Afghanistan – Persecution Live

Taliban to America: Recognize Us as a Legitimate Government

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, requested the United States formally recognize the terrorist organization as the government of Afghanistan on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the last American serviceman departed the country.

The Taliban has been engaged in a 20-year war against America prompted by the jihadist attacks against the U.S. on September 11, 2001. While Washington had organized a plan to end the occupation and withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, as part of a negotiated agreement with the Taliban, President Joe Biden chose not to honor the deal, extending the war for another four months.

During those months, the Taliban swept through most of the country’s provinces, taking them over with minimal resistance, before arriving in Kabul and deposing the U.S.-backed government on August 15. Taliban leaders asserted that Biden’s refusal to abide by the agreement meant that they were no longer beholden to its provisions requiring the jihadists not to attack U.S. forces or ally with international terrorist organizations.

Biden had first changed the May 1 deadline to September 11, but later readjusted it to August 31. The last American forces reportedly departed Afghanistan on late Monday local time, leaving behind hundreds of Americans, according to the Pentagon.

Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, independently confirmed the U.S. departure before Taliban jihadists organized celebrations at Kabul’s international airport. In remarks to reporters on Tuesday, Mujahid said the jihadist organization would now seek friendly relations with the United States as it would with the rest of the world, given that the Afghan War had allegedly ended.

“We want all countries in the world, including the United States, to recognize us,” Mujahid said, according to the Afghan news network Tolo News. “We are part of the world. We assure you that the soil of Afghanistan will not be used against any country or anyone.”

Members of the Taliban Badri 313 military unit take a position at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021, after the US has pulled all its troops out of the country to end a brutal 20-year war — one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist in power. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

“Our message to the world is peaceful and the world should reconsider us,” Mujahid reportedly asserted.

Elsewhere in remarks Tuesday, Mujahid repeated the near-incessant calls by the Taliban for foreign investment to help the terrorist organization remain in power on a long-term basis. Mujahid admitted that the Taliban, and Afghanistan generally, faced “economic challenges,” according to Tolo, that would require significant increases in trade with the rest of the world.

“Foreign aid should not lead to another occupation in Afghanistan,” the spokesman warned.

The U.S. government was among the first to freeze Afghan government assets following former President Ashraf Ghani’s flight from Kabul on August 15, blocking Taliban terrorists from accessing those funds – estimated at about $9 billion in reserves. Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank froze Afghanistan’s aid accounts shortly thereafter.

Despite this, the Biden administration has hinted that it may, at some point, recognize the Taliban. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover that Biden could work with the Taliban if it “upholds the basic rights of its people and that doesn’t harbor terrorists.”

Another Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, denounced the frozen assets shortly after the Taliban takeover as “an injustice” and urged the international community to subsidize a Taliban regime in the country.

“We need the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan need the budget. The [central bank] shall need the budget,” Shaheen told the Chinese government news network CGTN.

Bank account holders gather outside a closed bank building in Kabul on August 28, 2021, following the Taliban's stunning military takeover of Afghanistan. - Since the Taliban seized power 14 days ago government buildings, banks, schools and universities have remained largely closed. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP) (Photo by AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Bank account holders gather outside a closed bank building in Kabul on August 28, 2021, following the Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)

Shaheen implored China to invest in the Taliban once again in an interview published by the South China Morning Post on Tuesday.

“China, our great neighboring country, can have a constructive and positive role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and also in the economic development and prosperity of the people of Afghanistan. It is expected [that] China [will] play its role,” the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying.

The Chinese Communist Party has not formally recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, but has indicated that it is open to doing so. In the immediate aftermath of the fall of Kabul, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying stated that Beijing would “respect the will and choice of the Afghan people,” apparently implying that the Taliban’s violent siege was a manifestation of democracy (the Taliban has insisted, “there will be no democracy at all”).

