By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 August 2025
How Dangerous is the Islamic State in Africa to Europe?
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: refugees
Visiting Post-Revolutionary Syria
Israel Prepared Well For the War With Hizballah in Lebanon
One Year On: The Ongoing Consequences of Abandoning Afghanistan
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 15 August 2022
United Nations Report Finds Al-Qaeda and Islamic State Reduced, But Reviving
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 30 July 2022
Islamic State in Palmyra, December 2016
The Islamic State Benefits From the Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 1 September 2021
In his speech last night announcing the end of the American presence in Afghanistan and what happens next, Secretary of State Blinken said: “The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support”, and “the Taliban can do that by meeting commitments and obligations”, which include “counter-terrorism”.
To most people it will seem strange that the Taliban could be regarded as a counter-terrorism partner, and it is. Despite the U.S. never formally listing the Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), the Taliban is fully integrated in a jihadist network under the control of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that includes Al-Qaeda. 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
Obama Made America’s Collapse in the Middle East Inevitable
A version of this article was published at The Arab Weekly.
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 12 October 2019
Turkish Armed Forces heading towards the border with Syria, 8 October 2019 // BULENT KILIC / AFP
The beginning of Turkey’s third incursion into Syria on Wednesday, this time dubbed Operation PEACE SPRING and aimed at the areas east of the Euphrates River, is the culmination of an American policy started under Barack Obama that has been continued by Donald Trump. That it is inevitable makes it no less tragic for the innocents caught up in this mess. It does mean that the emotive posturing on social media, and attempts by Obama era officials to cast the blame for the Syria catastrophe onto Trump, are more-than-usually grotesque. Continue reading
Turkey’s Upcoming Foreign Policy Challenges
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 12 July 2018
American troops look out toward the border with Turkey from a small outpost near the town of Minbij, 7 Feb. 2018 (AP Photo/Susannah George)
As Turkey moves past last month’s election, the foreign policy challenges remain acute, particularly in Syria, and there is a looming confrontation with the United States over sanctions on Iran that might undo the recent progress toward the normalisation of U.S.-Turkish relations. Continue reading
The Horrors for Women of Islamic State Rule
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on October 12, 2015
Published at Verily
I have always been interested in the Middle East, specifically the Syrian conflict. In early summer 2014, as part of my master’s dissertation, I went to Lebanon to work with the United Nations. I was still there when the Islamic State group, commonly known as ISIS, struck Iraq. Continue reading
Kyle Orton's Blog 