AFGHANISTAN has long been the boneyard of empires in the final throes of decline.
American troops are due to depart their Kabul compounds and hilltop FOBs bring the longest chapter of the War on Terror to a close.
Under a time table set by President Biden the final US troops will leave Afghan soil before September 11
On October 7 2001, another US President ushered in a war that lead to the deaths of tens of thousands and created 2.7 million refugees and twenty years on still hasn’t delivered a military defeat upon the Taliban.
This failure very much set the scene for Biden address this week, delivered from the very same White House Room as that given by Bush almost a decade ago.
Biden told Americans he would not pass the burden of the Afghan war onto a fifth consecutive President, telling a wearing nation it was time to end their longest war.
What this unconditional withdrawn mean for the people for Afghanistan was not the focus of speech, Biden only went as far as to namecheck the President Ashraf Ghani. Western perceptions of the savagery of Afghanistan war have not so much altered as faded utterly.
Redaction politics writer Kit Roberts this week set out his opinions on how another Middle Eastern conflict is increasingly contorted through a Western Liberal lens, that of the the Kurdish YPG.
Western perceptions of YPG units as liberal havens misrepresent the group’s history
Biden Afghan pull out has provoked a angry response from hawkish quarters within Washington DC. Filibustering as long been a weapon of opposition in the Congress. This week we explored what Amercan politics would be like without it.
Abolishing the filibuster would transform US politics
And amid all of this, what better time to reflect on the musings of one of controversial architects of US foreign policy. Redaction’s very own James Moules review of Christopher Hitchens’ ‘The Trial of Henry Kissinger’ is a fine way to bookend the decline of the pax Americana.
A classic political polemic – ‘The Trial of Henry Kissinger’ by Christopher Hitchens
LOOKING FORWARD
The race for Hartlepool is gearing up and as is the excitement surrounding the Northern Independence party who’s refreshingly democratic socialist manifesto dropped this week. Be sure get a flavour of what the NIP are about with our video exploring the North-South divide.
WATCH: What is the North-South divide, and what will the Hartlepool by-election mean for Starmer?
Featured Image: Pixabay
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