The Chinese government, through its social media arms, has indicated that Chinese state-owned companies are interested in investing in a Taliban-run Afghanistan. It has also warned the Biden administration not to sanction the Taliban in response to its decades-long history of human rights atrocities and urged the United States to invest financially in the Taliban’s success.

Now in control of quiet Kabul airport, insurgent group’s leaders symbolically walk on the runway, say they want ‘good relations with the US and the world’

A Taliban fighter sits in the cockpit of an Afghan Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021 (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

Members of the Taliban Badri 313 military unit stands guard next to a Afghan Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)

Afghan Air Force’s A-29 attack aircrafts are pictured as armoured vests are lying on the ground inside a hangar at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)

A Taliban fighter takes a picture of a damaged Afghan Air Forces MD 530 helicopter with his mobile phone near the hangar at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021 (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)

A Afghan Air Force A-29 attack aircraft is pictured inside a hangar at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021 (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)

Taliban officials are interviewed by journalists inside the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the US withdrawal in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Kathy Gannon)

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban held full control of Kabul’s international airport Tuesday after the last US plane left its runway, marking the end of America’s longest war and leaving behind a now-quiet airfield and Afghans outside it still hoping to flee the insurgents’ rule.

Vehicles raced back and forth along the Hamid Karzai International Airport’s sole runway on the northern military side of the airfield. Before dawn broke, heavily armed Taliban fighters walked through hangars on the military side, passing some of the seven CH-46 helicopters the US State Department used in its evacuations before rendering them unflyable.

Taliban leaders later symbolically walked across the runway, marking their victory.

“Congratulations to Afghanistan… this victory belongs to us all,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters from the runway of the airport.

The defeat of America was a “big lesson for other invaders and for our future generation,” Mujahid said a number of hours after the last foreign troops departed Afghanistan.

He said “it is also a lesson for the world,” but added that the Taliban wants “to have good relations with the US and the world. We welcome good diplomatic relations with them all.”

The airport had seen chaotic scenes since the Taliban blitzed across Afghanistan and took Kabul on August 15. Thousands of Afghans besieged the airport, some falling to their death after desperately hanging onto the side of an American C-17 military cargo jet. Last week, an Islamic State suicide attack at an airport gate killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 US service members.

But on Tuesday, after a night that saw Taliban fighters fire triumphantly into the air, guards now blearily on duty kept out the curious and those still somehow hoping to catch a flight out.

“After 20 years we have defeated the Americans,” said Mohammad Islam, a Taliban guard at the airport from Logar province cradling a Kalashnikov rifle. “They have left and now our country is free.”

He added: “It’s clear what we want. We want Sharia (Islamic law), peace and stability.”

Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, similarly praised the takeover in an online video early Tuesday.

Afghanistan: Taliban to rely on Chinese funds, spokesperson says

With the help of China, the Taliban will fight for an economic comeback in Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid tells Italian newspaper.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, centre, said the New Silk Road – a Chinese infrastructure initiative – was held in high regard by the Taliban [File: Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has told an Italian newspaper that the group will rely primarily on financing from China following the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and its takeover of the country.

In his interview published by La Repubblica on Thursday, Mujahid said the Taliban will fight for an economic comeback with the help of China.

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The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on August 15 as the country’s Western-backed government melted away, bringing an end to 20 years of war amid fears of an economic collapse and widespread hunger.

Following the chaotic departure of foreign troops from Kabul airport in recent weeks, Western states have severely restricted their aid payments to Afghanistan.

“China is our most important partner and represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity for us, because it is ready to invest and rebuild our country,” the Taliban spokesperson was quoted as saying in the interview.

He said the New Silk Road – an infrastructure initiative with which China wants to increase its global influence by opening up trade routes – was held in high regard by the Taliban.

There are “rich copper mines in the country, which, thanks to the Chinese, can be put back into operation and modernised. In addition, China is our pass to markets all over the world.”

