Ceremonies honoring America’s war dead and other heroes are common, and politicians often participate, so why is Trump’s visit to Arlington last week stirring controversy? For starters, federal law prohibits using national cemeteries for political purposes. In addition, Arlington prohibi[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Afghanistan’
August 29th, 2024 - 4:57 pm § in Politics, Republicans
Trump running mate’s rude attack on Harris defies logic
When a reporter asked J. D. Vance about this week’s Arlington Cemetery incident, he deflected by launching into a rant about the 13 American soldiers killed in the Kabul airport terrorist attack, then segued into a rude and illogical attack on Harris culminating with “she can go to hell!R[...]
September 8th, 2021 - 8:53 pm § in Foreign Affairs, Politics
Rumors about U.S. military gear in Taliban hands are greatly exaggerated
Trump claims the U.S. left $83 billion of military equipment in Afghanistan. That’s the total U.S. military aid to the Afghan government over the 20 years of American involvement. Only $18 billion of that was equipment. The rest went for paying Afghan soldiers and contractors; buying uniform[...]
The Afghanistan Papers
With U.S. troops now completely out of Afghanistan, most Americans don’t want to hear about that country anymore, much less read an entire book about our war there went awry. Nobody learns anything from the mistakes of the past anyway. So this posting will be very short. The Afghanistan Papers[...]
August 30th, 2021 - 9:37 pm § in Foreign Affairs
Is a bloodbath coming in Afghanistan?
“With the U.S. military now out of Afghanistan, the task of evacuating tens of thousands of Afghan allies left behind falls to nongovernmental organizations and international aid groups — who say they are unable to tell them where to go next,” NBC News reported on Monday, August 30, 2[...]
August 24th, 2021 - 7:24 pm § in Foreign Affairs
Will the Taliban endure?
Andrew Latham, a Canadian academic (c.v. here) who teaches at a Minnesota liberal arts college, doesn’t think so. His argument is the Taliban are a “constellation of factions and tribes, drawn from different ethnic and linguistic groups” that will dissolve in the absence of a commo[...]
August 19th, 2021 - 3:14 pm § in Foreign Affairs
Panjshir: Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban redoubt
The Panjshir Valley “is a natural fortress … no government – foreign or Afghan – has ever taken and held it by force. Panjshiri leaders have always made it clear … the valley is part of Afghanistan on its own terms.” There’s only one road in or out, and it’s a chokep[...]
November 20th, 2020 - 12:02 am § in Misc.
Australian military hit with Afghan atrocity scandal
Australia is reacting with “shame and anger” to an official report that found their soldiers “allegedly killed 39 unarmed prisoners and civilians in Afghanistan, with senior commandos forcing junior soldiers to kill defenceless captives in order to ‘blood’ them for comb[...]
April 24th, 2015 - 9:19 am § in Uncategorized
Pregnant US Mom gives birth in Taliban Captivity, What to do?
Joshua Boyle, a Canadian citizen, and Caitlin Coleman, an American Citizen, got married in 2011. They spent months treking in Latin America and living among indigenous Guatemalans where the bearded Joshua got the name Santa Claus.” The couple extended their adventure in 2012, going [...]
Afghanistan …. 1000 years ago there were Jews.
Jerusalem – A trove of ancient manuscripts in Hebrew characters rescued from caves in a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan is providing the first physical evidence of a Jewish community that thrived there a thousand years ago.[...]