Portside

They weren’t kidding when they called Afghanistan the “graveyard of empires.” That cemetery has just taken another imperial body. And it wasn’t pretty, was it? Not that anyone should be surprised. Even after 20 years of preparation, a burial never is

America’s longest war has been by any measure a costly failure, and the errors in managing the conflict deserve scrutiny in the years to come. But Joe Biden doesn’t “own” the mayhem on the ground right now.

War profiteers in the United States grew fat and happy as they do in all wars, and that’s why the “Deep State” they occupy is now so angry at President Joe Biden for finally bringing an end to those once-swollen rivers of cash flow.

The idea was already absurd and dangerous. But now the Afghanistan debacle should bury it permanently. Despite 20 years and $1 trillion in military and other aid, the U.S. supported-government collapsed within weeks.

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

The House passed a bill that sounds good, but doesn’t end Washington's failed, militarized approach or get to root problems.

Expect the military officials who commanded Afghanistan to invoke ‘cutting and running.’ Let’s talk about why they failed.

“In this society, safety and security will not be premised on violence or the threat of violence; it will be based on a collective commitment to guaranteeing the survival and care of all peoples.”

In the pandemic year 2020, 76 years after two American atomic bombs left the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in ashes, the world’s nuclear powers increased spending on nuclear weapons by $1.4 billion more than they had put out the previous year.

The U.S. is continuing its attempts to maintain its status as a global power at all costs, rather than accepting the development of other nations as a positive form of progress for the international community.