Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 – Martha Argerich & Riccardo Chailly
Islam: The Enemy of Democracy and Freedom
MARK ALEXANDER: This essay was first published on April 20, 2007. It is relevant even today. In fact, given what has happened in Afghanistan in the past few days, it is arguably even more relevant today than ever.
I wish our leaders and politicians would take the trouble to understand the nature of Islam. It would save us all a great deal of pain, heartache, trouble and wasted tax dollars!
Islam and democracy are wholly and totally incompatible. They have never been compatible; and never will be!
To say this is not in any way to cast Islam in a bad light. Not at all! Being different doesn’t have to mean bad at all. Simply put: In many fundamental ways, they are poles apart. And if the Islamic world and the Western world are ever to get on, those differences must be understood and respected.
Democracy cannot be imposed on a nation as different as Afghanistan is from the USA, UK, or any European country. Democracy must emerge. But whilst Islam is these people’s guide, true democracy will never spring forth. My reasoning is given in the essay that follows. I stood by my words in 2007 and I stand by my words today. No politician can change the nature of a faith.
Whilst Christianity and Islam resemble each other in some ways, there are many, many fundamental differences; and those differences cannot be reconciled.
I ask you to read my essay that follows and give it some serious thought. I mean no harm to any Muslim; indeed, in years gone by, I had some wonderful friends who were Muslims and surely still are. I will say this now: You will never get a warmer welcome from anyone than you will get from a good Muslim. Muslims are given to warmth, hospitality, generosity and kindness. In many ways, they are so misunderstood. But it is the sine qua non of good relations that each side understand the other. Moreover, differences must not only be understood; they must also be respected in a reciprocal manner. Without reciprocity, there will always be potential conflict.
I hope you enjoy the essay that follows:
Until 9/11, the western world was largely ignorant of the religion of Islam, of its goals, of its aspirations. Indeed, even since 9/11, most people, and that includes our politicians, would not score very highly in a test of their knowledge on the subject. It should be obvious to all thinking people that our politicians are actually unaware, dare I say blind, to the dangers that Islam will increasingly cause us. It is truly a case of the blind leading the blind! That means to say, uninformed and unthinking politicians leading an ill-informed electorate. But this is what we have right now. The same can hardly be said of Muslims in the Islamic world, though; for their knowledge of Christianity far surpasses - even though much of their knowledge is quite distorted - any knowledge of Islam by the man in the street in the West.
As the old saying goes, knowledge is power. But what we often don't hear uttered is its converse: Ignorance is weakness.
The West is far weaker than it need be because of this ignorance of Islam, since Islam is our greatest enemy. The greatest enemy since Nazism and communism. I'll give you some good reasons why this is so. And none of them - absolutely none of them - are based on hatred.
Islam is the enemy of the West for a plethora of good, solid reasons, and if we wish to survive as a civilization, we are going to have to bite the bullet and deal, head on, with the issues these reasons raise. Let us begin...
First and foremost, we are dealing with a religion which does not recognize any separation of politics and religion, any separation of the political from the spiritual. For Muslims, life is one coherent whole: the political and spiritual both meld into one. This has always been so, and always will be. No re-classification of the religion into two separate parts is possible because of Islam's very nature.
In Islam, all power rests with Allah, the god of Muslims. The Qur'an, their holy book, is always taken literally. Those words are considered to be the actual words of Allah. Therefore, none of these words can be changed, for to change any of them would be tantamount to tampering with Allah's words. This would be a grave sin in their eyes.
For the same reason that the words contained in the Qur'an cannot be changed, they cannot, therefore, be re-interpreted either. So do not hold your breath for any kind of reformation in this religion, because it’s not going to happen.
In Islam, all power rests with Allah, and it filters down via his vice-gerents on earth to the people. Hence the great desire among Muslims to restore the caliphate. Contrast this with the Western model of government.
In the West, the ideal political system is democracy. In democracy, all power rests with the people, and they exercise that power at the polls. In a democracy, all power filters in the opposite direction from Islam. In democracy it filters up; in Islam, down! Herein lies the greatest barrier to the miscibility of the two worlds: the western world and the Islamic world.
Without digressing too much here, I should like to add that this is the main reason why George W Bush and Blair's venture into Iraq to bring democracy there was a grave error of judgment. We are now seeing the experiment failing before our very eyes. How can one bring democracy to a region of the world where the people who inhabit that region believe that all power rests with Allah, and where they believe that Allah has prescribed their way of life for them for then, for now, and for all time?
I would suggest that where such a dichotomy exists, the most sensible and prudent thing to do would be for us to lead our lives as we see fit, and for those people to be allowed to live their lives as they see fit. That way, there would be hope of some peace in this world.
But this is not what we have done. We have done the very opposite of this: We have entered the Middle East in the hope - the vain hope in my opinion - of bringing our way of doing things, our way of life, to them; furthermore, we have allowed millions and millions of Muslims into the West - and at the very time when Christianity, the religion which underpins the West, is greatly weakened anyway - which will only give us headaches for the years ahead. Why? Because Muslims who immigrate bring their hopes and dreams and aspirations with them, hopes and dreams of establishing Islam everywhere on earth. To Islamize the world is the main aspiration of the Muslim; and we have seen in France in the recent past the manifestation of aggression in its cause. For what happened in France was in no small part because of the Muslim's desire to establish Allah's caliphate here on earth. These were the first rumblings, the first roar of the lion! Expect more of this in the future, as Islam grows stronger and stronger.
Muslims, by and large, do not respect non-Muslims. How can they? Their religion does not allow them to do so. Their religion preaches that Muslims are superior to non-Muslims; indeed, they use the derogatory term infidel for us. This word to some Westerners might simply mean that they call us infidels because we are people who do not subscribe to their faith. This, after all, would be quite logical, since to us it simply means not fidèle, or not true to the faith. But this does not completely describe what Muslims mean by this term. To Muslims, to be called an infidel is an insult indeed. It has connotations of inferiority, backwardness, and even uncleanness.
You see, Muslims believe that Islam is the perfection of religion for man for all time. They call it ad deen al kamal, the perfect religion. In their eyes, people who have not yet submitted to the will of Allah are in a state of pre-Islamic chaos, a state known to them as jahiliyyah. To Muslims, all Muslims, the whole world is classified in two parts: that part of the world which has submitted and is therefore in the Islamic state known as Dar ul Islam, or 'the House of Islam'; and that part of the world which has yet to submit and is therefore in a pre-Islamic, chaotic, jahiliyyic state known as Dar ul Harb, or the 'House of War'.
The 'House of War' is the part of the world which has yet to be taken over, and must at some point be taken over in the future. We, I am sorry to inform you, are in the 'House of War'. So we can expect anything at anytime.
Some people would ask why we were able to go for quite a long time without problems with Muslims. The answer to that is a simple one indeed. First of all, there were relatively few Muslims living in the West, so the ones that did live here were not powerful. Secondly, Muslims living in the Islamic world were, for the most part and for many years, poor by anyone's standards. This all changed with the Oil Embargo of the 70s - a time when the price of oil on the world markets soared. As a result of this, the Islamic world became rich and empowered. Money is power; and it talks loudly. In recent years we have seen evidence aplenty of Islam being on the move. I tell you now: If we do not find a way of clipping its wings here in the West, we shall lose our democracy, and we shall be in deep, deep trouble.
So the trouble we will have with Muslims will not come only from without, but in the future we can expect trouble from the Muslims within. The millions of Muslims living here in the West will not integrate, because it is not in their worldview to do so. It is also forbidden them by their very own Prophet Himself, the Prophet Muhammad. He forbade Muslims even to befriend infidels. He also exhorted them to kill us. And he certainly told them that they should live separate lives, and dress and behave differently, so that they could easily tell themselves apart.
No Western politician is going to be able to change these facts, for facts they are indeed. Moreover, as Islam will grow here, their numbers will become greater and greater, and they will be able to use our democratic system to outvote us and introduce their form of government based as it is on their beloved Shari'ah, or Quranic laws. How do you propose we shall be able to stop them? We shall be outnumbered, and as the outcome of democratic elections depends on the number of votes cast, we shall be able to do nothing about it. This time will come quicker than we might think, because so few babies are being born to infidel families.
The only thing left for people to do, will be to fight. Inevitably, at some point, civil war will ensue. If the political process fails people, then this will be all that will be left for them: civil war, guerre civile, Bürgerkrieg, call it what you will.
But one thing I can assure you, no politicians' sweet talk, posturing, or manœvring, will get us out of this one without conflict at some point in the future.
One of the biggest problems for the West is its devotion to the concept of freedom of religion. This is a lofty concept indeed, an ideal; but this devotion blinds people to one important reality: To the reality that Islam is not just a religion, but a political system, too. Indeed, it is more of a political system than anything else, and it is, in addition, a political system diametrically opposed to our own. It abhors freedom of choice, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of anything that we so cherish. The only thing one is free to do in Islam is become a Muslim, and submit to the will of Allah.
