(es) Vienna. Updated August 19, 2021
The Afghan disaster remains on every tv screen and in every European newspaper headline, with little clarity about what happens next. What is evident is that US intelligence about the country has, 20 years on, been lamentable. Far from establishing a safe country with sturdy institutions and the rule of law, little has been achieved except numerous deaths, unimaginable sums of money wasted, and a government incapable of holding back an insurgency which has cut through the whole country like a knife through warm butter. For women, especially, the future is ominous. Chapeau to them and to the brave colleagues and their helpers in Kabul!
LINKS:
August 19, 2021 What next? European press review from Eurotopics
August 19 Channel 4 Testimonies of Afghans in UK (Jon Snow)
August 18 Powerful speech of Afghan veteran UK MP Tom Tugendhat
August 18 Roberto Sciarrone (Italian Section) writes in Geopolitica of a “triumph of barbarism that runs on motorcycles and 
Kalashnikovs”(IT with translation)
August 18 News groups’ support of journalists in Afghanistan ‘moral duty’ – AP
August 18, Eurotopics – Does Europe have any idea how to react?
August 17, Guardian The story of TOLO and its women reporters
Deutsche Welle on Taliban takeover
“Now I have to burn everything I achieved in 20 years” – report in Guardian, August 15
Analysis by Defense One
Biden defends himself in 20-minute press conference
President Biden – damning critique in The Atlantic
George Packer “betrayal will live on in infamy”