Taliban

It’s frustrating that whereas all human beings wish to live meaningful lives, we seem helpless in the face of a few individuals waging wars and exploiting our world.
But we can each do something about this insensible status quo, as ordinary folk of the People’s Peace Movement ( PPM) show us by taking one barefoot-step at a time, traveling to the Northern areas of Afghanistan to persuade fellow Afghans, whether they’re with ‘insurgent groups’ or with the U.S./NATO/Afghan forces, to stop fighting.

Authored by Eric Margolis via EricMargolis.com:

Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch.com

ISIS has increased its efforts in order to expand its influence in Afghanistan. The local ISIS branch is believed to have about 3,000-5,000 members, including local Afghans, Pakistanis and Uzbeks.
According to available data, most of the terrorists are in the province of Nangarhar. However, cells of the terrorist group operate across the entire country.
Over the past few months, ISIS members have carried a series of terrorist attacks against government targets as well as engaged members of the Taliban in separate clashes and hit-and-run operations.

Sputnik – August 13, 2018 The Arch enemies entered into talks following the successful implementation of a three-day ceasefire in June for the Muslim holiday of ‘Eid al-Fitr.’ A Senior Taliban official has described peace talks held last month with the US as “very helpful” in envisaging a path out of Afghanistan’s seventeen year old war. The leader, […]

By M K Bhadrakumar | Indian Punchline | August 12, 2018 The Uzbekistan Foreign Ministry announced in a terse statement on Saturday that a Taliban delegation led by the head of its political office in Doha, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanakzai visited Tashkent last week and the two sides “exchanged views on prospects of the peace […]

The election of Imran Khan as Pakistan’s new president further underscores America’s futile military strategy in the region, argues Graham Fuller. By Graham Fuller A bold new political face has come to power in the recent Pakistani elections, possibly offering…Read more →

Over the past few months, ISIS has renewed its efforts to expand its influence in Afghanistan. While ISIS cells are active in most of the country, ISIS’ main stronghold is the province Nangarhar.
ISIS in Afghanistan has received additional manpower for its expansion from Syria and Iraq where the terrorist group’s self-proclaimed caliphate was recently defeated. Many ISIS field commanders and fighters fled the country and joined the Afghan branch of the terrorist group.

I have just arrived in Hiroshima with a group of Japanese “Okinawa to Hiroshima peace walkers” who had spent nearly two months walking Japanese roads protesting U.S. militarism.  While we were walking, an Afghan peace march that had set off in May was enduring 700km of Afghan roadsides, poorly shod, from Helmand province to Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul.

Attempting to control rural areas in Afghanistan always eventually ends up boiling down to personal survival.
— Evan McAllister, former Marine staff sergeant, New York Times, July 28, 2018