“We’ve got them outnumbered and they’ve got us surrounded!” Kabul is now being taken by the Taliban as the US and allied forces turn tail and run leaving massive amounts of military hardware. But how different will the world be for Afghan citizens and the world if the Taliban does breeze through? How much worse will they be (or can they be) than what they’ve been putting up with under occupation for two decades straight. Military waste, intelligence operation drug running and ruined lives all around are the legacy of these wars for profit. Don’t buy the hype that after 20 years of not fixing it we should toss a few trillion more on the funeral pyre of the American empire as the military industrial complex marches on…
Currently making notes on James Tharin Bradford’s Poppies, Politics and Power: Afghanistan and the Global History of Drugs and Diplomacy, Dawn Paley’s Drug War Capitalism and Ryan Gingeras’ Heroin, Organized Crime, and the Making of Modern Turkey. Turkey and Afghanistan have long been important stops on the opium/heroin pipeline and I have a feeling Turkey will likely be working to ensure they stay “in the loop” as the dust settles at the changing of the guard in the graveyard of empires.
Phil Fairbanks: portfolio 