Mujahid also confirmed that women would be allowed to continue studying at universities in future. He said women would be able to work as nurses, in the police or as assistants in ministries, but ruled out that there would be female ministers.

Andrew Small, senior transatlantic fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States Asia programme, said China’s engagement in Afghanistan would be dependent on political stability.

“China doesn’t do large scale aid; it will provide aid in modest terms, it will provide humanitarian assistance and it’s not going to bail out a new government,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It might do some smaller scale investments but those longer term investments will depend on there being enough stability in the country and enough security in the country for these to turn into something that’s economically viable,” he added.

“So there’s still some limitations to what Cina’s going to be willing to do economically, even if it continues to be happy and the Taliban are keen to be able to send these signals that China’s willing to swing in on scale.”

Afghanistan desperately needs money, and the Taliban is unlikely to get swift access to the roughly $10bn in assets here mostly held abroad by the Afghan central bank.

Earlier this week, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan and urged countries to provide emergency funding as severe drought and war have forced thousands of families to flee their homes.

Guterres expressed his “grave concern at the deepening humanitarian and economic crisis in the country”, adding that basic services threatened to collapse “completely”.

“Now more than ever, Afghan children, women and men need the support and solidarity of the international community,” he said in a statement on Tuesday as he pleaded for financial support from nations.

“I urge all member states to dig deep for the people of Afghanistan in their darkest hour of need. I urge them to provide timely, flexible and comprehensive funding,” the UN secretary-general said.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the current $1.3bn UN humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan is only 39 percent funded.

World reacts as Taliban announces new Afghan government

US expresses concern over ‘track record’ of people named to top posts, while UN agency decries exclusion of women from government.

A vendor holds a Taliban flag next to a poster of Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar as he waits for customers along a street in Kabul on August 27, 2021 [Aamir Qureshi/ AFP]

The Taliban has announced an all-male caretaker government drawn exclusively from its inner echelons, including a man under United Nations sanctions as prime minister and another on a United States “terrorism” list as interior minister.

The names announced for the new government on Tuesday, three weeks after the Taliban swept to military victory as US-led foreign forces withdrew, gave no sign of an olive branch to its opponents.

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Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund – a senior minister during the Taliban’s brutal and oppressive rule in the 1990s – was appointed interim prime minister, while the group’s co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, who oversaw the signing of the US withdrawal agreement in 2020, was appointed deputy prime minister.

Appointed to the key post of interior minister was Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of the founders of the Haqqani network, classified as a “terrorist” group by Washington. He is one of the FBI’s most wanted men due to his involvement in suicide attacks and ties with al-Qaeda.

Here is how the countries and international groups are reacting to the announcement.

United States

The US said it was concerned about the “affiliations and track records” of some of the people named by the Taliban to fill top posts in Afghanistan’s new government.

“We note the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates and no women. We also are concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals,” a spokesperson for the Department of State said.

“We understand that the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words.”

Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was carefully monitoring developments in Afghanistan.

“We don’t know how long this interim cabinet will last. All we have to do is to follow this process carefully,” he told reporters during an official visit to Democratic Republic of the Congo.

China

Beijing said it welcomed the end of “three weeks of anarchy” in Afghanistan with the establishment of a new interim government in Kabul, calling on the Taliban to restore order in the country.

China has been scathing about the American withdrawal, which it criticised as ill-planned and hasty. On Wednesday it said the new government would help bring stability.

“China attaches great importance to the announcement by the Taliban of the establishment of an interim government and some important personnel arrangements,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a press briefing.

“This has ended more than three weeks of anarchy in Afghanistan and is a necessary step to restore order and rebuild the country.”

While much of the world has adopted a wait-and-see approach to engagement with the Taliban, China has already said it is ready to build friendly relations with the group following their takeover.

European Union

The European Union said the “caretaker” government unveiled by the Taliban in Afghanistan failed to honor vows from the new rulers to include different groups.

