Afghanistan news and discussions

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caltrek
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World Health Organization (WHO) Resumes Emergency Medical Aid Flights to Afghanistan
by Robert Tollast
August 30, 2021

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/a ... ban-kabul/

Introduction:
(The National) A plane carrying World Health Organisation medicines and health supplies landed in Afghanistan on Monday, the UN health agency said.

It is the first shipment to get in since the country came under the control of the Taliban.

“After days of non-stop work to find a solution, I am very pleased to say that we have now been able to partially replenish stocks of health facilities in Afghanistan and ensure that, for now, WHO-supported health services can continue,” Dr Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement.

The WHO had said on Friday that medical supplies would run out within days in Afghanistan.

It said it hoped to establish an air bridge into the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif by then, with the help of Pakistani authorities.
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Last U.S. Planes have left Afghanistan marking end of U.S. longest war.

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Spazito (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: CNN
(CNN)The last US military planes have left Afghanistan, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command, announced Monday at the Pentagon. The US departure marks the end of a fraught, chaotic and bloody exit from the United States' longest war.

"I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans," McKenzie told reporters. "The last C-17 lifted off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 30th, this afternoon, at 3:29 p.m. East Coast time, and the last manned aircraft is now clearing the airspace above Afghanistan."
"There's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure," McKenzie said. "We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out."
President Joe Biden weighed in with a statement later on Monday and thanked the final US forces serving in Afghanistan for executing the "dangerous retrograde from Afghanistan as scheduled," with no further loss of American lives.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics ... index.html
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“Rogue Nations” and “Failed States”: America Doesn’t Know the Difference
by Melvin Goodman
September 3, 2021

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/03 ... ifference/

Introduction:
(Counterpunch) It would be easy to blame Donald Trump for the disarray in the transatlantic alliance, but twenty-five years of American exceptionalism is the real culprit. The aggressive expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the Clinton and Bush administrations over the objections of our West European allies began a period of discontinuity that still exists. Bush deepened the disarray in 2002 with his “axis of evil” speech that set the stage for the invasion of Iraq. Bush and Barack Obama considered Afghanistan the “good war,” which brought two full decades of chaos throughout Southwest Asia. President Joe Biden contributed to the fault lines within the transatlantic alliance with his failure to consult our allies on the Afghan withdrawal.

A constant feature of the disharmony between the United States and Europe is Washington’s obsession with the use of force against so-called “rogue” states in the Third World. The past five U.S. administrations, including Biden’s, don’t know the difference between a “rogue” state and a “failed” state. The hegemonists in the Bush administration were obsessed with the notion of rogue states, the so-called “axis of evil” that included Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Then-Senator Hillary Clinton supported Bush’s rhetoric by emphasizing that “every nation has to be either with us, or against us,” which channeled such Cold Warriors as the Dulles brothers in the 1950s or the brothers Rostow and Bundy in the 1960s.

U.S. and Israeli military force has created havoc the world over. The removal of Saddam Hussein led to the creation of the Islamic State; Israel’s invasion of Lebanon led to the creation of Hezbollah; U.S. intervention in Afghanistan led to the Haqqani and Hekmatyar networks and greater violence; the use of force in Libya in 2011 led to chaos in North Africa. U.S. wars since 9/11 have cost trillions of dollars and have led to tens of millions of refugees, which has fostered dangerous nationalism in European politics. There have been thousands of U.S. combatant deaths in the wars since 9/11, thousands of severely wounded survivors, thousands of suicides by veterans and active-duty personnel, and tens of thousands of civilian fatalities.
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Panjshir Resistance Leader Says They are Ready for Talks With Taliban
by Umut Uras and Mersiha Gadzo
September 5, 2021

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/5 ... us-general

Introduction:
(Al Jazeera) Heavy fighting continues between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley as the armed group tries to seize the last holdout province.

Resistance fighters said on Sunday that they captured hundreds of Taliban troops as well as their equipment and vehicles.

The Taliban has said its forces had fought their way into the provincial capital of Panjshir after securing the surrounding districts.

Ahmad Massoud, leader of the opposition group National Resistance Front (NRF) resisting Taliban forces in the Panjshir Valley, said he has welcomed proposals from religious scholars for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting.

“To reach a lasting peace, the NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab,” Massoud wrote on Facebook, referring to a district in the neighbouring province of Baghlan.
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Afghanistan: First Flights Land at Kabul Airport Since Taliban Takeover
by Stefanie Glinksi
September 5, 2021

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/a ... take-over/

Introduction:
(The National) Kabul airport is again operational with commercial flights arriving on Sunday from the northern cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat.

Two international flights bringing aid and support services for the airport also arrived from Dubai and Doha less than a week after the last US troops flew out of the country after nearly 20 years.

“The airport is open again,” Ahmad Farhad, who works for the General Aviation Awareness Council and handles ground operations, told The National. “I haven’t seen or experienced anything similar to the last few weeks and I am happy we are back to work, happy that the airport is once again up and running.”

On Sunday afternoon, flights from two domestic airlines — Bakhtar Afghan Airlines and Ariana Afghan Airlines — touched down at Hamid Karzai International Airport. The first arrived from Mazar-e-Sharif, the latter from Herat.

While passengers disembarked, members of the Taliban busied themselves putting up new banners, replacing those of the fallen Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with freshly printed Islamic Emirate ones.
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Taliban name caretaker Cabinet that pays homage to old guard
Source: AP

By KATHY GANNON

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban on Tuesday announced a caretaker Cabinet that paid homage to the old guard of the group, giving top posts to Taliban personalities who dominated the 20-year battle against the U.S.-led coalition and its Afghan government allies.

Interim Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund headed the Taliban government in Kabul during the last years of its rule. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had led talks with the United States and signed the deal that led to America’s final withdrawal from Afghanistan, will be one of two deputies to Akhund.

There was no evidence of non-Taliban in the lineup, a big demand of the international community.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, when announcing the Cabinet, said the appointments were for an interim government. He did not elaborate on how long they would serve and what would be the catalyst for a change.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/middle-east- ... 1b77c12c87
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Don't mourn, organize.

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United Nations Development Programme Warns That Afghanistan is on the brink of Universal Poverty
September 9, 2021

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/9 ... 2-warns-un

Introduction:
(Al Jazeera) About 97 percent of Afghanistan’s population may sink below the poverty line unless the country’s political and economic crises are addressed, the United Nations has warned.

In a report released on Thursday, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that the poverty rate could increase by up to 25 percent as a result of the contraction of Afghanistan’s real gross domestic product (GDP). Half of the country is already in need of humanitarian support.

“You have a budgetary shock. You have a reserve shock. If the reserves, you know some $9bn, are to be completely frozen … then you have a trade shock. You have interruption in domestic and international trade,” Abdallah Al Dardari, UNDP’s resident representative in Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera.

“Usually in a country of this situation, the international financial institutions such as the IMF [International Monetary Fund], the World Bank, and all the bilateral and multilateral financial institutions would get together with the UN and propose an economic reform program. We know this is not going to happen,” he said.

Even before the Taliban’s rapid takeover last month, Afghanistan was heavily aid dependent, with more than a third of the country’s GDP drawn from foreign funding.
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