These two systems are totally immiscible, and unfortunately, we have imported this immiscibility right into the heart of the West; and to our own great disadvantage, and to the disadvantage of our long-term peace and security. What, I ask you, will the Americans do when the ever-growing Muslim population in America starts wanting to tinker with the Americans' beloved Constitution? When Muslims will see their way clear to supplant the Constitution with Shari'ah law?
Questions like these are the ones we should be grappling with NOW. To wait until the time comes would be foolish indeed.
Wake up to the harsh realities of life in the twenty-first century! We've got some collective thinking to do if we wish to save ourselves from darkness. Perhaps we shall, indeed, be forced to think about having to re-classify Islam as a political system first and foremost, a political system immiscible with our own, and one whose advance needs to be forestalled. This may be one of our only sensible alternatives. Since to give complete, unhampered freedom to Islam to grow here in the West is tantamount to digging our own graves.
All Rights Reserved
© Mark Alexander
I wish our leaders and politicians would take the trouble to understand the nature of Islam. It would save us all a great deal of pain, heartache, trouble and wasted tax dollars!
Islam and democracy are wholly and totally incompatible. They have never been compatible; and never will be!
To say this is not in any way to cast Islam in a bad light. Not at all! Being different doesn’t have to mean bad at all. Simply put: In many fundamental ways, they are poles apart. And if the Islamic world and the Western world are ever to get on, those differences must be understood and respected.
Democracy cannot be imposed on a nation as different as Afghanistan is from the USA, UK, or any European country. Democracy must emerge. But whilst Islam is these people’s guide, true democracy will never spring forth. My reasoning is given in the essay that follows. I stood by my words in 2007 and I stand by my words today. No politician can change the nature of a faith.
Whilst Christianity and Islam resemble each other in some ways, there are many, many fundamental differences; and those differences cannot be reconciled.
I ask you to read my essay that follows and give it some serious thought. I mean no harm to any Muslim; indeed, in years gone by, I had some wonderful friends who were Muslims and surely still are. I will say this now: You will never get a warmer welcome from anyone than you will get from a good Muslim. Muslims are given to warmth, hospitality, generosity and kindness. In many ways, they are so misunderstood. But it is the sine qua non of good relations that each side understand the other. Moreover, differences must not only be understood; they must also be respected in a reciprocal manner. Without reciprocity, there will always be potential conflict.
I hope you enjoy the essay that follows:
Until 9/11, the western world was largely ignorant of the religion of Islam, of its goals, of its aspirations. Indeed, even since 9/11, most people, and that includes our politicians, would not score very highly in a test of their knowledge on the subject. It should be obvious to all thinking people that our politicians are actually unaware, dare I say blind, to the dangers that Islam will increasingly cause us. It is truly a case of the blind leading the blind! That means to say, uninformed and unthinking politicians leading an ill-informed electorate. But this is what we have right now. The same can hardly be said of Muslims in the Islamic world, though; for their knowledge of Christianity far surpasses - even though much of their knowledge is quite distorted - any knowledge of Islam by the man in the street in the West.
As the old saying goes, knowledge is power. But what we often don't hear uttered is its converse: Ignorance is weakness.
The West is far weaker than it need be because of this ignorance of Islam, since Islam is our greatest enemy. The greatest enemy since Nazism and communism. I'll give you some good reasons why this is so. And none of them - absolutely none of them - are based on hatred.
Islam is the enemy of the West for a plethora of good, solid reasons, and if we wish to survive as a civilization, we are going to have to bite the bullet and deal, head on, with the issues these reasons raise. Let us begin...
First and foremost, we are dealing with a religion which does not recognize any separation of politics and religion, any separation of the political from the spiritual. For Muslims, life is one coherent whole: the political and spiritual both meld into one. This has always been so, and always will be. No re-classification of the religion into two separate parts is possible because of Islam's very nature.
In Islam, all power rests with Allah, the god of Muslims. The Qur'an, their holy book, is always taken literally. Those words are considered to be the actual words of Allah. Therefore, none of these words can be changed, for to change any of them would be tantamount to tampering with Allah's words. This would be a grave sin in their eyes.
For the same reason that the words contained in the Qur'an cannot be changed, they cannot, therefore, be re-interpreted either. So do not hold your breath for any kind of reformation in this religion, because it’s not going to happen.
In Islam, all power rests with Allah, and it filters down via his vice-gerents on earth to the people. Hence the great desire among Muslims to restore the caliphate. Contrast this with the Western model of government.
In the West, the ideal political system is democracy. In democracy, all power rests with the people, and they exercise that power at the polls. In a democracy, all power filters in the opposite direction from Islam. In democracy it filters up; in Islam, down! Herein lies the greatest barrier to the miscibility of the two worlds: the western world and the Islamic world.
Without digressing too much here, I should like to add that this is the main reason why George W Bush and Blair's venture into Iraq to bring democracy there was a grave error of judgment. We are now seeing the experiment failing before our very eyes. How can one bring democracy to a region of the world where the people who inhabit that region believe that all power rests with Allah, and where they believe that Allah has prescribed their way of life for them for then, for now, and for all time?
I would suggest that where such a dichotomy exists, the most sensible and prudent thing to do would be for us to lead our lives as we see fit, and for those people to be allowed to live their lives as they see fit. That way, there would be hope of some peace in this world.
But this is not what we have done. We have done the very opposite of this: We have entered the Middle East in the hope - the vain hope in my opinion - of bringing our way of doing things, our way of life, to them; furthermore, we have allowed millions and millions of Muslims into the West - and at the very time when Christianity, the religion which underpins the West, is greatly weakened anyway - which will only give us headaches for the years ahead. Why? Because Muslims who immigrate bring their hopes and dreams and aspirations with them, hopes and dreams of establishing Islam everywhere on earth. To Islamize the world is the main aspiration of the Muslim; and we have seen in France in the recent past the manifestation of aggression in its cause. For what happened in France was in no small part because of the Muslim's desire to establish Allah's caliphate here on earth. These were the first rumblings, the first roar of the lion! Expect more of this in the future, as Islam grows stronger and stronger.
Muslims, by and large, do not respect non-Muslims. How can they? Their religion does not allow them to do so. Their religion preaches that Muslims are superior to non-Muslims; indeed, they use the derogatory term infidel for us. This word to some Westerners might simply mean that they call us infidels because we are people who do not subscribe to their faith. This, after all, would be quite logical, since to us it simply means not fidèle, or not true to the faith. But this does not completely describe what Muslims mean by this term. To Muslims, to be called an infidel is an insult indeed. It has connotations of inferiority, backwardness, and even uncleanness.
You see, Muslims believe that Islam is the perfection of religion for man for all time. They call it ad deen al kamal, the perfect religion. In their eyes, people who have not yet submitted to the will of Allah are in a state of pre-Islamic chaos, a state known to them as jahiliyyah. To Muslims, all Muslims, the whole world is classified in two parts: that part of the world which has submitted and is therefore in the Islamic state known as Dar ul Islam, or 'the House of Islam'; and that part of the world which has yet to submit and is therefore in a pre-Islamic, chaotic, jahiliyyic state known as Dar ul Harb, or the 'House of War'.
The 'House of War' is the part of the world which has yet to be taken over, and must at some point be taken over in the future. We, I am sorry to inform you, are in the 'House of War'. So we can expect anything at anytime.
Some people would ask why we were able to go for quite a long time without problems with Muslims. The answer to that is a simple one indeed. First of all, there were relatively few Muslims living in the West, so the ones that did live here were not powerful. Secondly, Muslims living in the Islamic world were, for the most part and for many years, poor by anyone's standards. This all changed with the Oil Embargo of the 70s - a time when the price of oil on the world markets soared. As a result of this, the Islamic world became rich and empowered. Money is power; and it talks loudly. In recent years we have seen evidence aplenty of Islam being on the move. I tell you now: If we do not find a way of clipping its wings here in the West, we shall lose our democracy, and we shall be in deep, deep trouble.
So the trouble we will have with Muslims will not come only from without, but in the future we can expect trouble from the Muslims within. The millions of Muslims living here in the West will not integrate, because it is not in their worldview to do so. It is also forbidden them by their very own Prophet Himself, the Prophet Muhammad. He forbade Muslims even to befriend infidels. He also exhorted them to kill us. And he certainly told them that they should live separate lives, and dress and behave differently, so that they could easily tell themselves apart.
No Western politician is going to be able to change these facts, for facts they are indeed. Moreover, as Islam will grow here, their numbers will become greater and greater, and they will be able to use our democratic system to outvote us and introduce their form of government based as it is on their beloved Shari'ah, or Quranic laws. How do you propose we shall be able to stop them? We shall be outnumbered, and as the outcome of democratic elections depends on the number of votes cast, we shall be able to do nothing about it. This time will come quicker than we might think, because so few babies are being born to infidel families.
