Habib Siddiqui

Did anyone expect the U.S. war in Afghanistan to end cleanly? If so, you bought the lies all along and the cold water now is hitting sharp. While the actual ending is particularly harsh and clearly spliced together from old clips of Saigon 1975, those are simply details. Who should we blame for losing Afghanistan? Why blame anyone? Why blame Biden? He played his part as a senator and vice president keeping the war going, but his role today is just being the last guy in a long line of people to blame, a pawn in the game. That Biden is willing to be the “president who lost Afghanistan” is all the proof you need he does not intend to run again for anything. Kind of an ironic version of a young John Kerry’s take on Vietnam “how do you ask the last man to die for a mistake?” Turns out, it’s easy: call Joe. Blame Trump for the deal? One of the saddest things about the brutal ending of the U.S.-Afghan war is we would have gotten the same deal—just leave it to the Taliban and go home—at bas...

“So it goes.” – Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse-Five,” 1969 Game over for America in Afghanistan. There may be no helicopters on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as there were Hueys on an apartment house roof in Saigon in April 1975 evacuating diplomats and endangered Vietnamese. But we’re cutting and running again. Another defeat for an American war. The U.S. withdrawal from Kabul is hurried, helter-skelter, far from orderly and dignified as American officials make their way in a frenzy from their embassy to the airport, where U.S. military protect them from the advancing Taliban. The insurgents reportedly entered through Kabul’s four main gates Sunday. The government collapsed when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled to Uzbekistan in Central Asia, perhaps mindful of when the Taliban tortured Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah to death when it seized Kabul in 1996. There likely will be oppression again and possible revenge killings. And now the Afghan door will be open agai...

Speculation abounds. The end of US-managed rule in the nation called Afghanistan has fueled a flood of warnings, blame, and just plain guessing about what comes next there. Liberal and neocon warmongers in the media wring their hands looking for someone/anyone to blame beside their failed imperial strategy. The far right in the US have yet to speak their piece on the so-called fall of Kabul. Perhaps they are waiting for their two primary impulses of libertarianism and military imperialism factions to fight it out. What’s left of the US antiwar movement and the antiwar left are for the most part calmly stating what they were saying twenty years ago. In other words, just get the hell out. There are a few who fear for those who collaborated closely with the US-led forces and even fewer who still pretend that the US invasion and occupation was somehow necessary for the freedom of Afghan women (the upper class ones, anyhow.) Shadows of the past leak into the conversations about the ...

BANGKOK (AP) — More than 1,000 people have been killed by security forces in Myanmar since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi about six months ago, a human rights group said Wednesday. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors protest-related arrests and deaths in Myanmar, said it confirmed two more deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,001. There has been a groundswell of protests against the military-led government since Suu Kyi’s ouster. Casualties are also rising among the military and police as armed resistance grows in both urban and rural areas. Teik Naing, secretary-general of the AAPP, said most of the people killed were anti-military activists and more than 40 were shot in the head. In addition, a large number died in interrogation centers and prisons after being arrested, Teik Naing said. The military leadership disputes the AAPP’s figures but has not recently released any of its own. Senior Gen. Mi...

An opening move in the U.S. military high command’s campaign to deflect blame for the 20-year-long American debacle in Afghanistan has come with a Sunday article by General H.R. McMaster and Bradley Bowman in the Wall Street Journal, “In Afghanistan, the Tragic Toll of Washington Delusion.” The delusions have indeed been real, and now cruelly exposed. As amply documented by the reports of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko, and the The Afghanistan Papers by Washington Post journalist Craig Whitlock, the deceptions are largely the work of McMaster himself and his military colleagues. The first question to ask though is why General McMaster thinks he has the right to say anything at all on the subject of Afghanistan? In the 1980s, the Afghan Mujahedin fighting against the Afghan communist government and its Soviet backers were equipped by the West with sophisticated equipment including Stinger missiles that cleared the Soviet air force fr...

The Taliban have declared victory and the end of the war in Afghanistan. America has been in dialogue with the Taliban for a couple of years. They finally signed an agreement under former President Donald Trump for the US to withdraw last year. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban negotiator who was released by Pakistan at President Trump’s request, was humble in his first statement. He said the victory was unexpectedly swift and had no match in the world. However, he said the real test would begin now, with meeting the expectations of the people and serving them by resolving their problems. • President Biden is right in withdrawing from 20 years of war. It is what former President Obama and former President Trump both declared they would do but could not. • Afghans must determine their own future. They have the right to self-determination just as any other people do. If they want Islamic criminal law with their tribal code, they have as much right to choose that as Saudi Arab...

