By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 April 2025
Trump’s “Policies” on Syria and Ukraine Come into View
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Category Archives: Foreign Policy
HAMAS Admits Lying About the Palestinian Casualties — Again
“International Law” is a Dangerous Illusion
The West Needs a Strategy to Counter Iran’s “Ring of Fire”
What To Make of China “Brokering” the Saudi-Iran Deal
Turkey Tries to Exploit the Latest “Blasphemy” Controversy in Sweden
Pakistan Has Theories on Who Tried to Kill Imran Khan
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 November 2022
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot four times in both legs yesterday as he took part in a protest march supposed to end in the capital, Islamabad, calling for new elections. One of two alleged shooters, who between them killed one person and wounded at least ten, soon appeared in a confession video released by police. In it, he said he was motivated to stop Khan, whom he regarded as insufficiently pious, “misguiding the people”.
Getting Real About Pakistan After the Jihadist Takeover of Afghanistan
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 20 August 2021
Khalil Haqqani, a senior Taliban leader and simultaneously a leader of Al-Qaeda’s Haqqani Network, leads Friday prayers at the Pul-i-Khishti, the largest mosque in Kabul, 20 August 2021
When the Taliban swept into the capital of Afghanistan on Sunday, little of the coverage focused on Pakistan and yet that was where this victory was made. This is a pattern that has persisted throughout the war. Continue reading
Joe Biden Chose Disaster in Afghanistan
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 August 2021
The Taliban took over Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday after a nine-day offensive captured one provincial capital after another. The United States had already decided to abandon the country, and without the US the other NATO states had no choice but to leave. It was quite clear that the Afghan state would crumble in the absence of a Western presence, though it seems President Joe Biden thought he would have a longer “decent interval” before the Saigon evacuation scenes and the massacres began. Continue reading
The Trouble With “Ending Forever Wars”
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 12 August 2021
In early July, President Joe Biden confirmed his intention to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by September 2021. Biden cited a February 2020 U.S. “agreement” with the Taliban that he had “inherited” from the Trump administration. In truth, President Donald Trump had made no agreement. He had already begun pulling troops out by October 2019 and signed a fig leaf to cover his unconditional withdrawal.
Biden reassessed other Trump policies and could have reassessed this one, not least since the Taliban were in violation even of their vague paper promises — most notably on their commitment to deny space to al Qaeda and negotiate peace in good faith. The truth is that Biden is ideologically committed, as Barack Obama and Trump were, to ending American involvement in “forever wars.” Regardless, this does not mean those wars end or the threats that drew the United States in actually go away. Continue reading
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