Trump and Pakistani support for jihadists by Thierry Meyssan Continuing his analysis of Donald Trump’s policy in the Greater Middle East, Thierry Meyssan demonstrates that, contrary to current opinion, the US President has not changed his strategy. Breaking with his predecessors, he is attempting to cut off Pakistani support for the jihadists in Afghanistan, just as…
United Nations’ early assessment of the 2013 crop found farmers were planning to plant more poppy than last year, marking the third annual rise in the drug’s cultivation. UN officials predict the increase will push this year’s crop close to 2007’s record level and again see Afghanistan responsible for more than 90 per cent of…
With the US set to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in 2014, what does the future hold for the country’s capital?
WOMEN JUST A BARGAINING CHIP Girls are playing volleyball in a dusty courtyard. Gazing toward the foothills of the Hindu Kush offers some pretty spectacular scenery. But right now that’s the last thing on the girls’ minds. The landscape, after all, is nothing new for them. Playing sports is what’s changed for these girls,…
In Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s most conservative province, billboards showing women are regularly torn down and music shops have been repeatedly bombed. So how is it that under the noses of Islamist forces, adult movie houses continue to flourish? The half-lit room smells strongly of hashish. On the screen, a woman…
THE WAR THAT COULD NOT BE WON In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns,” wrote legendary Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu in The Art of War. In Afghanistan, Western politicians should have heeded this two-and-a-half-thousand year old axiom from the oldest known book on the strategy of war….
From Abbottabad to Worse Hating the United States—which funds Islamabad’s army and nuclear program to the humiliating tune of $3 billion a year—Pakistan takes its twisted, cowardly revenge by harboring the likes of the late Osama bin Laden. But the hypocrisy is mutual, and the shame should be shared. By Christopher Hitchens• Illustration by Barry…
Old globes are comforting relics. They show how old rivalries and threats fade — just as today’s will do. al-Qaeda Crippled If you are looking for a date on a globe, you probably won’t find one. Most manufacturers want to preserve shelf life as long as possible. But half the fun of…
The Lost Souls of Kabul: Photographs by James Nachtwey A man injects himself under a bridge near an open sewer in Kabul. While overall production has dropped thanks to aggressive eradication efforts, and a blight that destroyed almost half of last year’s harvest, more Afghans than ever are getting addicted to opiates. We’re used to…
spectacular prison escape 475 inmates slipped through this hole Hundreds of prisoners have escaped from a prison in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, many Taliban fighters. It was not the first time that a mass exodus succeeded. A tunnel led to freedom: the Taliban in the southern Afghan Kandahar have organized a spectacular prison escape And Thus…