The only thing left for people to do, will be to fight. Inevitably, at some point, civil war will ensue. If the political process fails people, then this will be all that will be left for them: civil war, guerre civile, Bürgerkrieg, call it what you will.
But one thing I can assure you, no politicians' sweet talk, posturing, or manœvring, will get us out of this one without conflict at some point in the future.
One of the biggest problems for the West is its devotion to the concept of freedom of religion. This is a lofty concept indeed, an ideal; but this devotion blinds people to one important reality: To the reality that Islam is not just a religion, but a political system, too. Indeed, it is more of a political system than anything else, and it is, in addition, a political system diametrically opposed to our own. It abhors freedom of choice, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of anything that we so cherish. The only thing one is free to do in Islam is become a Muslim, and submit to the will of Allah.
These two systems are totally immiscible, and unfortunately, we have imported this immiscibility right into the heart of the West; and to our own great disadvantage, and to the disadvantage of our long-term peace and security. What, I ask you, will the Americans do when the ever-growing Muslim population in America starts wanting to tinker with the Americans' beloved Constitution? When Muslims will see their way clear to supplant the Constitution with Shari'ah law?
Questions like these are the ones we should be grappling with NOW. To wait until the time comes would be foolish indeed.
Wake up to the harsh realities of life in the twenty-first century! We've got some collective thinking to do if we wish to save ourselves from darkness. Perhaps we shall, indeed, be forced to think about having to re-classify Islam as a political system first and foremost, a political system immiscible with our own, and one whose advance needs to be forestalled. This may be one of our only sensible alternatives. Since to give complete, unhampered freedom to Islam to grow here in the West is tantamount to digging our own graves.
All Rights Reserved
© Mark Alexander
Ina Garten's Balsamic Roasted Beef | Barefoot Contessa | Food Network
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds filet of beef, trimmed and tied
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon coarsely cracked black pepper
Directions [Method]:
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. [260C / Gas Mark 10] Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Place the beef on the sheet pan. Combine the mustard, vinegar, and salt in a small bowl. Spread the mixture on the filet and brush it evenly over the top and sides. Sprinkle the cracked pepper evenly all over the meat.
Roast the filet for 30 minutes exactly for medium-rare (25 minutes for rare and 35 minutes for medium). Remove the pan from the oven, cover tightly with aluminum [aluminium] foil, and allow the beef to rest on the pan for 10 minutes. Slice and serve hot or warm.
Note: This recipe was doubled for this episode.
Afghanistan: Warum die Regierungsarmee so wenig Widerstand leistete
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG: 300 000 Mann stark - und dennoch überfordert: Die Soldaten der Regierung in Kabul setzten den islamistischen Kriegern wenig entgegen. Das hat auch mit einem Geburtsfehler der neu aufgebauten Streitkräfte zu tun.
Das Video, das im Netz kursierte und den Weg zum US-Sender CNN fand, ist schockierend, Amnesty International spricht von einem Kriegsverbrechen und "kaltblütigem Mord". Im nordafghanischen Dawlat Abad folgen etwa 20 Soldaten der afghanischen Armee der Aufforderung offenbar der Taliban, sich zu ergeben. Als sie unbewaffnet vor das Haus treten, eröffnen die Islamisten das Feuer. Es war, am 20. Juni dieses Jahres, ein Menetekel für den Kollaps der Regierungsstreitkräfte, der ANSF, und für das Schicksal der Besiegten. Die Ermordeten gehörten laut afghanischen Medienberichten einer Spezialeinheit an, die in eine Falle geraten war und sich verteidigte, bis ihr die Munition ausging. Sie rief über Funk nach Luftunterstützung, die aber niemals kam. Zu den Toten gehörte der Kommandooffizier Sohrab Azimi, der in Teilen der Öffentlichkeit wie ein Nationalheld verehrt wurde und ein erbitterter Feind der Islamisten gewesen war. » | Von Joachim Käppner | Dienstag, 17. August 2021
À Van, en Turquie, les Afghans qui fuient racontent les pratiques talibanes moyenâgeuses
LE FIGARO : REPORTAGE - Avec la chute de Kaboul, ce dimanche 15 août, c’est désormais tout un peuple qui se retrouve condamné aux mêmes ténèbres, sans issue de secours.
Une famille afghane, épuisée, réfugiée depuis quelques jours à Van, en Turquie. OZKAN BILGIN/Anadolu Agency via AFP
Si le désespoir avait un visage, il ressemblerait à celui d’Abdul Karim Ouzbek. «J’avais déjà perdu deux enfants à cause des talibans. Aujourd’hui, j’ai perdu mon pays», chevrote ce natif de Takhar, en Afghanistan, réfugié in extremis à Van, en Turquie. Dimanche soir, il n’a pas fermé l’œil de la nuit, collé à l’écran de son smartphone, bombardé d’images de panique relayées sur les réseaux sociaux. Comme une traînée de poudre, le piège des «Étudiants en théologie» venait de se refermer sur l’Afghanistan. À 40 ans, ce père de six enfants connaît leurs méthodes moyenâgeuses - il les a déjà endurées de 1996 à l’intervention américaine de 2001. Il est familier de leurs menaces - il n’a cessé de les subir pendant la relative accalmie de ces deux dernières décennies. Jusqu’à ce que le danger frappe en direct à sa porte. » | Par Delphine Minoui | Publié : lundi 16 août 2021 ; mis à jour : mardi 17 août 2021
Réservé aux abonnés
Afghanistan: les dirigeants islamistes «veulent éviter d’être mis au ban des nations» – ENTRETIEN - Les talibans ont désormais une compréhension des enjeux internationaux qui devrait permettre aux Occidentaux d’obtenir des concessions, estime Romain Malejacq. »
EN DIRECT - Afghanistan : le chaos à l'aéroport de Kaboul est «une honte pour l'Occident», estime l'Allemagne »
Si le désespoir avait un visage, il ressemblerait à celui d’Abdul Karim Ouzbek. «J’avais déjà perdu deux enfants à cause des talibans. Aujourd’hui, j’ai perdu mon pays», chevrote ce natif de Takhar, en Afghanistan, réfugié in extremis à Van, en Turquie. Dimanche soir, il n’a pas fermé l’œil de la nuit, collé à l’écran de son smartphone, bombardé d’images de panique relayées sur les réseaux sociaux. Comme une traînée de poudre, le piège des «Étudiants en théologie» venait de se refermer sur l’Afghanistan. À 40 ans, ce père de six enfants connaît leurs méthodes moyenâgeuses - il les a déjà endurées de 1996 à l’intervention américaine de 2001. Il est familier de leurs menaces - il n’a cessé de les subir pendant la relative accalmie de ces deux dernières décennies. Jusqu’à ce que le danger frappe en direct à sa porte. » | Par Delphine Minoui | Publié : lundi 16 août 2021 ; mis à jour : mardi 17 août 2021
Réservé aux abonnés
Afghanistan: les dirigeants islamistes «veulent éviter d’être mis au ban des nations» – ENTRETIEN - Les talibans ont désormais une compréhension des enjeux internationaux qui devrait permettre aux Occidentaux d’obtenir des concessions, estime Romain Malejacq. »
EN DIRECT - Afghanistan : le chaos à l'aéroport de Kaboul est «une honte pour l'Occident», estime l'Allemagne »
«Die Länder müssen ihre Grenzen für afghanische Flüchtlinge öffnen»
TAGES ANZEIGER: Die Friedensnobelpreisträgerin von 2014 spricht in einem BBC-Interview über die Situation der Menschen in Afghanistan.
Die pakistanische Friedensnobelpreisträgerin Malala Yousafzai ruft Regierungen in aller Welt auf, Flüchtlinge aus Afghanistan aufzunehmen. «Jedes Land hat jetzt eine Rolle und eine Verantwortung», sagte die 24-Jährige in einem BBC-Interview, das am Montagabend ausgestrahlt wurde. «Die Länder müssen ihre Grenzen für afghanische Flüchtlinge öffnen, für die vertriebenen Menschen.»
Sie selbst habe sich bereits an Regierungen gewandt und auch den pakistanischen Premierminister Imran Khan um die Aufnahme von Geflüchteten gebeten. Ausserdem müssten Flüchtlingskinder und Mädchen in Camps Zugang zu Bildung bekommen. SP fordert Aufnahme von 10’000 Menschen aus Afghanistan » | cpm/sda | Dienstag, 17. August 2021
Read the BBC article here.
Malala: I Fear for My Afghan Sisters »
Afghanistan: Bilder des Zusammenbruchs
TAGES ANZEIGER: Die Taliban greifen nach der Macht in Afghanistan. Die Bilder der vergangenen Tage zeigen den ungebremsten Vormarsch der radikal-islamischen Milizen.
Screenshot von einem Bild in der Fotogalerie des Tages Anzeigers.
