Portside

Reader Comments: Afghanistan - What Next?; Organizing Amazon; Stanley Aronowitz; Cuba Today; China; Food Industry and Meat; Ghosts of Amistad; Peru; Global Supply Change; lots of announcements; more....

Since World War II, U.S. soldiers have been stationed on U.S. military bases around the globe. Today, there are around 750 such bases in some eighty countries and colonies.

The American security establishment knew that the invasion had failed: the Taliban could not be subdued no matter how long they stayed. The fact is that over twenty years, the US has failed to build anything that might redeem its mission.

President Biden was right to withdraw US troops. But we should have no illusion that this will end the war for Afghans.

"No one will look back through history with anything but shame and sorrow for the human suffering wrought and the repeated failures of the U.S. war machine."

The U.S. attacks will not stop the Taliban or end the war.

Women have taken up guns in northern and central Afghanistan, marching in the streets in their hundreds and sharing pictures of themselves with assault rifles on social media, in a show of defiance as the Taliban make sweeping gains nationwide.

No one should believe that Ilhan Omar thinks the United States is identical to the Taliban. Omar demonstrably did not say what she’s been accused of having said; what she did say was true...

Withdrawing even some of the U.S. troops, planes, drones and bombers from Afghanistan will reduce the killing.

The agreement, warned Rep. Barbara Lee, "leaves thousands of troops in Afghanistan and lacks the critical investments in peacebuilding, human-centered development, or governance reform needed to rebuild Afghan society."