Afghanistan
Boris faces a backlash from Tory MPs over Afghanistan
After the Taliban took over Kabul and announced victory in Afghanistan, a scramble is underway by diplomats and many Afghans…
The real reason Biden was prepared to let Kabul fall
The speed of the Taliban’s advance, culminating in Sunday’s capture of Kabul, has been widely put forward as proof that…
Where is the anger about Afghanistan?
This is an age of anger. Social media amplifies rage and exaggerates polarisation. Twitter isn’t Britain, but too many people…
Why Biden will not change tack on Afghanistan
Afghanistan will be a stain on the Biden presidency. His decision to continue with a US withdrawal from the country…
More diplomacy won’t stop the advance of the Taliban
On 11 August, at Russia’s initiative, an ‘extended troika’ will meet in Doha, Qatar to take stock of the Taliban’s…
Compound failure
What we got wrong in Afghanistan
What was the point of the war in Afghanistan?
On 7 October 2001 President George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom – the invasion of Afghanistan. The operation sought…
Letters
Out of Afghanistan Sir: Boyd Tonkin’s review of Anna Aslanyan’s Dancing on Ropes highlights the post-war abandonment of local Afghan…
George Bush’s attack on Joe Biden’s Afghan strategy is hard to take
The world doesn’t hear a lot from George W. Bush these days. The former president of the United States has…
The Afghan withdrawal will only embolden the West’s enemies
‘How many thousands more Americans, daughters and sons, were you willing to risk?’ Biden asked critics of the decision to…
The Soviet spectre haunting Afghanistan
As US and British forces pull out of Afghanistan, further victims of the ‘grave of empires’, Russia is experiencing a mix…
Leave, convert or perish: The fate of Afghanistan’s minorities
President Biden’s decision to ‘end the war in Afghanistan’ means the complete withdrawal of 3,500 US troops by the 20th…
Triumph of the Taleban
Their patience is paying off
What the withdrawal from Afghanistan says about us
When the Secretary General of Nato announced last week that all alliance troops were to be withdrawn from Afghanistan, it…
Has Britain learned from its failures in Afghanistan?
As the Americans prepare to leave Afghanistan, and in the UK we hold our own Defence Review, should we not…
A collection of warring tribes
In his history of the Pacific War, Eagle Against the Sun, Ronald Spector described the state of the US army…
The wars go on
America’s longest war has just entered its 20th year. The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to overthrow the Taliban…
Joe Biden’s endless wars
In just over a week, the Empire hopes to strike back. Joe Biden personifies the foreign policy of endless war…
Pompeo: Biden will give ‘hundreds of billions of dollars to a theocratic, corrupt regime’
Washington DC Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Monday that if Joe Biden wins the November elections, an incoming…
Trump and the troops
This article is in The Spectator’s January 2020 US edition. Subscribe here. Thanksgiving Day, the most American of holidays, found President Trump…
Neither ‘Mad Dog’ nor ‘Warrior Monk’, General Jim Mattis is a thoughtful strategist
General Jim Mattis ended his remarkable career as a four-star US marine general, and finally as US secretary of defense.…
In Afghanistan, Trump and the Taleban want the same thing – Americans out
‘Incoming! Incoming! Incoming!’ As morning alarms go, this one leaves a lot to be desired. Normally I wake up to…
The woman who wrote Afghanistan’s electoral laws lives on a houseboat in Bristol
By the age of eight Vaira Vike-Freiberga had learnt that life was both ‘very strange and very unfair’. Her baby…
An important story but not for the faint-hearted: Deadliest Day podcast reviewed
One of the advantages that podcasts have over the scheduled array of programmes is the space that can be given…
Female contestants in Afghanistan’s X Factor are dicing with death
The cheering fans, the dramatic Hollywood-style drum rolls, the excitable host all sound just like The X Factor or The…
