https://znetwork.org/category/place/asia/afghanistan/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:12:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/place/asia/afghanistan/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-military-aided-mass-child-rape-in-afghanistan-now-its-soldiers-are-committing-this-crime-at-fort-bragg/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-military-aided-mass-child-rape-in-afghanistan-now-its-soldiers-are-committing-this-crime-at-fort-bragg/#respond Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294609 There is an epidemic of child sex crimes in and around Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Since 2021, and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, dozens of elite soldiers stationed at the military base have been convicted of raping children, distributing child pornography, and other similar offenses.  Many of these soldiers served in Afghanistan, where it is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-military-aided-mass-child-rape-in-afghanistan-now-its-soldiers-are-committing-this-crime-at-fort-bragg/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-domestic-costs-of-cia-covert-action-abroad-run-high/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-domestic-costs-of-cia-covert-action-abroad-run-high/#respond Fri, 26 Dec 2025 18:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292803 On the evening of November 26, Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom were stationed outside the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, DC. Both were members of the West Virginia National Guard. As part of Donald Trump’s attempt to transform Democratic-voting cities into war zones, they had been sent to the nation’s capital. The two young [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-domestic-costs-of-cia-covert-action-abroad-run-high/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unity-consciousness-and-struggle-afghan-womens-fight-to-eliminate-oppression-and-barbarism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unity-consciousness-and-struggle-afghan-womens-fight-to-eliminate-oppression-and-barbarism/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2025 16:29:00 +0000 For decades, women in Afghanistan have been among the first and easiest victims of fundamentalist fascism and imperialism. In every era and under every ruling regime, misogynistic policies and practices have either persisted or intensified. In Afghanistan’s patriarchal and feudal order, women are either confined within their homes—stripped of their humanity—or exploited as props in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unity-consciousness-and-struggle-afghan-womens-fight-to-eliminate-oppression-and-barbarism/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/kathy-kelly-on-afghanistan-and-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/kathy-kelly-on-afghanistan-and-gaza/#respond Thu, 31 Jul 2025 15:56:00 +0000 This week on Talk World Radio we’re talking with Kathy Kelly, President of World BEYOND War, about a new book and an upcoming online book club, and about the latest developments in Gaza and what to do about it. The book is called Our Journey from Afghanistan: A Story of Survival and Hope.]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/kathy-kelly-on-afghanistan-and-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/now-it-can-be-told-after-all-the-harm-has-been-done/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/now-it-can-be-told-after-all-the-harm-has-been-done/#respond Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277595 This week, the New York Times reported that the U.S. government made war in Afghanistan while helping to “recruit, train and pay for lawless bands of militias that pillaged homes and laid waste to entire communities.” Those militias “tortured civilians, kidnapped for ransom, massacred dozens in vendetta killings and razed entire villages, sowing more than a decade [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/now-it-can-be-told-after-all-the-harm-has-been-done/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-provoked-the-1979-russian-invasion-of-afghanistan-parallel-to-the-ukraine-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-provoked-the-1979-russian-invasion-of-afghanistan-parallel-to-the-ukraine-war/#respond Sat, 21 Sep 2024 17:13:11 +0000 The December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan was a watershed event, one that definitively ended “détente” between the global superpowers, the United States and the USSR, and inaugurated a new and more intense phase of tension. The invasion was a clearcut violation of international law and was widely condemned. At the time, it appeared that the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-provoked-the-1979-russian-invasion-of-afghanistan-parallel-to-the-ukraine-war/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-october-7th-america-has-forgotten/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-october-7th-america-has-forgotten/#respond Wed, 28 Feb 2024 17:48:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262843 We Americans have been at war now since October 7th, 2001. That was when our military first launched air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan in response to al-Qaeda’s September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. That’s 22 years and counting. The “war on terror” that began then would forever change