Hier können Sie die Fotogalerie anschauen und einen Kommentar hinzufügen.
The Taliban’s Victory in Afghanistan Has Laid Bare the Magnitude of Western Hubris
THE GUARDIAN: I was one of many who thought, in the wake of 9/11, that “something must be done”. We have learned a bitter lesson
Taliban fighters take control of the presidential palace in Kabul after the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani had fled the country. Photograph: Zabi Karimi/AP
Here ends the west’s grotesque delusion that it could use its military might to turn Afghanistan into a stable democracy, a shining path of moderate Islam. In the shadow of New York’s burning twin towers, I was one swept along on that “something must be done” tide, that drumbeat for a war to stop terror and liberate oppressed people. We have learned a bitter lesson.
How deceptively easy was the 2001 victory, as Taliban fighters fled to melt back into their own population famously murmuring, “You have watches, we have time.” They have just turned back the clock on 20 wasted years.
A year after that empty “victory”, I was in Afghanistan, seeking signs of cultural transformations and social progress. But it was already clear the west had neither the political will, financial generosity nor the attention span to match the windy rhetoric that breezed us there. » | Polly Toynbee | Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Here ends the west’s grotesque delusion that it could use its military might to turn Afghanistan into a stable democracy, a shining path of moderate Islam. In the shadow of New York’s burning twin towers, I was one swept along on that “something must be done” tide, that drumbeat for a war to stop terror and liberate oppressed people. We have learned a bitter lesson.
How deceptively easy was the 2001 victory, as Taliban fighters fled to melt back into their own population famously murmuring, “You have watches, we have time.” They have just turned back the clock on 20 wasted years.
A year after that empty “victory”, I was in Afghanistan, seeking signs of cultural transformations and social progress. But it was already clear the west had neither the political will, financial generosity nor the attention span to match the windy rhetoric that breezed us there. » | Polly Toynbee | Tuesday, August 17, 2021
‘Was It Worth It?’: Veterans of Afghan Conflict Reel at Taliban Takeover
THE GUARDIAN: Former soldiers express anger and heartbreak as service in 20-year war rendered ‘pointless’
Chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans try to leave capital after the Taliban entered to city. Photograph: NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
As chaotic scenes unfolded more than 4,000 miles away in Kabul, veterans of the 20-year conflict and families who lost loved ones on the battlefield have been asking the stark question: “Was it worth it?”
“There is a generation of Afghans who have been given a taste of what freedom is like, so you never know, but it feels pretty bleak at the moment,” said Andrew Fox, a former major in the Parachute Regiment who served on three tours of Afghanistan and who has spoken openly about the impact of PTSD on his own health.
“But as one of my friends said to me: it’s like the defining feature of our adult lives has turned out to be pointless. I think that’s where we all were … this week.
“On patrols we’d see the little girls and boys running around playing with their kites and they would talk to us and take a few sweets. They’re probably 16 or 17 now and the thought of those lovely little kids growing up to be adults who only knew a degree of freedom and suddenly being thrown back into oppression is heartbreaking.” » | Ben Quinn | Tuesday, August 17, 2021
As chaotic scenes unfolded more than 4,000 miles away in Kabul, veterans of the 20-year conflict and families who lost loved ones on the battlefield have been asking the stark question: “Was it worth it?”
“There is a generation of Afghans who have been given a taste of what freedom is like, so you never know, but it feels pretty bleak at the moment,” said Andrew Fox, a former major in the Parachute Regiment who served on three tours of Afghanistan and who has spoken openly about the impact of PTSD on his own health.
“But as one of my friends said to me: it’s like the defining feature of our adult lives has turned out to be pointless. I think that’s where we all were … this week.
“On patrols we’d see the little girls and boys running around playing with their kites and they would talk to us and take a few sweets. They’re probably 16 or 17 now and the thought of those lovely little kids growing up to be adults who only knew a degree of freedom and suddenly being thrown back into oppression is heartbreaking.” » | Ben Quinn | Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Gay Humour
Queer Quote of the Day: Sir Ian McKellen on Coming Out
Diese zwei Männer haben sich schon geküßt. Nun haben sie das Gefühl, völlig zufrieden zu sein! Wonne! Siebter Himmel!
Les talibans imposent l’ordre islamiste à Kaboul
LE FIGARO : RÉCIT - À Kaboul, les vainqueurs tentent d’amadouer la population et les diplomates, mais en province les exactions se multiplient.
Le siège de Kaboul, tant redouté, n’a pas eu lieu. Les talibans y sont entrés comme dans tant d’autres villes afghanes ces derniers jours: sans fracas, triomphant d’avance, et sans faire face à aucune opposition de l’armée. Dans les rues, des blindés vides gisent encore, désertés par leurs occupants. Le président du pays avait filé dès dimanche matin au Tadjikistan avec ses proches conseillers, et de nombreux autres cadres du gouvernement afghan avaient aussi rejoint l’étranger. La place était vide, et les talibans l’ont prise. » | Par Margaux Benn | lundi 16 Août 2021
Le siège de Kaboul, tant redouté, n’a pas eu lieu. Les talibans y sont entrés comme dans tant d’autres villes afghanes ces derniers jours: sans fracas, triomphant d’avance, et sans faire face à aucune opposition de l’armée. Dans les rues, des blindés vides gisent encore, désertés par leurs occupants. Le président du pays avait filé dès dimanche matin au Tadjikistan avec ses proches conseillers, et de nombreux autres cadres du gouvernement afghan avaient aussi rejoint l’étranger. La place était vide, et les talibans l’ont prise. » | Par Margaux Benn | lundi 16 Août 2021
Michael Bolton: Drift Away
Monday, August 16, 2021
Disturbing Videos Show Chaos at Kabul Airport as Taliban Re-takes Afghanistan | Newsfeed
Incompetence is too mild a word to describe this utter failure and humiliation of the USA! So is the term ‘paper tiger’. This is a disaster of enormous and apocalyptic proportions; and no amount of positive spin put on it by politicians, of whichever stripe or position, will be able to change this fact. We have witnessed the humiliation of the world’s so-called ‘superpower’! – © Mark
Joe Biden Putting a Positive Spin on a Disaster!
This débâcle in Afghanistan has exposed the cracks, fissures and weaknesses of America today. The USA is looking more like a paper tiger with each passing day! It is a sad fact that the United Kingdom, if indeed that nomenclature is apt–it often feels more disUnited than United after Brexit!–has hitched its wagon to the USA and abandoned its brothers, sisters and allies in Europe, where its true loyalties lie and belong.
As much as I love America and Americans–indeed my late partner was an American, so no-one can accuse me of being anti-American–I cannot help but feel that my nation’s destiny lies in and with Europe, not with the USA. A transatlantic friendship and partnership with the USA is delightful and very welcome; however, our true destiny must lie with our brothers, sisters and close friends in Europe. Vive l’Europe ! Es lebe Europa! Long live Europe! – © Mark
Sur le tarmac de l’aéroport de Kaboul, des scènes de chaos et de désespoir
LE FIGARO : Les autorités américaines qui ont pris le contrôle du site désormais réservé aux seuls militaires, ont décidé, lundi en fin de matinée, de suspendre les vols, le temps de rétablir l’ordre.
L’image d’un gros hélicoptère Chinook survolant l’ambassade américaine à Kaboul avait déjà rendu évident le parallèle entre Kaboul 2021 et Saïgon 1975. Les scènes de chaos à l’aéroport Hamid-Karzaï résonnent plus encore avec celles du grand port vietnamien il y a près d’un demi-siècle. Le secrétaire d’État Antony Blinken a beau assurer sur CNN, que «ceci n’est pas Saïgon», rien n’y fait. «Si ce n’est pas un Saïgon 2.0, je ne sais pas ce que c’est», a taclé le député conservateur britannique Tobias Ellwood. » | Par Tanguy Berthemet | lundi 16 août 2021
L’image d’un gros hélicoptère Chinook survolant l’ambassade américaine à Kaboul avait déjà rendu évident le parallèle entre Kaboul 2021 et Saïgon 1975. Les scènes de chaos à l’aéroport Hamid-Karzaï résonnent plus encore avec celles du grand port vietnamien il y a près d’un demi-siècle. Le secrétaire d’État Antony Blinken a beau assurer sur CNN, que «ceci n’est pas Saïgon», rien n’y fait. «Si ce n’est pas un Saïgon 2.0, je ne sais pas ce que c’est», a taclé le député conservateur britannique Tobias Ellwood. » | Par Tanguy Berthemet | lundi 16 août 2021
Frédéric Chopin: Maurizio Pollini: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11: Allegro maestoso – Philharmonia Orchestra / Paul Kletzki
Afghan Women Fear What Will Happen with the Taliban Once Again in Power
THE NEW YORK TIMES: A high school student in Kabul, Afghanistan’s war-scarred capital, worries that she now will not be allowed to graduate.