There is an ongoing, but hidden, Israeli war on the Palestinians which is rarely highlighted or even known. It is a water war, which has been in the making for decades. On July 26 and 27, two separate but intrinsically linked events took place in the Ein al-Hilweh area in the occupied Jordan Valley, and near the town of Beita, south of Nablus. In the first incident, Jewish settlers from the illegal settlement of Maskiyot began construction in the Ein al-Hilweh Spring, which has been a source of freshwater for villages and hundreds of Palestinian families in that area. The seizure of the spring has been developing for months, all under the watchful eye of the Israeli occupation army. Now, the Ein al-Hilweh Spring, like most of the Jordan Valley’s land and water resources, is annexed by Israel. Less than 24 hours later, Shadi Omar Salim, a Palestinian municipal employee, was killed by Israeli soldiers in the town of Beita. The Israeli army quickly issued a statement which, expectedly...

In addition to global warming (floods, fires, destructive storms, water shortages and water pollution), a pernicious pandemic (COVID virus with all its offspring variants), a depressed economy, abuse of power, rabid racism, graft and corruption at all levels – Hubris and Arrogance, the afflictions to which all empires succumb, are but two of America’s tragic flaws. Pundits, politicians, and sycophants will no doubt debate and thrash the following question: Did President Joe Biden make a huge mistake pulling out of Afghanistan on short notice as per his orders to pull out under the cover of dark – even without properly informing the Afghani government of forwarding the withdrawal timetable? In all the public punditry and babble about the wisdom of Biden’s decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, the sycophantry of media talking heads and elected officials (on the right and the left) rightly decry the 2+ billion dollars spent on a senseless adventure and the death of 2,312 US pe...

Israeli forces have launched a barrage of raids and arrests in areas of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem that resulted in clashes and injuries, continuing a round of violence that commenced in May. In Jerusalem, which has in recent months become a flashpoint in the ongoing conflict, dozens of settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday morning under the protection of the occupation forces. Israeli forces raided during the night the homes of two young men in the Bab Al-Amoud area and Salah El-Din Street and arrested one of them, Sa’adi Burqan. In the West Bank town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, occupation forces arrested resident Tariq Salim in his home. Several other people were injured due to tear gas inhalation during the clashes that erupted in the town. An infantry squad was deployed in the town of Ya'bad, southwest of Jenin, where neighbourhoods were raided and vehicles moved. No arrests were reported. In Beita, south of Nablus, confrontations continued throughout th...

On August 15, at 04:33 and 07:25 the Armenian armed forces units from the positions in the Arazdeyen settlement of the Vedi region, using large-caliber weapons subjected to fire the Azerbaijan Army positions in the direction of the Heydarabad settlement of the Sadarak region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Trend reports with reference to Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry. On August 14 starting from 19:08 to 19:17, the Armenian armed forces units from the positions in the Zarkand settlement of the Basarkechar region using small arms subjected to fire the Azerbaijan Army positions in the direction of the Damirchidam settlement of the Kalbajar region. The opposing side was suppressed by retaliation fire. Moreover, on the evening of August 14, illegal Armenian armed detachments in the territory of Azerbaijan, where Russian peacekeepers are temporaly deployed, committed provocation against the Azerbaijan Army Units in the vicinity of the city of Shusha. So that, at about 22:14 two civ...

by Ray McGovern If, after the horrors of this week in Afghanistan, the 4-Starry-eyed generals responsible for this 20-year March of Folly are not held accountable, there will be still worse to come. None were held accountable for the disasters of Vietnam or Iraq, and now the allegedly smart 4-Star Generals and Admirals are – get this – preparing for war with China and Russia. "Civilian control" of the military is a fiction when the Departments of Defense and State are headed by windsock politicians like Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton, not to mention President Barack Obama who lacked the spine to stand up to political generals like David Petraeus. This was clear as a bell 12 years ago, when on March 24, 2009, Obama announced his first surge of troops into Afghanistan. He claimed his decision was the result of a "careful policy review" by military commanders and diplomats, the Afghan and Pakistan governments, NATO, and other international organizations. That he...