what it meant to be [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-october-7th-america-has-forgotten/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/humanitarian-calamities-that-arent-on-the-worlds-agenda/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/humanitarian-calamities-that-arent-on-the-worlds-agenda/#respond Sun, 15 Oct 2023 15:26:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1255798 Various versions of the aphorism “War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography” have been making the rounds ever since the rise of U.S. imperialism in the late 1800s. The quip (which, despite legend, appears not to be attributable to Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, or any other famous person) has proven all too accurate when the war [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/humanitarian-calamities-that-arent-on-the-worlds-agenda/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/americas-war-in-afghanistan-devastated-the-countrys-environment-in-ways-that-may-never-be-cleaned-up/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/americas-war-in-afghanistan-devastated-the-countrys-environment-in-ways-that-may-never-be-cleaned-up/#respond Tue, 03 Oct 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1255255 Birds dip between low branches that hang over glittering brooks along the drive from Jalalabad heading south toward the Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. Then, the landscape changes, as lush fields give way to barren land.  Up ahead, Achin is located among a rise of rocky mountains that line the border with Pakistan, a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/americas-war-in-afghanistan-devastated-the-countrys-environment-in-ways-that-may-never-be-cleaned-up/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-experience-in-afghanistan-offers-lessons-for-ukraine-if-leaders-will-heed-them/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-experience-in-afghanistan-offers-lessons-for-ukraine-if-leaders-will-heed-them/#respond Sun, 10 Sep 2023 15:25:21 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1253775 On the second anniversary of the final debacle of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, we should consider the lessons of that disaster for U.S. strategy elsewhere. While the case of Afghanistan itself is by nature unique, Washington’s mistakes and failures reflected wider and deeper patterns — and pathologies — in U.S. policymaking and political culture. If [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-experience-in-afghanistan-offers-lessons-for-ukraine-if-leaders-will-heed-them/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/brotherhood-and-friendship-in-a-time-of-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/brotherhood-and-friendship-in-a-time-of-war/#respond Tue, 30 May 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1246779 Kathy Kelly provides her reflections on Jeffery E. Stern’s book The Mercenary, A Story of Brotherhood & Terror in the Afghanistan War. Salman Rushdie once commented that those who are displaced by war are the shining shards that reflect the truth. With so many people fleeing wars and ecological collapse in our world today, and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/brotherhood-and-friendship-in-a-time-of-war/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/face-2-face-with-kathy-kelly/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/face-2-face-with-kathy-kelly/#comments Fri, 07 Apr 2023 14:19:42 +0000 On this show, we speak with Kathy Kelly about the situation of young women in Afghanistan. Since 2021, she and an ad hoc circle of internationals have assisted young Afghans to resettle in safer havens. She co-coordinates the BanKillerDrones.org campaign, is board President of World BEYOND War, and is planning the 2023 Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/face-2-face-with-kathy-kelly/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/night-raids-victims-of-cia-backed-afghan-death-squads-known-as-zero-units-demand-accountability/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/night-raids-victims-of-cia-backed-afghan-death-squads-known-as-zero-units-demand-accountability/#respond Fri, 13 Jan 2023 15:50:25 +0000 Transcript This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. Deadly night raids based on faulty U.S. intelligence, then covered up by a classified war loophole, this is the focus of a major new investigation by reporter Lynzy Billing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/night-raids-victims-of-cia-backed-afghan-death-squads-known-as-zero-units-demand-accountability/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/where-the-heart-is/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/where-the-heart-is/#respond Fri, 16 Dec 2022 12:45:32 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1234678 During our visits to Kabul, Afghanistan from 2009 to 2019, young friends who welcomed me and other international guests to their urban community showed us enormously creative ways to practice nonviolence through sharing resources, caring for the environment, and preferring service to dominance. We have a choice to follow their lead in rededicating ourselves to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/where-the-heart-is/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bidens-afghan-shell-game-prompts-media-shrugs-and-stenography/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bidens-afghan-shell-game-prompts-media-shrugs-and-stenography/#respond