Geopolitics
[ The Epoch Times ] New Jersey Military Base to Be Used to House Afghan Evacuees: Pentagon
A military base in New Jersey will house evacuees from Afghanistan as the United States works on flying tens of thousands of Afghans from the Taliban-held country. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, about 39 miles northeast of Philadelphia, is the fourth base that is preparing to or already has accepted evacuees. The other three bases are Fort Lee in Virginia, Fort McCoy…
Read MoreFailure to evacuate Afghan contractors will have dire consequences for the rest of US foreign deployments around the world
Daniella Mestyanek Young@daniellamyoungBFF deployed to Africa tells me that all of their translators have quit & nobody wants to work with the US military right now… This is perhaps one of the first signal that a impending translator drought (or local guide for that matter) for US foreign operations/deployment. Locally employed guides and translator (or…
Read MoreSingapore’s Minister answering Malaysian military’s passive aggression on Singapore’s National Day
In case you missed it, Singapore celebrated the nation’s 56th birthday last Saturday (Aug 21) with a belated bash at the floating platform in Marina Bay, featuring the usual fanfare — fireworks, the Red Lions and displays from the Singapore Armed Forces. Across the Causeway, Malaysia was also highlighting its own military with a display of their…
Read More[ Anny Bonny Pirate ] Afghanistan: The End of the Occupation
Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale write: A lot of nonsense about Afghanistan is being written in Britain and the United States. Most of this nonsense hides a number of important truths. First, the Taliban have defeated the United States. Second, the Taliban have won because they have more popular support. Third, this is not because most Afghans love…
Read More[ CS Monitor ] Afghanistan: How the Taliban won over northern ethnic minorities
When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, they faced stiff resistance across the country’s north from ethnic-based paramilitaries that resented the southern Pashtun militants. That resistance would prove decisive in 2001 when the same ethnic minorities, backed by U.S. air power, ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul. This time around, the Taliban had…
Read More[ UnHerd ] The man who lost Afghanistan
If there was one family in Afghanistan who incarnated the hopes, illusions and failures of the last two decades there, it was the Ghanis. Ashraf, the father, was the country’s last president. A trained anthropologist, he believed in books, and the power of the ideas within them to move the world. His wife, Rula, a…
Read More[ AP ] Taliban allowing ‘safe passage’ from Kabul in US airlift
The Taliban have agreed to allow “safe passage” from Afghanistan for civilians struggling to join a U.S.-directed airlift from the capital, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said Tuesday, although a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and others has yet to be worked out with the country’s new rulers. Jake Sullivan…
Read More[ AP ] Detainee says China has secret jail in Dubai, holds Uyghurs
A young Chinese woman says she was held for eight days at a Chinese-run secret detention facility in Dubai along with at least two Uyghurs, in what may be the first evidence that China is operating a so-called “black site” beyond its borders. The woman, 26-year-old Wu Huan, was on the run to avoid extradition…
Read More[ Mothership ] A glimpse inside an overloaded US military plane with over 600 Afghans fleeing country
The cargo plane, which was one of the many which were able to take off with hundreds of civilians on board, was carrying over five times of its suggested load as it departed. Over 600 Afghans, including women and children, were packed into that space. Some of the other flights may have had an even…
Read More[ Jamestown Foundation ] Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Latest Merger Enables Renewed Attacks in Pakistan
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), announced on August 7 that it had merged with a former al-Qaeda-affiliated, anti-state Pakistani jihadist group once led by Ustad Aslam (Umar Media, August 7). It becomes the ninth jihadist group to join the TTP since July 2020. Among the other groups are three TTP splinters, two…
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