Central Asia

US commander of US Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) General John Nicholson’s December 2016 briefing was paradoxical and perhaps indicative of the bankrupted foreign policy that defines America’s occupation in Afghanistan.

In October 2016, a terrorist organization that has been known as the Taliban assaulted the Afghan town of Kunduz once again. It should be noted that the city is located on the very Afghan-Tajik border, therefore this development allowed the Republic of Tajikistan and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to test their effectiveness in fighting terrorism.

On December 20, 2016, the Chinese News Agency Xinhua released a statement by Munkh-Orgil Tsend, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, according to which the 14th Dalai Lama is prohibited from entering the country ever again even “with religious missions“.

International news agencies are already beginning to move ahead in the list of the top event involving a five-day visit (from November 18 to November 23, 2016) by the 14th Dalai Lama to Mongolia mainly due to the publicly expressed opposition against China making this visit.

In November 2016, the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved the creation of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Low-Enriched Uranium Bank on its territory.

Despite the United States being engaged in what it calls “reconstruction” in Afghanistan, quarterly reports on their progress doing so reveals expanding violence and deepening poverty.
Washington Times in an article titled, “Afghanistan failures rising, progress eroding 15 years after U.S. intervention,” reports that:

It is now more than 15 years since the United States, with the willing complicity and assistance of Australia, invaded Afghanistan. The ostensible reason for the invasion was that the Taliban government was harbouring Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, in the United states a few weeks earlier, and was refusing to hand him over to American justice.

October 2001 made it into history as clear evidence of the reckless plans of Washington ‘strategists’ for gaining worldwide domination. It is the period when the aggressive invasion of US troops in Afghanistan under the false pretext of revenge for the sad events of 911 began. However, neither then, nor now was there any evidence that it was Afghanistan and the Taliban that were involved in the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre.

It is often that I go back to a quote from Martin Jacques, the British academic on Western interventionism and Afghanistan. He said: “Never underestimate the ability of political leaders to misread history on a monumental scale.