Unconquered: the people of the Panjshir Valley have successfully fought off invaders since the Soviet Union in the early 1980s.
EPA-EFE/Hedayatullah Amid
The U.S. military collected biometric data on Afghan civilians. The information may have fallen into the hands of the Taliban, highlighting why collecting the data is too risky in the first place.
The US, Nato and the EU must support stability on the ground, even if it’s not the type of stability they wanted.
Hundreds of Afghan citizens, fleeing their home country, await takeoff after packing inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan.
AP Photo/Capt. Chris Herbert/U.S. Air Force
Since the 1970s, Australian immigration policy has changed dramatically, meaning Afghan refugees face far greater hurdles than those who fled Saigon after the Vietnam War.
In May, Afghan troops raised their national flag as the U.S. pulled out. Now, their flag is down too.
Afghan Ministry of Defense Press Office via AP
The Afghan military’s collapse was the collective result of individual soldiers making rational decisions based on what they expected their comrades to do.
Culture change has been slow and difficult but the will to make life better for Afghan women was there. Now a big question mark hangs over their future.
A family taking refuge in a makeshift camp for displaced people near Kabul.
GettyImages
New Zealand has an ethical obligation to acknowledge its role in creating the crisis in Afghanistan and to increase its refugee intake to save as many as possible.
Cpl Ricky Fuller/Australian Department of Defence/AAP
Lazy platitudes about Australian moral and military exceptionalism were put to the test in Afghanistan, and found wanting.
A woman attending a protest to raise awareness regarding the situation in Afghanistan outside the European Union headquarters in Brussels on Aug. 18, 2021.
(AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
The Taliban’s recent conquest of Kabul signifies their seizure of power. This threatens the rights of girls, women and sexual minorities to freedom from harm and access to opportunities.
The author was in this crowd, finally boarding a plane to leave Kabul.
Photo: Hanif Sufizada
Hanif Sufizada got caught in Kabul as the Taliban took over. A scholar and resident of the US who works at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Sufizada describes his experience trying to leave.
It may be attractive to think that promoting democracy in occupied foreign countries is an appropriate moral and effective path for restoring security and stability. But it’s not accurate.
Any attempt to restore an Islamic emirate is likely to cost the Tablian international recognition, legitimacy and aid. This will weaken its prospect of consolidating its hold internally.
On Aug. 16, 2021, thousands of Afghans trapped by the sudden Taliban takeover rushed the Kabul airport tarmac.
AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani
Gordon Adams, American University School of International Service
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US Afghanistan pullout is not a repeat of failures in other recent wars. “This is not Saigon,” he said. A seasoned foreign policy expert disagrees.
Thousands of Afghans rushed to Kabul’s airport trying to flee the country as the Taliban seized power.
Wakil Kohsar / AFP via Getty Images