Fri, 23 Sep 2022 12:20:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1220946 More than a year after it froze $7 billion of Afghanistan’s central bank reserves in the wake of the Taliban’s military victory, the US has announced it will use half the money to establish a fund at a Swiss bank to help stabilize the cratering Afghan economy. The New York Times (9/14/22) wrote that the US “explored [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bidens-afghan-shell-game-prompts-media-shrugs-and-stenography/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-announces-fund-to-benefit-afghan-economy-using-stolen-afghan-bank-reserves%ef%bf%bc/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-announces-fund-to-benefit-afghan-economy-using-stolen-afghan-bank-reserves%ef%bf%bc/#respond Fri, 16 Sep 2022 14:47:10 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1220230 Rights organizations on Thursday responded to a new Biden administration plan to use $3.5 billion in U.S.-held Afghan funds to “help mitigate the economic challenges” facing the people of Afghanistan by saying the proposal was “better than keeping that money locked away in a U.S. vault” but must only be the first step in returning $7 billion in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-announces-fund-to-benefit-afghan-economy-using-stolen-afghan-bank-reserves%ef%bf%bc/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-way-home/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-way-home/#respond Mon, 12 Sep 2022 16:28:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1219900 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-way-home/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/npr-devotes-almost-two-hours-to-afghanistan-over-two-weeks-and-30-seconds-to-us-starving-afghans/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/npr-devotes-almost-two-hours-to-afghanistan-over-two-weeks-and-30-seconds-to-us-starving-afghans/#respond Sat, 03 Sep 2022 15:02:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1218693 NPR ran several stories on Afghanistan to mark the anniversary of the August 2021 US withdrawal, even sending host Steve Inskeep to the country to produce a series of pieces. His visit happened to coincide with Biden’s claimed assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri; Inskeep says that he and his team were staying in close proximity to the Al Qaeda leader. With the anniversary [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/npr-devotes-almost-two-hours-to-afghanistan-over-two-weeks-and-30-seconds-to-us-starving-afghans/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/end-the-collective-punishment-of-afghans/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/end-the-collective-punishment-of-afghans/#respond Sat, 27 Aug 2022 18:12:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1201417 A year has now passed since the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from decades of war and occupation in Afghanistan. With the Taliban functionally in charge, the country faces a deteriorating humanitarian crisis and economic collapse. But instead of taking action to promote stability and reinvigorate the economy, the U.S. has made it worse and penalized innocent, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/end-the-collective-punishment-of-afghans/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/action-alert-tell-usa-today-to-tell-whole-story-on-afghan-withdrawal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/action-alert-tell-usa-today-to-tell-whole-story-on-afghan-withdrawal/#respond Sat, 20 Aug 2022 14:41:48 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1199998 “The Fall of Afghanistan, One Year Later: Chaos and Uncertainty Have Become Way of Life,” was the front-page USA Today headline (8/15/22), suggesting that “chaos and uncertainty” is the result of last year’s US withdrawal—and not of 20 years of occupation, preceded by decades of covert intervention, and ongoing efforts by Washington to sabotage the country’s economy. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/action-alert-tell-usa-today-to-tell-whole-story-on-afghan-withdrawal/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/richest-country-on-earth-to-one-of-its-poorest-were-keeping-the-money-we-stole-from-you/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/richest-country-on-earth-to-one-of-its-poorest-were-keeping-the-money-we-stole-from-you/#respond Tue, 16 Aug 2022 17:31:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1199436 Exactly a year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s government, the Biden administration said it would not return any of the $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets that it commandeered earlier this year, despite pleas from both human rights groups and economists to help pull the impoverished country out of its economic crisis. As The [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/richest-country-on-earth-to-one-of-its-poorest-were-keeping-the-money-we-stole-from-you/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/taliban-in-power-one-year-on/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/taliban-in-power-one-year-on/#respond Mon, 15 Aug 2022 15:19:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1199358 On 15 August 2021, the world looked on with trepidation as the situation in Afghanistan reached