The girl, Wahida Sadeqi, 17, like many Afghan civilians in the wake of the U.S. troop withdrawal and ahead of a Taliban victory, keeps asking the same question: What will happen to me?
The American withdrawal, which effectively ends the longest war on foreign soil in United States history, is also likely to be the start of another difficult chapter for Afghanistan’s people.
“I am so worried about my future. It seems so murky. If the Taliban take over, I lose my identity,” said Ms. Sadeqi, an 11th grader at Pardis High School in Kabul. “It is about my existence. It is not about their withdrawal. I was born in 2004, and I have no idea what the Taliban did to women, but I know women were banned from everything.”
Uncertainty hangs over virtually every facet of life in Afghanistan. It is unclear what the future holds and whether the fighting will ever stop. For two decades, American leaders have pledged peace, prosperity, democracy, the end of terrorism and rights for women.
Few of those promises have materialized in vast areas of Afghanistan, but now even in the cities where real progress occurred, there is fear that everything will be lost when the Americans leave. » | Thomas Gibbons-Neff | Published: Sunday, August 15, 2021; updated: Monday, August 16, 2021
Le retour des talibans à Kaboul scelle la déroute des Occidentaux
LE FIGARO : Vingt ans après en avoir été chassés, les combattants islamistes ont repris la capitale afghane. Le président Ashraf Ghani a quitté le pays et reconnu la victoire des talibans.
Un commerçant de Kaboul recouvre préventivement de blanc des publicités où l’ont voit des visages de femmes. Twitter Lotfullah Najafizada
Kaboul est tombée en quelques heures, sans combattre, scellant la victoire complète des talibans. Dimanche matin, les miliciens islamistes étaient dans les faubourgs de la capitale, devenue non officiellement une ville ouverte. Quelques heures plus tôt, ils avaient libéré les prisonniers de Pul-e Charkhi, l’immense prison de la ville. Pour éviter des «pertes de civils innocents», les responsables talibans ont ordonné à leurs troupes de freiner leur avancée.
«L’émirat islamique ordonne à toutes ses forces d’attendre aux portes de Kaboul, de ne pas essayer d’entrer dans la ville»,, annonçait en fin de matinée, sur Twitter, Zabihullah Mujahid, un porte-parole du mouvement. Dans ce communiqué, il promettait aussi une prise dans le calme, sans aucune vengeance envers les militaires ou les fonctionnaires ayant servi les autorités. Il assurait que toute personne désireuse de quitter la ville, notamment les étrangers, n’en serait pas empêchée. Dans une intervention à la BBC, Suhail Shaheen, un autre porte-parole, a affirmé que les talibans désiraient une «transition pacifique» sans se presser, «dans les jours prochains». » | Par Tanguy Berthemet | Publié : dimanche 15 août 2021 ; mis à jour : lundi 16 août 2021
Kaboul est tombée en quelques heures, sans combattre, scellant la victoire complète des talibans. Dimanche matin, les miliciens islamistes étaient dans les faubourgs de la capitale, devenue non officiellement une ville ouverte. Quelques heures plus tôt, ils avaient libéré les prisonniers de Pul-e Charkhi, l’immense prison de la ville. Pour éviter des «pertes de civils innocents», les responsables talibans ont ordonné à leurs troupes de freiner leur avancée.
«L’émirat islamique ordonne à toutes ses forces d’attendre aux portes de Kaboul, de ne pas essayer d’entrer dans la ville»,, annonçait en fin de matinée, sur Twitter, Zabihullah Mujahid, un porte-parole du mouvement. Dans ce communiqué, il promettait aussi une prise dans le calme, sans aucune vengeance envers les militaires ou les fonctionnaires ayant servi les autorités. Il assurait que toute personne désireuse de quitter la ville, notamment les étrangers, n’en serait pas empêchée. Dans une intervention à la BBC, Suhail Shaheen, un autre porte-parole, a affirmé que les talibans désiraient une «transition pacifique» sans se presser, «dans les jours prochains». » | Par Tanguy Berthemet | Publié : dimanche 15 août 2021 ; mis à jour : lundi 16 août 2021
Svjatoslav Richter: Rachmaninoff – Klavierkonzert Nr.2 in c-moll / Piano-Concerto No.2 in C minor; Op. 18
Spain on a Fork: Spanish Onion Rice with Garlic Sauce | A Simply Delicious Recipe
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For Biden, Images of Defeat He Wanted to Avoid
THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Biden will go down in history, fairly or unfairly, as the president who presided over a humiliating final act in the American experiment in Afghanistan.
Rarely in modern presidential history have words come back to bite an American commander in chief as swiftly as these from President Biden a little more than five weeks ago: “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States in Afghanistan.”
Then, digging the hole deeper, he added, “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
On Sunday, the scramble to evacuate American civilians and embassy employees from Kabul — the very image that Mr. Biden and his aides agreed they had to avoid during recent meetings in the Oval Office — unfolded live on television, not from the U.S. Embassy roof but from the landing pad next to the building. And now that the Afghan government has collapsed with astonishing speed, the Taliban seem certain to be back in full control of the country when the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is commemorated less than a month from today — exactly as they were 20 summers ago.
Mr. Biden will go down in history, fairly or unfairly, as the president who presided over a long-brewing, humiliating final act in the American experiment in Afghanistan. After seven months in which his administration seemed to exude much-needed competence — getting more than 70 percent of the country’s adults vaccinated, engineering surging job growth and making progress toward a bipartisan infrastructure bill — everything about America’s last days in Afghanistan shattered the imagery. » | David E. Sanger | Sunday, August 15, 2021
The Tragedy of Afghanistan
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The rapid reconquest of the capital, Kabul, by the Taliban after two decades of a staggeringly expensive, bloody effort to establish a secular government with functioning security forces in Afghanistan is, above all, unutterably tragic.
Tragic because the American dream of being the “indispensable nation” in shaping a world where the values of civil rights, women’s empowerment and religious tolerance rule proved to be just that: a dream.
This longest of American wars was code-named first Operation Enduring Freedom and then Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Yet after $83 billion and at least 2,448 American service members’ lives lost in Afghanistan, it is difficult to see what of lasting significance has been achieved.
It is all the more tragic because of the certainty that many of the Afghans who worked with the American forces and bought into the dream — and especially the girls and women who had embraced a measure of equality — have been left to the mercy of a ruthless enemy. » | The Editorial Board | Sunday, August 15, 2021
Afghanistan: la faillite colossale du renseignement américain
LE FIGARO : DÉCRYPTAGE - Malgré les mises en garde contre les conséquences d’un retrait militaire unilatéral, aucun analyste n’avait prévu que le régime s’effondrerait aussi vite.
À Kaboul, dimanche, un hélicoptère de transport de l’armée américaine survole l’ambassade des États-Unis, dont le personnel a été évacué vers l’aéroport. WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP
L’effondrement du régime de Kaboul vient de prendre par surprise les Américains en pleine opération d’évacuation de leurs derniers personnels de la capitale afghane. Après dix-neuf ans de présence, malgré les gigantesques sommes dépensées dans la guerre la plus longue de leur histoire, les responsables américains se sont montrés une nouvelle fois incapables de comprendre les dynamiques à l’œuvre dans ce pays complexe. Dans la longue liste des erreurs commises depuis le début de leur intervention, la faillite du renseignement reste la plus accablante.
De nombreuses voix avaient pourtant mis en garde contre les conséquences d’un retrait militaire unilatéral et sur la faiblesse politique et militaire du gouvernement afghan. Mais Joe Biden, poursuivant la politique de Donald Trump, avait choisi de passer outre, décidé à mettre fin à la présence américaine en Afghanistan. » | Par Adrien Jaulmes, Correspondant à Washington | Publié : dimanche 15 août 2021 ; mis à jour : lundi 16 août 2021
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L’effondrement du régime de Kaboul vient de prendre par surprise les Américains en pleine opération d’évacuation de leurs derniers personnels de la capitale afghane. Après dix-neuf ans de présence, malgré les gigantesques sommes dépensées dans la guerre la plus longue de leur histoire, les responsables américains se sont montrés une nouvelle fois incapables de comprendre les dynamiques à l’œuvre dans ce pays complexe. Dans la longue liste des erreurs commises depuis le début de leur intervention, la faillite du renseignement reste la plus accablante.
De nombreuses voix avaient pourtant mis en garde contre les conséquences d’un retrait militaire unilatéral et sur la faiblesse politique et militaire du gouvernement afghan. Mais Joe Biden, poursuivant la politique de Donald Trump, avait choisi de passer outre, décidé à mettre fin à la présence américaine en Afghanistan. » | Par Adrien Jaulmes, Correspondant à Washington | Publié : dimanche 15 août 2021 ; mis à jour : lundi 16 août 2021
Réservé aux abonnés
Chinas Schadenfreude
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Peking sieht im Scheitern der Militärintervention in Afghanistan einen Beleg für die schwindende Macht Amerikas – und hofft darauf, dass US-Verbündete wie Taiwan das Vertrauen in Washington verlieren.
