As the world's attention remains on the situation in Ukraine, the U.S. elite and corporate media mention Afghanistan only to highlight the Taliban's reactionary policies in an effort to justify Washington's prior occupation of the country.
The Taliban has announced positive changes are forthcoming regarding the re-opening of girls’ secondary schools, which Iran and China consider preconditions for economic partnership, including in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
At a recent meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Moscow, regional leaders from the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan highlighted the need to counter the rise of externally supported terrorist groups in some Afghan provinces.
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Cash-Strapped Taliban Dissolves Several Afghan Ministries
May 17, 2022, by News Desk for The Cradle
The Afghan ministries and departments that have been shut down due to financial difficulties include the human rights commission, the commission for overseeing the implementation of the Afghan constitution, the national security council, and the high council for national reconciliation.
Trump and Biden Let Afghanistan Collapse
May 18, 2022, by Lynne O’Donnell for Foreign Policy
A faction within the West’s ruling class evidently still has an interest in criticizing Trump for negotiating a deal with the Taliban and Biden for criticizing it.
The Taliban Have Made the Burqa Mandatory Again
May 9, 2022, by Lynne O’Donnell for Foreign Policy
More pro-imperial propaganda, trying to link Afghanistan’s hunger and poverty crisis to the Taliban’s regressive laws against women.
How NATO Weapons from Afghanistan Are Impacting Kashmir's Militancy
May 18, 2022, by Samaan Lateef for DW
Bombs and weapons used in Afghanistan by militants and U.S. forces are making their way into India-administered Kashmir, raising fears that they could bolster an Islamist insurgency in the area.
Afghans Urge Court Not to Give Frozen Central Bank Assets to Sept. 11 Families
May 10, 2022 by Charlie Savage for The New York Times
Advocates for the Afghan people say it would be unjust and illegal to use $3.5 billion of Afghanistan’s assets to pay off the Taliban’s judgment debts.
The U.S. Is Stealing Afghanistan’s Money and Starving Its People
May 13, 2022 by Deconstructed for The Intercept
Interview with Afghan journalist Masood Shnizai describing his country’s worsening plight since the U.S. departure last year.
Book Review: ‘The Afghanistan Papers’ Leaves a Critical Question Unanswered
May 13, 2022 by Patterson Deppen for Toward Freedom
While Washington Post reporter Craig Whitlock delivers a thorough chronological history of the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan from the U.S. perspective, the author misses a crucial opportunity to clarify the profit-driven forces behind Washington's many cover-ups and false narratives in Afghanistan.
Banner photo: A Taliban fighter stands guard as people wait to receive food rations distributed by a South Korean humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)