolationist Republicans in Washington serving as his deus ex machina.
Western strategy now should thus concentrate on extinguishing those hopes, deterring any thoughts of escalation, and nudging Putin toward accepting withdrawal as his least bad option. This means continuing to provide substantial military and economic aid to Ukraine so it can keep pressing forward, avoiding direct NATO involvement in the conflict, and waiting for the harsh reality of Moscow’s situation to sink in and drive the Kremlin toward extrication—in other words, precisely what Washington is currently doing.
Reasonable people can disagree about the details of implementation, but this general approach should actually find broad support across the political spectrum. Conservatives should back it because it harnesses nationalism to national interest. Liberals should back it because it supports democracy and human rights. Progressives should back it because it reduces structural imbalances of power and attempts, quite literally, to decolonize Ukraine. China hawks should back it because it gives Beijing a humiliating black eye. Budget hawks should back it because it does so on the cheap. And environmentalists should back it because in the long run it will drive Europe toward a transition to renewable energy.
At this point, in fact, given how the war is playing out on the ground, the only people truly opposed to helping Ukraine should be those utterly indifferent to the war’s outcome or those rooting for Moscow to win.
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