Biden’s “Diplomacy Is Back” Falls Flat as 2021 Middle East Policy a Miserable Flop

By no means has voting blue meant a change for the better; in fact, the only real difference between Biden and Trump in terms of foreign policy is that instead of mean tweets, more respectful language is used to give the new president the veneer of respectability.

Robert Inlakesh
By Robert Inlakesh
Joe Biden Middle East Feature photo

Despite President Joe Biden having claimed earlier this year that “diplomacy is back” and that he would end the war in Yemen, revive the Iran Nuclear Deal and settle several other issues, in reality his Middle East foreign policy has been just as detrimental to the region as was that of his predecessor. “This war has to end…we’re ending all

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How Feminists Can Support Afghan Women Living Under the Taliban

When the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, it froze billions of dollars in Afghan assets, grinding many of the country’s most essential operations to a halt and spreading misery. The US government must release those funds.

Medea Benjamin
Ariel Gold
By Medea Benjamin
And Ariel Gold

WASHINGTON (Jacobin) — Since the Taliban took control of Kabul and the central government on August 15, efforts to support Afghan women have become extremely challenging. According to some prominent U.S. feminists with strong ties to Afghan women, the Taliban “has no legitimacy beyond the brutal force it commands,” and governments, the United

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How the Pentagon Leaned on Hollywood to Sell the War in Afghanistan

In hundreds of films and TV shows, every single word and image has been closely scrutinized and signed off on by senior military figures, all in an effort to convince viewers into supporting deadly and grossly immoral campaigns around the world.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA -- The (official) 20-year U.S. occupation of Afghanistan has come to a close, with the military beating a hasty and ignominious retreat. The puppet Afghan government NATO installed lasted fewer than two weeks on its own, with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing for the UAE, allegedly with around $169 million in cash. If the

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War Is a Racket: Ex-State Department Official Matthew Hoh Speaks Out

The U.S. was and is effectively taking part in the established drug trade by backing drug lords in Afghanistan.

Lowkey
By Lowkey

What was the Afghanistan War all about? That is the question on many people’s lips after a devastating 20-year campaign that has killed an estimated 176,000 people and displaced nearly 6 million more. Today, Watchdog host Lowkey is joined by a man who knows the war from both inside and out. Matthew Hoh was at the forefront of the American

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How the US Trained the Afghan Mujahideen To Produce War Propaganda

Behind The Headlines’ Dan Cohen explains a little known effort to train Afghan Islamic fundamentalists in propaganda, and how that effort created a blueprint for the White Helmets in Syria.

Dan Cohen
By Dan Cohen
Afghan War Propaganda Feature photo

By now, everyone knows about the White Helmets – the State Department’s propaganda operation to manufacture consent for the U.S.’s dirty war on Syria. But long before the White Helmets were the Afghan mujahideen. Quick review: The White Helmets were presented as laudable rescue teams who operated in opposition-held territory in Syria. They

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On Propaganda and Failed Narratives: New Understanding of Afghanistan is a Must

US-Western propaganda, which has afflicted our collective understanding of Afghanistan for twenty years and counting, has been so overpowering to the point that we are left without the slightest understanding of the dynamics that led to the Taliban’s swift takeover.

Ramzy Baroud
By Ramzy Baroud
US Afghanistan Feature photo

For twenty years, two dominant narratives have shaped our view of the illegal US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and neither one of these narratives would readily accept the use of such terms as ‘illegal’, ‘invasion’ and ‘occupation.’ The framing of the US ‘military intervention’ in Afghanistan, starting on October 7, 2001, as the

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