“Upon initial analysis of the names announced, it does not look like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of the rich ethnic and religious diversity of Afghanistan we hoped to see and that the Taliban were promising over the past weeks,” an EU spokesperson said.

United Nations

Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the UN, said the global body does not engage in acts of recognition of governments.

“That is a matter that’s done by member states, not by us. From our standpoint, regarding today’s announcement, only a negotiated and inclusive settlement will bring sustainable peace to Afghanistan,” he told reporters.

The UN is committed “to contribute to a peaceful solution, promote the human rights of all Afghans, notably women and girls,” and provide life-saving humanitarian assistance, he added.

UN Women

Pramila Patten, the head of the UN women’s agency said the Taliban’s exclusion of women in Afghanistan’s new government calls into question its commitment “to protect and respect the rights” of women and girls.

She called women’s political participation “a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy” and said that “by excluding women from the machinery of government the Taliban leadership has sent the wrong signal about their stated goal of building an inclusive, strong and prosperous society”.

Germany

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his country is not filled with optimism by the makeup of Afghanistan’s new government and its exclusion of other parties.

“A transitional government that does not include other groups is not the signal for more international cooperation and stability in the country,” Maas told a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the US military base in Ramstein, Germany.

“We hope that further government formation (steps) will send the necessary signals,” Maas added. “It must be clear to the Taliban that international isolation is not in its interests, and especially not in those of Afghanistan’s people.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

FILE PHOTO: US soldiers board an Army Chinook transport helicopter after it brought fresh soldiers and supplies to the Korengal Outpost on October 27, 2008 in Afghanistan. © John Moore/Getty Images; (inset) Joe Biden © Reuters/JONATHAN ERNST; Volodymyr Zelenskiy © Reuters/Stefanie Loos

By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian at Koç University in Istanbul working on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory. He tweets under @tarikcyrilamar.

The Ukrainian President’s trip to Washington has drawn out the West’s “Russia-watchers” in force. Among them is Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Moscow who has since morphed into a prolific, if unreliable, commentator.

In a new op-ed in the Washington Post, McFaul makes it clear he sees Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with President Joe Biden as in need of a loud battle cry, appealing to the American government and the public to rally behind Ukraine’s calls for support. But, as is customary in the Stanford professor’s output, Kiev is really just an excuse, almost reduced to a mere pretext.

In reality, McFaul has a much larger (and very old) ax to grind, namely with Russia (and Belarus and China thrown in, too, for good measure). In his best Cold War-reenactor fashion, the former – and somewhat hapless and gaffe-prone – diplomat wants us to believe in three main things: dominos, good “sons of b**ches,” and strategic silence.

Biden put pressure on the President of Afghanistan not to tell the world that the Taliban were winning to create the “perception” that the Taliban weren’t winning, “whether it’s true or not.” A transcript of the phone call exposes the lies of the White House that they did not know what was happening. They knew, screwed it up, and then have lied about everything. This is an Administration all about lies. Biden then tells the nation that his withdrawal has been an “exceptional success” just before this leaked transcript emerges. He left even hundreds of journalists behind.

The Biden Administration is circumventing the FDA demanding booster shots and they have been on board with COVID passports to be administered by the World Health Organization funded by Gates and the Rockefeller Foundations.

This is what our computer, Socrates, has been forecasting. This is the collapse of the CONFIDENCE in government as we move into 2022. I have been warning that even gold does not rise with regard to inflation or the debt people keep preaching year after year. When the national debt hit $1 trillion, gold peaked at $875. The national debt is now approaching $29 trillion and under their theory that has cost so many people their life savings, gold should be 29x that price which would be $25,375.