a critical juncture with the Afghan Taliban assuming power in the country. The takeover was swift, and relatively peaceful, with little resistance from the masses, followed by the abrupt withdrawal of US forces, leading to a new set of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/taliban-in-power-one-year-on/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/70-economists-say-us-must-return-7-billion-stolen-from-afghan-people/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/70-economists-say-us-must-return-7-billion-stolen-from-afghan-people/#respond Thu, 11 Aug 2022 13:35:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1198816 More than 70 economists and other academic experts sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday urging them to allow Afghanistan’s central bank to access the foreign exchange reserves frozen by Washington and to persuade other governments to lift the “coercive economic restrictions” that are exacerbating the suffering of the Afghan [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/70-economists-say-us-must-return-7-billion-stolen-from-afghan-people/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bidens-assassination-of-al-qaeda-leader-ayman-al-zawahiri-was-illegal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bidens-assassination-of-al-qaeda-leader-ayman-al-zawahiri-was-illegal/#respond Sun, 07 Aug 2022 08:14:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1198389 President Joe Biden’s assassination of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan was illegal under both U.S. and international law. After the CIA drone strike killed Zawahiri on August 2, Biden declared, “People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer.” What we should fear instead is the dangerous precedent set by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bidens-assassination-of-al-qaeda-leader-ayman-al-zawahiri-was-illegal/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-end-hell-on-earth-the-us-must-free-afghanistans-7bn-reserves/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-end-hell-on-earth-the-us-must-free-afghanistans-7bn-reserves/#respond Wed, 27 Jul 2022 23:52:11 +0000 https://zcomm-staging.work/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1179989 “Hell on earth.” That’s how the World Food Programme’s executive director, David Beasley, describes the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Twenty million people – nearly half the country’s population – face acute hunger. Reports of people selling their kidneys to buy food have become alarmingly common. This waking nightmare is a policy choice of the US government. When the Taliban became the de facto government in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-end-hell-on-earth-the-us-must-free-afghanistans-7bn-reserves/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-scars-the-earth-to-heal-we-must-cultivate-hope-not-harm/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-scars-the-earth-to-heal-we-must-cultivate-hope-not-harm/#respond Sat, 09 Jul 2022 15:14:37 +0000 https://zcomm-staging.work/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1067196 “No War 2022, July 8 – 10,” hosted by World BEYOND War, will consider major and growing threats faced in today’s world. Emphasizing “Resistance and Regeneration,” the conference will feature practitioners of permaculture who work to heal scarred lands as well as abolish all war. Listening to various friends speak of the environmental impact of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-scars-the-earth-to-heal-we-must-cultivate-hope-not-harm/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/9-11-families-call-on-biden-to-confront-afghan-humanitarian-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/9-11-families-call-on-biden-to-confront-afghan-humanitarian-crisis/#respond Tue, 07 Jun 2022 09:00:41 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1058980 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/9-11-families-call-on-biden-to-confront-afghan-humanitarian-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/afghanistan-is-starving-but-the-taliban-can-only-govern-womens-clothing/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/afghanistan-is-starving-but-the-taliban-can-only-govern-womens-clothing/#respond Tue, 17 May 2022 10:20:01 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1058308 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/afghanistan-is-starving-but-the-taliban-can-only-govern-womens-clothing/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/afghan-american-groups-challenge-illegal-seizure-of-billions-by-us/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/afghan-american-groups-challenge-illegal-seizure-of-billions-by-us/#respond Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:52:20 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1057633 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/afghan-american-groups-challenge-illegal-seizure-of-billions-by-us/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nonstop-corporate-news-on-ukraine-is-fueling-support-for-unchecked-us-militarism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nonstop-corporate-news-on-ukraine-is-fueling-support-for-unchecked-us-militarism/#respond Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:34:32 +0000 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nonstop-corporate-news-on-ukraine-is-fueling-support-for-unchecked-us-militarism/feed/ 0