Press Release Rohingya need international protection from ongoing genocide 16 August 2021 On January 23, 2020, the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) issued an order in the case of The Gambia v. Myanmar requiring Myanmar to take measures to prevent the risk or possible recurrence of genocide against the Rohingya people and to preserve evidence of the 2017 attacks (“Order”). Myanmar is required to report periodically on the measures it has taken to comply with the Order. Myanmar’s two reports filed to date have been classified confidential, available only to the ICJ and The Gambia, thus keeping the international community as a whole, including the Rohingya as victims and survivors, in the dark. Such an approach prevents them to see, assess and draw conclusions on any measures which Myanmar has (or has not) taken. Despite the requirements of the Order, Myanmar is continuing to fail in its obligations to take any of the prescribed genocide against the Rohingya people (as a protected...

Kaamil Ahmed Sat 7 Aug 2021 01.01 EDT Refugees clear mud that engulfed shelters after recent flash floods. In January a fire burnt 600 homes. Photograph: Yassin + Zia/Rohingya photographers for NRC The process of rebuilding has begun once again for Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh after a week of heavy rains made thousands homeless. The chest-high waters that flowed through parts of Cox’s Bazar have exposed the vulnerability of the area’s unplanned settlements, which have to be repeatedly repaired and rebuilt after flooding, cyclones and fires. At least 21,000 refugees were displaced by heavy monsoon rains that began on 27 July and lasted for days. Flash flooding inundated the fragile shelters, which are made of bamboo and tarpaulin, with landslides crushing those perched on unstable hills. Zahed Khan, a Rohingya youth activist who lives in the Kutupalong refugee camp, said: “All of our family was at home and we didn’t have any way to escape so we tried everyth...

Myanmar Fast Facts Posted By: CNN Editorial Research Here's a look at Myanmar, a country in southeast Asia formerly known as Burma. About Myanmar (from the CIA World Factbook) Area: 676,578 sq km (slightly smaller than Texas) Population: 57,069,099 (July 2021 est.) Median age: 29.2 years Capital: Naypyidaw Ethnic Groups: Burman 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%, Chinese 3%, Indian 2%, Mon 2%, other 5% Religion: Buddhist 87.9%, Christian 6.2%, Muslim 4.3%, Animist 0.8%, Hindu 0.5%, Other 0.2%, None 0.1% (2014 est.) Unemployment: 4% (2017 est.) Other Facts Prono: MEE'-an-mar Myanmar shares borders with China, India, Laos, Bangladesh and Thailand. The United States officially still calls the country Burma. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates there were more than 773,000 people of concern, including stateless and internally displaced people, in Myanmar in 2019. The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar's Rakhine State thought to n...

“I fear there would be no Kashmir to save in two year’s time if Indian demographic terrorism is not stopped as the Illegally Occupied regime in Jammu and Kashmir is fast changing the demography of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” said Afridi while addressing a special meeting of the Committee held to brief the visiting IPHRC delegation. Welcoming the delegates of the OIC, the Kashmir Committee chairman expressed gratitude to the delegation for heeding to the wails of Kashmiri mothers and daughters mourning their martyrs. He said that the United Nations was formed after failure the League of the Nations, had been unable to resolve the issues faced by the humanity. He deplored the fact that the United Nations is also failing to resolve the issues like Kashmir and Palestine. He also said that the humanity is bleeding in occupied Kashmir but the prosperous world is a silent spectator. He further said demographic changes are taking place in the IOK and 4.1 million new domic...

“Jab Musle Kate Jaenge, Ram Ram Chillaayenge” Hindutva’s anti-Muslim rhetoric picks up momentum Delhi, August 10 (KMS): It rained communal slogans in the heart of the National Capital, a few kilometers away from Parliament at a rally was called for by lawyer Ashwani Upadhyay It rained dangerous communal slogans this Sunday, August 8, in the heart of the National Capital. Multiple right-wing organisations got together and gathered to spew hate in a high security zone, just a few kilometers from the Parliament, which is in session. Many in the gathering raised calls for violence and massacre againt the Muslim community shouting “Jab Musle Kate Jaenge Ram Ram Chillaayenge”. The derogatory slur M***e, is a reference to Muslims often used for inciting hate against the community, especially in Hindi speaking North India. These crowds chanted that Muslims will be forced to say “Ram Ram” while they are hacked to death. A clear call for violence against the community. The hate gathering too...