In November 1979, there were rumors of a Soviet invasion in troop movements. They invaded the day before Christmas in hopes of catching everyone off guard. We can see that gold rallied from $373 to $875 in just 12 weeks and it was all about confidence. Jimmy Carter was the president who was at least a genuinely nice guy, but incompetent as president. Now we have once more an incompetent president but he is not a nice guy. The rally in gold back then had NOTHING to do with the rise in debt nor with inflation. It was a rally on the collapse in confidence that the stability of the world was crumbling before everyone’s eyes. When World War III did not appear to be on the horizon, gold declines while they were preaching inflation and debt, but the market ignored those factors as it has once more today.

We have Panic Cycles in politics in 2022 and then again in 2024. We have the opportunity to take back all our countries in 2022 from the USA, Europe, and Australia. It is up to us to stand up and exert our political pressure to defeat these elitists who always think they know best and we are the hated Great Unwashed they view as rats that have overrun their playground. Our computer, Socrates, they have feared like Stalin who executed Kondratieff because Stalin too did not like a forecast that said the Soviet Union would fail. This Great Cabal (Gates-Schwab-Soros), will also fail but they will not go without a fight. Far too many who take money from Gates have no problem using COVID as a military tactic to end our freedom. They know that a coronavirus can NEVER be eradicated for it will reside in animals and come back every season like the Bird Flu, then Swin Flu, etc. So they are using COVID to destroy our freedom knowing that it will always be here so they lie to the people and create a never-ending military suppression.

Charlotte Maxwell-Jones poses with a rescue dog at Kabul’s airport on Aug. 29, 2021. (Facebook/Charlotte Maxwell-Jones)

An American who founded an animal rescue clinic in Kabul is still in Afghanistan, trying to persuade the Taliban to let her retrieve animals released by the U.S. military and airlift them out of the country with the clinic’s employees.

Charlotte Maxwell-Jones was unable to board a military evacuation flight with the animals or charter a private aircraft before international troops left earlier this week.

The U.S. military released the clinic’s animals from their cages in an enclosed area at the Kabul airport that had previously been used by the former Afghan army, Maxwell-Jones and a Pentagon statement said.

Maxwell-Jones founded Kabul Small Animal Rescue in 2018 to rescue strays, provide veterinary services and help ship animals abroad for adoption. American service members who befriended animals during their deployments and wanted to bring them home have been among her most steady clientele.

Cages holding dogs belonging to Kabul Small Animal Rescue sit at Kabul’s airport last week. The dogs were unable to travel outside of Afghanistan and were instead released at the airport by the U.S. military. (Facebook/ Kabul Small Animal Rescue)

The Tennessee native has vowed to stay until she secures the evacuation of her staff, their family members and up to 250 cats and dogs. Maxwell-Jones said she has had eight charter planes canceled in recent days, costing her a substantial amount of money in nonrefundable deposits.

The entire group arrived at the airport together last week, but Taliban guards initially allowed only Maxwell-Jones and the dogs to enter. The employees were told to wait with the cats, she said.

In the end, only nine of the over 125 people associated with the clinic made it through the gates and left Afghanistan, she said. The cats returned to the clinic with staff members.

“Despite an ongoing complicated and retrograde mission, U.S. forces went to great lengths to assist the Kabul Small Animal Rescue as much as possible,” Army Lt. Col. Karen Roxberry, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command said in a statement Tuesday.

But Maxwell-Jones said the military provided a lot of “unnecessary pushback” once she was inside the airport.

“All the service members on the ground were very nice,” she said. “They helped take care of the animals; they took them out; they cuddled them. They were really, really great.

“But some of the higher-ups were like: ‘You’re using our resources. We need to get people out. Do you care about animals more than people?’ I didn’t ask to move animals instead of people. I said let’s move them in addition.”

The animals likely would have ridden in cargo spaces, she said.

Photos of some 125 dogs in carrier cages that Maxwell-Jones has been trying to ship out of Afghanistan have been circulating on social media along with accusations that American forces left their working dogs behind when they completed their withdrawal this week.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied the accusations Tuesday, tweeting that the military left none of its dogs and that those photographed belonged to Kabul Small Animal Rescue.