Der chinesische Propaganda-Apparat konnte sich am Montag die Schadenfreude über den amerikanischen Gesichtsverlust in Afghanistan nicht verkneifen. „Chinesische Internetnutzer machen Witze darüber, dass die Machtübergabe in Afghanistan sogar noch reibungsloser vonstattengeht als die Übergabe der Präsidentschaft in den Vereinigten Staaten“, schrieb der einflussreiche Chefredakteur der Parteizeitung Global Times, Hu Xijin, auf Twitter.
Die Volkszeitung, die offizielle Stimme der Kommunistischen Partei, berief sich ebenfalls auf den angeblichen Volksmund und kommentierte, „die zwanzig Jahre Krieg enden wie ein Witz. Amerikanische Soldaten sind für nichts gestorben. Die Taliban sind zurück und der einzige Unterschied ist, dass viele Menschen gestorben sind und amerikanische Steuerzahler ihr Geld verschwendet haben, indem sie die militärisch-industriellen Tycoons gefüttert haben“. Jene Menschen, die fest an die USA geglaubt hätten, seien „von den Amerikanern wie Müll entsorgt worden“, schrieb die Volkszeitung weiter. Die Global Times nannte die Machtübernahme der Taliban in einem Kommentar „die klarste Demonstration der amerikanischen Kraftlosigkeit“. Das Land sei nicht mehr als ein „Papiertiger“.
Mehr als nur Propaganda?
Die Bilder von der hastigen Evakuierung der amerikanischen Botschaft in Kabul passen ins offizielle chinesische Narrativ, wonach „der Osten aufsteigt und der Westen absteigt“. Sie werden wohl in den Kanon der Bilder und Erzählungen aufgenommen, die von Peking seit Monaten verbreitet werden, um die eigene vermeintliche Stärke zu zelebrieren. Etwa die Bilder vom Sturm auf das Weiße Haus und die Statistik der an Corona verstorbenen Amerikaner. » | Von Friederike Böge, Peking | Montag, 16. August 2021
Kabul’s Sudden Fall to Taliban Ends US Era in Afghanistan
THE NEW YORK TIMES: A takeover of the entire country was all but absolute as the Afghan government collapsed and the U.S. rushed through a frenzied evacuation.
Taliban fighters in Kabul, the capital, on Sunday on a Humvee seized from Afghan forces. The speed of the Taliban’s sweep through the country startled American officials. Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Taliban fighters poured into the Afghan capital on Sunday amid scenes of panic and chaos, bringing a swift and shocking close to the Afghan government and the 20-year American era in the country.
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan fled the country, and a council of Afghan officials, including former President Hamid Karzai, said they would open negotiations with the Taliban over the shape of the insurgency’s takeover. By day’s end, the insurgents had all but officially sealed their control of the entire country.
The speed and violence of the Taliban sweep through the countryside and cities the previous week caught the American military and government flat-footed. Hastily arranged American military helicopter flights evacuated the sprawling American Embassy compound in Kabul, ferrying American diplomats and Afghan Embassy workers to the Kabul military airport. At the civilian airport next door, Afghans wept as they begged airline workers to put their families on outbound commercial flights even as most were grounded in favor of military aircraft.
Amid occasional bursts of gunfire, the whump of American Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters overhead drowned out the thrum of traffic as the frenzied evacuation effort unfolded. Below, Kabul’s streets were jammed with vehicles as panic set off a race to leave the city.
Two decades after American troops invaded Afghanistan to root out Qaeda terrorists who attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, the American nation-building experiment was in ruins — undercut by misguided and often contradictory policies and by a relentless insurgency whose staying power had been profoundly underestimated by U.S. military planners. » | By David Zucchino | Sunday, August 15, 2021
Photographs by Jim Huylebroek and Kiana Hayeri
Leer en español.
Taliban fighters poured into the Afghan capital on Sunday amid scenes of panic and chaos, bringing a swift and shocking close to the Afghan government and the 20-year American era in the country.
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan fled the country, and a council of Afghan officials, including former President Hamid Karzai, said they would open negotiations with the Taliban over the shape of the insurgency’s takeover. By day’s end, the insurgents had all but officially sealed their control of the entire country.
The speed and violence of the Taliban sweep through the countryside and cities the previous week caught the American military and government flat-footed. Hastily arranged American military helicopter flights evacuated the sprawling American Embassy compound in Kabul, ferrying American diplomats and Afghan Embassy workers to the Kabul military airport. At the civilian airport next door, Afghans wept as they begged airline workers to put their families on outbound commercial flights even as most were grounded in favor of military aircraft.
Amid occasional bursts of gunfire, the whump of American Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters overhead drowned out the thrum of traffic as the frenzied evacuation effort unfolded. Below, Kabul’s streets were jammed with vehicles as panic set off a race to leave the city.
Two decades after American troops invaded Afghanistan to root out Qaeda terrorists who attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, the American nation-building experiment was in ruins — undercut by misguided and often contradictory policies and by a relentless insurgency whose staying power had been profoundly underestimated by U.S. military planners. » | By David Zucchino | Sunday, August 15, 2021
Photographs by Jim Huylebroek and Kiana Hayeri
Leer en español.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in Tears: Some “Won’t Get Back” from Afghanistan | LBC
The Fall of Kabul: A 20-year Mission Collapses in a Single Day
THE GUARDIAN: President Ashraf Ghani flees Afghanistan as Taliban sweep into city to seize control of country
Kabul falls to the Taliban as thousands of Afghans try to flee – video report
The final collapse of the 20-year western mission to Afghanistan took only a single day as Taliban gunmen entered the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and America abandoned its embassy in panic.
Even the militants themselves were surprised by the speed of the takeover, co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar admitted in a video statement in the evening. Now the group faces the challenge of ruling, he added. They are expected to proclaim a new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan soon.
Many in Kabul do not trust promises made by the former insurgents of an amnesty for their old enemies and those, like women’s rights activists, who sought a different future for Afghanistan. The airport was mobbed with thousands of people desperate to escape. In the evening they flooded on to the runway, halting all air traffic.
In deeply humiliating scenes for the Biden administration, less than a month before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, smoke spiralled from the embassy compound as staff hastily destroyed documents, before a final group took down the stars and stripes flag and headed to the airport by military helicopter. It was clear from early Sunday that a second era of Taliban rule had effectively begun. Taliban commanders started the day so confident of victory that after their fighters surrounded the capital, they ordered them to stay outside the city and wait. » | Emma Graham-Harrison and Luke Harding | Sunday, August 15, 2021
The final collapse of the 20-year western mission to Afghanistan took only a single day as Taliban gunmen entered the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and America abandoned its embassy in panic.
Even the militants themselves were surprised by the speed of the takeover, co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar admitted in a video statement in the evening. Now the group faces the challenge of ruling, he added. They are expected to proclaim a new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan soon.
Many in Kabul do not trust promises made by the former insurgents of an amnesty for their old enemies and those, like women’s rights activists, who sought a different future for Afghanistan. The airport was mobbed with thousands of people desperate to escape. In the evening they flooded on to the runway, halting all air traffic.
In deeply humiliating scenes for the Biden administration, less than a month before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, smoke spiralled from the embassy compound as staff hastily destroyed documents, before a final group took down the stars and stripes flag and headed to the airport by military helicopter. It was clear from early Sunday that a second era of Taliban rule had effectively begun. Taliban commanders started the day so confident of victory that after their fighters surrounded the capital, they ordered them to stay outside the city and wait. » | Emma Graham-Harrison and Luke Harding | Sunday, August 15, 2021
Humorous Queer Quotes
Hot and Defiant!
La fascination et la sensualité des lèvres !
Sunday, August 15, 2021
The Afghan Government Collapses as the President Flees the Country and the Taliban Enter Kabul
Afghanistan’s government collapsed on Sunday with President Ashraf Ghani’s flight from the country and the Taliban’s entry into the capital, effectively sealing the insurgents’ control of the country after dozens of cities fell to their lightning advance.
On Sunday evening, former President Hamid Karzai announced on Twitter that he was forming a coordinating council together with Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the Afghan delegation to peace talks, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hesb-i-Islami party, to manage a peaceful transfer of power. Mr. Karzai called on both government and Taliban forces to act with restraint.
Al Jazeera reported that it had interviewed Taliban fighters who were holding a news conference in the presidential palace in Kabul, the capital. The fighters said they were working to secure Kabul so that leaders in Qatar and outside the capital could return safely. Al Jazeera reported that the fighters had taken down the flag of Afghanistan.
