by Daniel DePetris Nearly 21 months after the U.S. withdrawal from a two-decadelong misadventure in Afghanistan, an increasingly polarized Washington continues to ask the same old questions. Who lost Afghanistan? Was Afghanistan ever America’s to win? Who is at fault for the collapse ...
by Colin P. Clarke One year after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, the country is an even more dangerous place. The Taliban now serves as the de facto government, doling out punishments and beatings to Afghans who run afoul of the group’s strict Islamic mores. Yet, in ...
by Bobby Ghosh The U.S. drone strike that killed Ayman al-Zawahri in Kabul on Sunday caught the Taliban leadership both red-handed and flat-footed. Their promises to prevent the country from once again becoming a terrorist haven have been exposed as lies: The al-Qaida leader was living ...
by Bobby Ghosh Two and a half months since the fall of Kabul, the international community has yet to figure out how to stop Afghanistan’s new masters from imposing harsh restrictions on women’s freedoms. Yet one shift in the way negotiators handle their dealings with the Taliban ...
Kobayashi Maru. It’s a term familiar to Star Trek fans: a no-win scenario — a Starfleet test where cadets must choose between saving a disabled civilian vessel, putting themselves at risk and starting an intergalactic war, or leaving the civilians behind, most likely to die. The ...
by Eli Lake The White House will soon be sending invitations to world leaders for its “Summit of Democracy,” currently scheduled for Dec. 9 and 10. It promises to be a grand and noble affair, with participants working to “build a shared foundation for global democratic ...