The fate of the animals, about 50 of which Maxwell-Jones described as working dogs abandoned by contractors who supported the U.S. mission, remains unknown.

“There’s a decent chance that most of them are alive,” she said Tuesday in a phone interview, adding that she intends to work with the Taliban, who now control the airport, to retrieve the animals.

She remains hopeful of getting both animals and staffers out of Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

And while the employees wait to depart, they will continue to work, with an extra emphasis on rescuing more contractor working dogs that are believed to have been left behind, Maxwell-Jones said.

The Taliban show off dozens of US-made armoured vehicles and weaponry during victory parades which even feature helicopter air displays

The Taliban showed off dozens of US-made armoured vehicles and weaponry during victory parades today.

One event, in the southern city of Kandahar, even featured a fly-past from a Black Hawk helicopter flying the flag of the Taliban.

The parades of the hardware, captured from Afghan forces during the group’s takeover of Afghanistan, were held just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden defended his decision to end two decades of American presence in the country.

The Islamist hardliners are celebrating Monday’s final withdrawal of U.S. troops as an historic victory after taking control of all but one of the country’s 34 provinces in an astonishing two-week offensive.

On Wednesday, a long line of green Humvees and armoured fighting vehicles drove in single file along a highway outside Kandahar – the spiritual birthplace of the militant movement. Many of the vehicles had the white and black Taliban flag attached to them.

Footage posted on social media showed a helicopter flying overhead trailing the Taliban’s standard behind it as fighters waved from below.

At least one Black Hawk helicopter has been seen flying over Kandahar in recent days, suggesting that someone from the former Afghan army was at the controls as the Taliban lack pilots.

One event, in the southern city of Kandahar, even featured a fly-past from a Black Hawk helicopter (pictured) flying the flag of the Taliban

The parades of the hardware, captured during the group’s takeover of Afghanistan, were held just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden defended his decision to end two decades of American presence in the country

As the Taliban celebrated on Wednesday, Afghans and the international community awaited details of the group’s plans for governing with concern

The Taliban is now making a completely mockery of feckless President Biden.

There’s nothing quite like a military parade to show off the might of your armed forces to the rest of the world. Joe Biden’s newly formed terrorist army is no exception. They’ve already staged a parade with America’s own weapons.

Joe Biden’s Retreat in Defeat policy is responsible for this.

The Empire’s imperative

Historian Ramsay MacMullen suggested that in order for us to interpret history correctly, we must understand the motivations of groups and individuals who created history. Today’s empire builders are motivated by the overarching imperative to maintain hegemony over the Eurasian landmass. Sir Halford Mackinder explicitly formulated this ambition in 1904 in his Heartland Theory. He referred to the Eurasian continent as the World-island. In “Democratic Ideals and Reality,” he wrote:

“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-island; who rules the World-island controls the world.“

In the aftermath of World War I, the Empire moved like a parasite to infiltrate the United States and co-opt its economic and military might to make it its own battering ram to subjugate other nations. In the process, it has made its own policy objectives American policies. Empire’s court intellectual, Zbigniew Brzezinski articulated these objectives as America’s own aspiration:

“For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia… Eurasia is the globe’s largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. … About 75% of the world’s people live in Eurasia and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60% of the world’s GDP and about 3/4ths of the world’s known energy resources.” (“The Grand Chessboard,” 1997)

The same imperial obsession was reaffirmed again in August of 2018, in a briefing by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Wes Mitchell to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mitchell made it explicit that the “central aim of the Administration’s foreign policy is to defend US domination of Eurasian landmass as the foremost US national security interest and to prepare the nation for this challenge.” Mitchell also said that the Administration was “working with our close ally the UK to form an international coalition for coordinating efforts in this field.” This statement was not intended for public consumption and the US Department of State quickly removed the briefing from their website. It is however still available at the link I provided above.

Category: Afghanistan