As it became clear that Taliban fighters were entering Kabul and meeting no resistance, thousands of Afghans who had sought refuge there after fleeing the insurgents’ brutal military offensive watched with growing alarm as the local police seemed to fade from their usual checkpoints. The U.S. Embassy warned Americans to not head to the airport in Kabul after reports that the facility was taking fire, and said that the situation was “changing quickly.”
Late in Kabul’s evening, Mr. Ghani released a written statement on Facebook saying he had departed the country to save the capital from further bloodshed. » | Carlotta Gall and Ruhullah Khapalwak | Sunday, August 15, 2021
Le retour des talibans à Kaboul scelle la déroute des Occidentaux : Vingt ans après en avoir été chassés, les combattants islamistes ont repris la capitale afghane. Le président Ashraf Ghani a quitté le pays et reconnu la victoire des talibans. »
Taliban nehmen Kabul ein: Jämpfen wäre sinnlos gewesen: Niemand leistet Gegenwehr, als die Taliban nach Kabul zurückkehren. Die Menschen fürchten die Islamisten, zunächst aber die Gesetzlosigkeit – denn die Tore der Gefängnisse stehen weit offen. »
Afghanistan: amers, les habitants de Kaboul se préparent au retour des interdits et des châtiments corporels : TÉMOIGNAGES - L’immense majorité des Afghans sont piégés dans un pays plus instable que jamais depuis deux décennies. »
Abrau-Durso, le géant du vin russe où Poutine rêve de travailler après sa présidence
LE FIGARO : REPORTAGE - Fondée en 1870, la prestigieuse maison vinicole russe est touchée par la loi fédérale russe 345-FZ, qui s’attaque notamment à l’appellation «champagne».
Vladimir Poutine désire mettre en avant le mousseux russe, dans une logique protectionniste, en plein contexte de tensions avec l’Occident. POOL New/REUTERS
À l’approche du village d’Abrau-Durso (prononcer «Abraou-Diourso»), on se croirait en région Rhône-Alpes. Un lac couleur émeraude peuplé de bateaux, l’Abrau, est entouré de moyennes collines. Une petite église orthodoxe rappelle que l’on est en Russie. Non loin, 800 hectares de vigne profitent d’un terroir et d’un climat propices.
C’est ici, près de la mer Noire, dans la région viticole de Krasnodar (près de 50 % de la production russe, devant la Crimée), que l’œnologue français Georges Blanck, 59 ans, s’est installé en 2016. Recruté par le groupe Abrau-Durso, il supervise toute sa production viticole. «Je n’ai pas hésité un instant, après être venu visiter, confie-t-il. Le potentiel est immense, car la Russie est dans une phase de reconstruction de son capital viticole (démantelé par la prohibition décidée par Gorbatchev en 1985, NDLR). Le pays essaie de revenir au niveau qui était le sien il y a cent ans. Mais nos vins sont désormais d’un niveau international, basés sur la finesse et la légèreté. C’est dû à notre climat, plus ensoleillé. » | Par Julian Colling | Publié : mercredi 11 août 2021 ; mis à jour : jeudi 12 août 2021
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À l’approche du village d’Abrau-Durso (prononcer «Abraou-Diourso»), on se croirait en région Rhône-Alpes. Un lac couleur émeraude peuplé de bateaux, l’Abrau, est entouré de moyennes collines. Une petite église orthodoxe rappelle que l’on est en Russie. Non loin, 800 hectares de vigne profitent d’un terroir et d’un climat propices.
C’est ici, près de la mer Noire, dans la région viticole de Krasnodar (près de 50 % de la production russe, devant la Crimée), que l’œnologue français Georges Blanck, 59 ans, s’est installé en 2016. Recruté par le groupe Abrau-Durso, il supervise toute sa production viticole. «Je n’ai pas hésité un instant, après être venu visiter, confie-t-il. Le potentiel est immense, car la Russie est dans une phase de reconstruction de son capital viticole (démantelé par la prohibition décidée par Gorbatchev en 1985, NDLR). Le pays essaie de revenir au niveau qui était le sien il y a cent ans. Mais nos vins sont désormais d’un niveau international, basés sur la finesse et la légèreté. C’est dû à notre climat, plus ensoleillé. » | Par Julian Colling | Publié : mercredi 11 août 2021 ; mis à jour : jeudi 12 août 2021
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The Taliban Close In on Kabul, the Last Government Stronghold
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Taliban’s relentless, rapid advance across Afghanistan brought them on Sunday to the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, the last major city controlled by the government.
As it became clear that the Taliban were at the gates of the capital, thousands of Afghans who had sought refuge there after fleeing the insurgents’ brutal military offensive watched with growing alarm as the local police seemed to fade from their usual checkpoints.
Wais Omari, 20, a street vendor in the city, reflected those concerns. “The situation is not good,” he said. “If it gets worse, I will hide in my home.”
The Taliban, in a statement, said that they were in negotiations with the government and would not take the capital by force.
“The Islamic Emirate instructs all its forces to stand at the gates of Kabul, not to try to enter the city,” a spokesman said, using the name by which the insurgents refer to themselves.
The Afghan government had no immediate public response. Afghan news media reported that President Ashraf Ghani had left the country on Sunday afternoon. » | David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper | Sunday, August 15, 2021
A frenzied U.S. flight from Kabul as chaos descends »
Le retour des talibans fait planer la peur sur Kaboul et Kandahar
LE FIGARO : RÉCIT - Rien que vendredi, quatre capitales provinciales sont tombées, parfois sans qu’aucune résistance soit opposée aux combattants islamistes.
Des combattants talibans dans une rue de Kandahar le 13 août 2021. -/AFP
En vingt-quatre heures, les deuxième et troisième plus grandes villes afghanes sont tombées aux mains des talibans. Jeudi, d’abord, Hérat, cité millénaire connue pour ses poètes et son architecture, dont la célèbre «mosquée bleue». Puis, vendredi, la guérilla fondamentaliste est entrée dans Kandahar, capitale de la province éponyme connue pour avoir été le berceau du mouvement.
Abdul Matin Amiri, journaliste à Kandahar et pourtant habitué à couvrir les zones de conflit, ne peut plus exercer son métier tant l’insécurité règne dans les rues de sa ville. «Je suis calfeutré à la maison. Avec ma femme, nous prions toute la journée pour que nos enfants s’en sortent vivants», écrit-il dans un message au Figaro, ajoutant qu’«on entend et on voit les tirs dans le ciel: c’est terrifiant». … » | Par Margaux Benn | vendredi 13 août 2021
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L’Amérique sidérée par l’ampleur de sa défaite en Afghanistan : DÉCRYPTAGE - Le Pentagone a dû se résoudre à l’envoi de renforts à l’aéroport de Kaboul pour protéger les opérations d’évacuation, encore qualifiée de partielle, de son ambassade. »
En vingt-quatre heures, les deuxième et troisième plus grandes villes afghanes sont tombées aux mains des talibans. Jeudi, d’abord, Hérat, cité millénaire connue pour ses poètes et son architecture, dont la célèbre «mosquée bleue». Puis, vendredi, la guérilla fondamentaliste est entrée dans Kandahar, capitale de la province éponyme connue pour avoir été le berceau du mouvement.
Abdul Matin Amiri, journaliste à Kandahar et pourtant habitué à couvrir les zones de conflit, ne peut plus exercer son métier tant l’insécurité règne dans les rues de sa ville. «Je suis calfeutré à la maison. Avec ma femme, nous prions toute la journée pour que nos enfants s’en sortent vivants», écrit-il dans un message au Figaro, ajoutant qu’«on entend et on voit les tirs dans le ciel: c’est terrifiant». … » | Par Margaux Benn | vendredi 13 août 2021
Réservé aux abonnés
L’Amérique sidérée par l’ampleur de sa défaite en Afghanistan : DÉCRYPTAGE - Le Pentagone a dû se résoudre à l’envoi de renforts à l’aéroport de Kaboul pour protéger les opérations d’évacuation, encore qualifiée de partielle, de son ambassade. »
Afghan Women’s Defiance and Despair: ‘I Never Thought I’d Have to Wear a Burqa. My Identity Will Be Lost’
THE GUARDIAN: As city after city falls to the Taliban, women fear that the freedoms won since 2001 will be crushed
In a market in Kabul, Aref is doing a booming trade. At first glance, the walls of his shop seem to be curtained in folds of blue fabric. On closer inspection, dozens and dozens of blue burqas hang like spectres from hooks on the wall. As the Taliban close in on Kabul, women inside the city are getting ready for what may be coming. “Before, most of our customers were from the provinces,” says Aref. “Now it is city women who are buying them.”
One of these women is Aaila, who is haggling with another shopkeeper over rapidly inflating burqa prices. “Last year these burqas cost AFS 200 [£2]. Now they’re trying to sell them to us for AFS 2,000 to 3,000,” she says. As the fear among women in Kabul has grown, the prices have risen.
