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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Afghanistan: Drug Trade and Belt and Road

Peter Koenig
Dissident Voice
Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
opium afghanistan
All flags are on half-mast in the US of A. The cause is the 13 American soldiers killed in this huge suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday, 26 August.

As it stands, at least 150 people - Afghans, including at least 30 Taliban, plus 13 American military - were killed and at least 1,300 injured, according to the Afghan Health Ministry.

The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the bombing via Amaq Media, the official Islamic State (ISIS) news agency. The perpetrators, the message says, were members of the ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K.

As reported by RT, US military leaders knew "hours in advance" that a "mass casualty event" was planned at Kabul airport. However, accounts from the troops in harm's way suggest that nothing was done to protect them or the airport. See here.

RT further reports: "The bombing provoked the US into launching two drone strikes, one targeting an alleged "planner" and "facilitator" with the group responsible, and another supposedly wiping out "multiple" would-be suicide bombers but reportedly annihilating a family and children alongside them.
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Clipboard

130 retired generals, admirals demand resignations from Milley and Austin over Afghanistan disaster

Ryan Saavedra
The Daily Wire
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 00:00 UTC
Milley
© Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley
The list of retired admirals and generals demanding resignations from Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Mark Milley has grown significantly in the last few days, going from under 90 just a few days ago to ballooning to 130 by Thursday.

The retired admirals and generals said that both Milley and Austin need to resign "based on negligence in performing their duties primarily involving events surrounding the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan."

The letter noted the numerous U.S. citizens and Afghan allies, including the man who helped rescue then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) in 2008 when his helicopter was forced to land in a dangerous area in Afghanistan due to severe weather, who had been left behind by the administration when they pulled out of the country earlier this week.

The Flag Officers said that Milley and Austin should have strongly pushed back on Biden's plans and, if Biden refused to heed their warnings about what would happen, they should have immediately resigned and made a public statement about the matter.

The letter continued:

Comment: Strong wording emphasizes the depth and breadth of this fiasco as seen by those qualified to judge.

See also:

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Target

Biden wants an end to US foreign adventures, but multi-billion dollar death & destruction industry still has him in its grip

Glenn Diesen
RT
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 11:03 UTC
BidenSoldiers
© AP/Getty Images/John Moore/KJN
US President Joe Biden • US soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan
The two-decades long US occupation of Afghanistan has ended in humiliating defeat, with President Joe Biden seemingly betraying his globalist liberal-international instincts by saying Washington won't again pursue nation-building.

With Kabul falling before even American troops could get out, let alone those Afghans unfortunate enough to have put their lives on the line to support them, Biden sought to defend his unilateral withdrawal.
"As we turn the page on the foreign policy that has guided our nation the last two decades, we've got to learn from our mistakes. This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It's about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries."
The US, it seems, has sworn off foreign intervention, for the time being. The change, if it holds up, couldn't be more drastic. America was at the height of its power when it invaded Afghanistan in 2001, but now, 20 years later, the age of global hegemony has evidently come to an end.


Comment: Or has it just gone 'underground'? As they say, leopards don't change their spots.


Comment: Who knows 'what Biden wants'? He's a pass through, the unelected sticker face for the public.

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Pirates

Taliban fighters upset, feel betrayed that US military left non-working helicopters: report

Greg Norman
Fox News
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 00:00 UTC
Taliban Helicopter
© AFP Getty Images
Taliban member inspects a damaged helicopter at Kabul airport.
Taliban fighters are feeling angry and betrayed Wednesday after discovering that Afghan National Army helicopters abandoned at Kabul's airport have been rendered inoperable by departing U.S. troops, according to a report. A U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson told Fox News on Wednesday:
"We disabled/demilitarized that equipment at Hamid Karzai International Airport prior to our departure."
An Al Jazeera reporter who toured a hangar on the military side of the airport said in a video that the terrorist group
"expected the Americans to leave helicopters like this in one piece for their use. When I said to them, 'why do you think that the Americans would have left everything operational for you'? They said because we believe it is a national asset and we are the government now and this could have come to great use for us."
Meanwhile, the Taliban are hoping to get the commercial side of the airport reopened for flights in the coming days, Al Jazeera reports.

Comment: Well, that decision is being raked over the coals by more practical-minded (and outspoken) individuals:
On Tuesday, Donald Trump said Washington should demand that the Taliban return each and every piece of American military hardware or crack down on the militant group.

Former US President Donald Trump has shared a video of the Taliban holding a military parade in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to celebrate the end of the American troop exit from the nation.

The short clip, published on Trump's Telegram page on Thursday, showed what looked like US-made armoured vehicles, part of the American military hardware that was captured by the Taliban following its takeover of Afghanistan on 15 August.

The ex-POTUS wrote in Thursday's post:
"There is nothing disabled about the equipment that the United States gave to the Taliban. Just more made up lies!"
He was apparently referring to Monday's statement by General Kenneth F. McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, who said that American troops disabled armoured vehicles, aircraft, and weapons systems that they abandoned at the Kabul Airport before the remaining American servicemen boarded the last flights out of Afghanistan.
"We demilitarised those systems so that they'll never be used again. We felt it more important to protect our forces than to bring those systems back. [...] They'll never be able to be operated by anyone again."
Chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, for his part, said the only US equipment left operable at the airport was
"a couple of fire trucks and forklifts so that the airport itself can remain more operational going forward. [The Taliban] can inspect all they want. They can look at them, they can walk around, but they can't fly them. They can't operate them. We made sure to demilitarise, to make unusable, all the gear that is at the airport — all the aircraft, all the ground vehicles."
The claims came after Trump called on Washington to press Taliban fighters to immediately return the $85 billion worth of US military equipment the militant group seized after they came to power in Afghanistan on 15 August.
"If it is not handed back, we should either go in with unequivocal military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it."
Shortly after the fall of Kabul, several videos were shared on social media appearing to show what looked like Taliban fighters posing next to UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and apparently taking a joyride in one.
Do they not work? Or, was disablement a faux caveat created to head off political and public outrage, provide lucrative replacement contracts for the MIC and cover Joe Biden's a**? (Meanwhile, the Taliban thumb their nose and turn to China.)

