THE NEW YORK TIMES: After a week of rapid victories, the Taliban seized the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Sunday, leaving Kabul, the capital, as the only major urban center still in the government’s hands.
The insurgents’ brutal offensive, which began in May as the United States started withdrawing troops, has intensified over the past week, with one city after another falling. Their capture of Jalalabad, the bustling capital of Nangarhar Province, gives them control of every key city but Kabul.
The insurgents have now encircled the capital. Mazar-i-Sharif, the last major northern city held by the government, was lost to the Taliban on Saturday night. A day earlier, the insurgents seized major cities in the south and west.
In Kabul, neighborhoods have filled with arrivals from other parts of the country that are under Taliban control. While many, particularly those with connections abroad, are scrambling to try to find a way out of the country, others said they were resigned to the likelihood of a complete Taliban takeover. » | Austin Ramzy | Sunday, August 15, 2021
The USA has gone from being led by a clown to being led by a fool in just one election! If the USA wishes to continue leading the free world, I implore American voters to start taking into account the impact of their leader’s foreign policy decisions on the rest of the free world! This decision to abandon Afghanistan, to throw the Afghans to the wolves, will have an enormous impact on the rest of us, especially Europe. We will have to pay the high price of Biden’s folly. Domestically, Biden has done some very good things, but this foreign policy decision is disastrous: it’s going to cause total chaos. Moreover, it will mark a further rightward shift in European politics. American politicians need to start behaving responsibly or else lose their pole position in the world and allow someone else to take up the position of leadership. – © Mark