For decades, the traditional Afghan burqa, mostly sold in shades of blue, was synonymous with Afghan women’s identity around the world. Usually made of heavy cloth, it is specifically designed to cover the wearer from head to toe. A netted fabric is placed near the eyes so that the woman inside can peer out through the meshing but nobody can see inside. It was enforced strictly during the Taliban regime in the late 1990s, and failure to wear one while in public could earn women severe punishments and public lashings from the Taliban’s “moral police”.
After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, even though many continued to choose to wear the burqa in adherence to religious and traditional beliefs, its rejection by millions of others across the country became a symbol of a new dawn for the country’s women, who were able to dictate what they wore for themselves again.
Today, there are burqas in the streets of downtown Kabul but women are also dressed in an array of different styles, many mixing traditional materials with colourful modern patterns and fashion inspiration from across the region. » | Zainab Pirzad and Atefa Alizada from Rukhshana Media | Sunday, August 15, 2021
Afghanische Regierung kündigt friedliche Machtübergabe an
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Das afghanische Innenministerium versucht, die Einwohner Kabuls zu beruhigen: „Es wird keinen Angriff auf die Stadt geben“, sagte Innenminister Mirsakwal. Demnach solle eine friedliche Übergabe erfolgen und eine Übergangsregierung gebildet werden.
Die radikalislamischen Taliban sind nach Angaben des afghanischen Innenministeriums in die afghanische Hauptstadt Kabul vorgedrungen. Das Innenministerium teilte mit, die Islamisten stießen von allen Seiten auf die Stadt vor. Die Regierung kündigte eine friedliche Machtübergabe an. „Es wird keinen Angriff auf die Stadt geben“, sagte Innenminister Abdul Sattar Mirsakwal in einer aufgezeichneten Ansprache. Demnach solle eine Übergangsregierung gebildet werden.
Auch der Stabschef von Präsident Aschraf Ghani, Matin Bek, schrieb im Onlinedienst Twitter: „Keine Panik! Kabul ist sicher.“ Noch am Samstag hatte Präsident Aschraf Ghani in einer Rede an die Nation eine „Remobilisierung“ der afghanischen Streitkräfte angekündigt. Zugleich sprach er jedoch auch von einer möglichen „politischen Lösung" in dem Konflikt. Ghanis Äußerung wurde bereits als Bereitschaft zur Kapitulation gewertet. Das afghanische Präsidialamt rief die Einwohner zu Ruhe und Besonnenheit auf. Gleichzeitig wurden in der Hauptstadt Regierungsgebäude geräumt. Die US-Botschaft flog Personal mit Helikoptern zum Flughafen. Auch andere Staaten, darunter Deutschland, bereiteten die Evakuierung ihrer Staatsbürger vor. » | Quelle: dpa/AFP/Reuters | Sonntag, 15. August 2021
Afghanistan: des combattants talibans entrent dans Kaboul malgré l'ordre de rester hors de la ville
LE FIGARO : Les talibans ont reçu l'ordre de rester aux portes de Kaboul selon leur porte-parole, mais des combattants insurgés ont été aperçus par des habitants en banlieue éloignée. Après avoir conquis Jalalabad, la capitale reste la dernière grande ville non conquise par les insurgés.
Le président Ashraf Ghan et le ministre de la Défense par intérim Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visitent le corps militaire à Kaboul, le 14 août 2021. AFGHAN PRESIDENTIAL PALACE / REUTERS
Les talibans se rapprochent dimanche de la prise complète du pouvoir en Afghanistan, après une campagne militaire d'une rapidité stupéfiante. Seule Kaboul, la capitale isolée et encerclée, reste à conquérir. Dimanche matin, des combattants ont néanmoins été aperçus par des habitants en banlieue éloignée, alors même que les insurgés ont reçu l'ordre de rester aux portes de la cité, selon leur porte-parole.
«L'Émirat islamique ordonne à toutes ses forces d'attendre aux portes de Kaboul, de ne pas essayer d'entrer dans la ville», a affirmé sur Twitter Zabihullah Mujahid, un porte-parole des talibans. «Il y a des combattants talibans armés dans notre quartier, a pourtant déclaré à l'AFP un habitant d'une banlieue à l'est de la capitale, mais il n'y a pas de combats».
Quelques heures après avoir pris Mazar-i-Sharif, la quatrième plus grande ville afghane et le principal centre urbain du nord du pays, les insurgés se sont emparés sans résistance dimanche de la ville de Jalalabad à l'est du pays. «Nous nous sommes réveillés ce matin avec les drapeaux blancs des talibans partout en ville. Ils sont dans la ville. Ils sont entrés sans combattre», a déclaré à l'AFP Ahmad Wali, un habitant de Jalalabad. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | dimanche 15 août 2021
Afghanistan: «Déshonneur» – L’éditorial du Figaro, par Patrick Saint-Paul. »
Les talibans se rapprochent dimanche de la prise complète du pouvoir en Afghanistan, après une campagne militaire d'une rapidité stupéfiante. Seule Kaboul, la capitale isolée et encerclée, reste à conquérir. Dimanche matin, des combattants ont néanmoins été aperçus par des habitants en banlieue éloignée, alors même que les insurgés ont reçu l'ordre de rester aux portes de la cité, selon leur porte-parole.
«L'Émirat islamique ordonne à toutes ses forces d'attendre aux portes de Kaboul, de ne pas essayer d'entrer dans la ville», a affirmé sur Twitter Zabihullah Mujahid, un porte-parole des talibans. «Il y a des combattants talibans armés dans notre quartier, a pourtant déclaré à l'AFP un habitant d'une banlieue à l'est de la capitale, mais il n'y a pas de combats».
Quelques heures après avoir pris Mazar-i-Sharif, la quatrième plus grande ville afghane et le principal centre urbain du nord du pays, les insurgés se sont emparés sans résistance dimanche de la ville de Jalalabad à l'est du pays. «Nous nous sommes réveillés ce matin avec les drapeaux blancs des talibans partout en ville. Ils sont dans la ville. Ils sont entrés sans combattre», a déclaré à l'AFP Ahmad Wali, un habitant de Jalalabad. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | dimanche 15 août 2021
Afghanistan: «Déshonneur» – L’éditorial du Figaro, par Patrick Saint-Paul. »
Jalalabad Falls, Leaving Kabul the Only Major City under Government Control
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
Jung, stark, schön, heiß und sexy!
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Poland’s President Signs Bill to Curb Claims on Property Seized by Nazis
THE GUARDIAN: Move to limit Jewish people’s opportunity to seek restitution sparks furious response from Israel
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda. The law would set limits on the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers and retained by postwar communist rulers. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Poland’s president has decided to sign a bill that would set limits on the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers and retained by postwar communist rulers, drawing fury from Israel, which said the law was antisemitic.
“I made a decision today on the act, which in recent months was the subject of a lively and loud debate at home and abroad,” Andrzej Duda said in a statement published on Saturday. “After an in-depth analysis, I have decided to sign the amendment.”
Before the second world war Poland had been home to one of the world’s biggest Jewish communities but it was almost entirely wiped out by the Nazis, and Jewish former property owners and their descendants have been campaigning for compensation.
Up to now Jewish expatriates or their descendants could make a claim that a property had been seized illegally and demand its return, but Polish officials argued this was causing uncertainty over property ownership. » | Reuters | Saturday, August 14, 2021
This is truly disgraceful! Have you no shame? Have you no heart? Have you no conscience? – © Mark
Poland’s president has decided to sign a bill that would set limits on the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers and retained by postwar communist rulers, drawing fury from Israel, which said the law was antisemitic.
“I made a decision today on the act, which in recent months was the subject of a lively and loud debate at home and abroad,” Andrzej Duda said in a statement published on Saturday. “After an in-depth analysis, I have decided to sign the amendment.”
Before the second world war Poland had been home to one of the world’s biggest Jewish communities but it was almost entirely wiped out by the Nazis, and Jewish former property owners and their descendants have been campaigning for compensation.
Up to now Jewish expatriates or their descendants could make a claim that a property had been seized illegally and demand its return, but Polish officials argued this was causing uncertainty over property ownership. » | Reuters | Saturday, August 14, 2021
This is truly disgraceful! Have you no shame? Have you no heart? Have you no conscience? – © Mark
Julio Iglesias - Can't Help Falling In Love | From Starry Night Concert
Met Police to Review Decision Not to Investigate Jeffrey Epstein amid Prince Andrew US Lawsuit
Aug 13, 2021 • Scotland Yard says it will review its decision not to investigate whether the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein committed crimes in London, after one of his accusers lodged a civil case against Prince Andrew in New York.
The Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said no-one was above the law, but would not be opening an investigation into Prince Andrew, who has denied all the allegations.
The Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said no-one was above the law, but would not be opening an investigation into Prince Andrew, who has denied all the allegations.
Maurizio Pollini: Schumann: Sonata for Piano Op.11; Fantasia Op.17
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