Afghanistan

History Shows US is as Extremist as the Taliban

The Taliban and the United States of America share an enduring passion for war and mayhem. There is, though, a difference between them—the Taliban mostly kill people of their own country, America’s victims are largely citizens of other countries. Some will likely say the US, unlike the Taliban, goes to war to promote democracy and freedom. What they ignore is […]

Hollywood’s Dangerous Afghan Illusion

From the Archives: A newly discovered document undercuts a key storyline of the anti-Soviet Afghan war of the 1980s that it was Charlie Wilson’s War, wrote Robert Parry on April 7, 2013. Official Washington’s conventional wisdom about Afghanistan derives to a dangerous degree from a Hollywood movie, Charlie Wilson’s War, which depicted the anti-Soviet war of the 1980s as a fight pitting […]

Training in Terrorism: Britain’s Afghan Jihad

This is an edited extract from Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam Mark Curtis The war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s was to mark the next phase in the development of global Islamic radicalism, building on the Islamic resurgence during the previous decade. Following the Soviet invasion of December 1979, tens of thousands of volunteers from […]

A Saigon moment in the Hindu Kush

The US is on the verge of its own second Vietnam repeated as farce in a haphazard retreat from Afghanistan And it’s all over For the unknown soldier It’s all over For the unknown soldierThe Doors, “The Unknown Soldier” Let’s start with some stunning facts on the Afghan ground. The Taliban are on a roll. Earlier this week their PR […]

Finance, War, and the Rule of Rogue Law

Why is it that certain ‘regimes’ become ripe for imperial subversion or overthrow? What was it, in particular, that linked together the list of countries that retired general Wesley Clark shared in his famous 2007 interview as being next in the sights of the United States’ bellicose intentions and most of which since have indeed been plunged into horrendous wars?