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Attention

Kim Jong Un orders tougher measures to fight climate change, COVID-19

Thomas Maresca
UPI
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 05:02 UTC
Kim Jong-un
© EPA-EFE/KCNA
North Korea leader Kim Jong-un
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called on officials to tighten COVID-19 prevention measures and to improve damage control for extreme weather caused by climate change, state media reported on Friday.

Kim led a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Thursday, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. The isolated country has been struggling economically while facing food shortages due to a prolonged border closure and flood damage from typhoons.

At the meeting, Kim said that protecting against the effects of climate change was
"more important than anything else such as river improvement, afforestation for erosion control, dike maintenance and tide embankment projects. Disastrous weather is getting ever more pronounced worldwide and our country is also lying vulnerable to its danger."
North Korea has seen its crops severely impacted by a series of typhoons over the past two summers as well as a heatwave and drought this year. In June, Kim acknowledged that the food situation was "getting tense."

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Taliban celebrates in Kabul after claiming it has captured Panjshir province, resulting in full control of Afghanistan


RT
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 16:54 UTC
taliban
© Afghanistan Reuters/Stringer
Taliban forces at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan
Celebratory gunfire has erupted over Kabul amid reports that the Taliban has defeated the Panjshir Valley 'resistance'. The latter's commander earlier rejected the claims.
Tracers streaked across the night sky on Friday evening local time, reminiscent of celebrations on Tuesday following the departure of the last US airplane from Kabul. There were different reports as to the occasion, however, with RT's senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev hearing both talk of victory in Panjshir and the arrival of the Taliban's leader.
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Megaphone

Stop politicizing Covid-19, Russia's Putin & China's Xi tell world, calling for cooperation to beat virus instead


RT
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 19:44 UTC
medical workers
© Sputnik / Kirill Braga
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that using the coronavirus to score political points is undermining faith in authorities across the world and worsening the pandemic, in a joint call with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping on Friday.

The two world leaders appeared at the Eastern Economic Forum, held in Russia's Far East capital, Vladivostok. "It is even more important now, in my opinion, to discard politicization and fight together to overcome the pandemic and its consequences. This is vital for all of humanity," Putin said. In addition, he argued, efforts to use the unprecedented crisis to sideline rivals and bolster influence is hurting confidence in public health messages.
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Arrow Up

BRICS development bank admits UAE, Bangladesh, Uruguay as new members


Reuters
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 11:31 UTC
BRICS sudáfrica
© REUTERS / Mike Hutchings
The New Development Bank (NDB) set up by the BRICS group of nations said on Thursday it had admitted the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Bangladesh as members in its first expansion push.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - a group of major emerging economies known as BRICS - launched the bank in 2015 and started formal talks with potential new members last year.

"New members will have in NDB a platform to foster their cooperation in infrastructure and sustainable development," said NDB President Marcos Troyjo in a statement.

Comment: Whilst BRICS forges ahead with mutually beneficial deals which would likely improve life for many and that could potentially make the world a safer place, the US just signed off an additional $24 billion in 'defense' spending.

See also:

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Russian Flag

Kremlin to Kiev: Drive to join US-led NATO bloc, bring Western forces near Russia presents serious security risks

Jonny Tickle
RT
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 18:17 UTC
Ukraine flag Nato flag
© Getty Images / Caspar Benson; (inset); Getty Images / Valentyn Semenov / EyeEm
Ukraine Flag (inset); NATO flag
The Kremlin has warned that the publicly stated aspiration of Ukraine to join the American-led NATO military bloc poses a danger to Russia, which is completely opposed to the build-up of Western armed forces near its borders.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed on Thursday that Washington is encouraging Kiev to continue its attempts to join both the Cold War-era analogue to the long-disbanded Warsaw Pact and the European Union - measures which he said would put the two Western organizations directly on Kiev's long border with Russia.

Comment: Ukraine has offered itself up as a pawn in the new Great Game with Russia. Foolish doesn't begin to cover it.

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Black Magic

How The National Review sold its soul to Google

Emerald Robinson
emeralddb3.substack.com
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 17:51 UTC
national review magazine trump
© AP/TheStreet
And why Jonah Goldberg and David French got thrown out

There were rumors in the summer of 2018 that an audiotape was circulating that would send shockwaves through the think tanks of Washington and the conservative intellectual movement in particular. A top Google executive had been recorded telling his fellow employees that Google generously donated to conservative think tanks and magazines to dampen criticism of their anti-conservative bias. In essence, Google was buying off Conservatism Inc. and the GOP establishment to stay silent while Google monitored, harassed, and excluded Trump supporters. If true, the tape sounded like a smoking gun: incontrovertible evidence of the corruption and double-dealing of Conservatism Inc. that would permanently discredit it with Republican voters.
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