US in Afghanistan
Very soon after taking office in 2009, President Obama appointed Richard Holbrooke as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. This ‘Af-Pak’ setup showed a lack of understanding of how Pakistan-India…
Afghanistan challenges
The Afghan Taliban and the Americans reached an agreement on February 29, 2020 in Doha. According to this agreement, the foreign forces were to leave Afghanistan within 14 months (before…
Afghanistan in retrospect
Harold McMillan, prime minister of England, a classic alumnus of Balliol College Oxford, predicted to my mentor Sir Anthony Kenny, Master of Balliol College, long years ago in 1980, that…
Afghanistan: war and peace
Over two months into the much hyped peace deal between the US and Taliban, violence in Afghanistan shows no signs of abating. On May 12, a maternity ward in Kabul…
Withdrawal from Afghanistan
The euphoria created in the aftermath of the Taliban-US peace deal seems to be dying down before it could even be implemented. The ruthless attacks of the Taliban in the…
General Akhtar Abdul Rahman, the man behind the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan
Excerpts from the Book "The Bear Trap" by Brigadier Muhammad Yousaf (Retd) Up to the date of his tragic death on 17th August, 1988 in the plane crash that also…
Convergence on Afghanistan
Two days after CoAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa returned from a daylong visit to Kabul on June 11, 2018, during which he met the Afghan and US military leadership, Mullah…
US, Afghanistan and us
It is not time yet for their annual spring offence in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have already ramped up attacks. Two recent back-to-back bombings in Kabul left nearly 150 people…
Trump weighs further US troops for Afghanistan
Hanging in a corridor outside the Pentagon press office, a blow-up of a Time magazine cover shows a weary US soldier drawing deeply on his cigarette. Barbed wire and snowy…
Afghanistan’s neighbours fear refugee crisis if US pulls out
Afghanistan's neighbours, caught off-guard by reports of US plans to withdraw thousands of troops, have begun preparing for the risk that a pullout could send hundreds of thousands of refugees…
