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After Afghan defeat, West must realize that not everyone wants democracy
with ‘Netflix & LGBT marches’ – senior Ukrainian official
18 Aug, 2021 17:18
(L) © AFP / Odd ANDERSEN; (R) Wikipedia
The American failure to defeat the Taliban and build a strong democracy in Afghanistan proves that not everyone has signed up to the West’s ideology and the world doesn’t want to take part in idealistic political experiments.
That’s according to Alexey Arestovich, a senior advisor to Andrey Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Arestovich believes that the recent events in Afghanistan are the collapse of liberal democracy, a political system he says can “destroy people” – just like in totalitarian regimes. The failure of the US-led West shows that similar attempts in Ukraine are entirely pointless, he explained.
“As it turned out, the real world is ill-adapted to idealistic experiments of unifying everyone under a single ideal concept,” Arestovich wrote. “First, the USSR was convinced of this, and now the US is – at the head of the collective West.”
He bashed the West for trying to promote a world where everyone has “Netflix and LGBT marches,” accusing it of trying to impose its ideas of liberal democracy around the world while attacking everyone who dares to doubt the doctrine.
“How soon, and at what cost, will the West realize its systematic misconceptions on this subject?” he asked.
He will probably be surprised to find agreement from the west. At least Tucker Carlson agrees (4th story on link) with him.
“One thing I have been convinced of so far: The struggle to build... a new, democratic state in Ukraine makes no sense,” he concluded.
On August 15, militants from the Taliban entered the Afghan capital of Kabul and declared that they had taken control of the entire nation, including all its major cities and border checkpoints. On the same day, ousted Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
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Taliban reportedly fire on civilians in Jalalabad, killing 3, after
protesters tear down Islamist standard and raise Afghan flag
18 Aug, 2021 10:5
The Taliban has reportedly opened fire on civilians in the city of Jalalabad and killed three, as people protested against the Islamist group’s occupation, tearing down their flag and replacing it with the Afghan colors.
On Wednesday, Taliban gunmen cracked down on a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad, which sits just 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the capital Kabul.
Media reports, including from Al Jazeera, said that at least three people have died and a further 12 were injured in the shooting. According to reporters on the ground, many of the city’s residents had objected to the replacement of the flag of Afghanistan with the Taliban banner.
In footage shared online, protesters can be seen raising the red, black and green colors of the Afghan state having reportedly removed the Taliban standard.
Local wire service Pajhwok Afghan News reported that with hundreds of people filling the streets of central Jalalabad, several Taliban gunmen opened fire on the protesters.
Men and women can be seen fleeing for safety as gunshots ring out around the city.
Earlier footage shared by the Pajhwok Afghan News agency showed Afghans waving their national flag as they march through the streets.
The agency also claims that the Taliban had beaten up several journalists covering the events. Unverified graphic footage from the city appears to show the Taliban punishing journalists who worked with foreign agencies. One man can be seen jumping on a suspected journalist lying on the floor.
Since the Taliban takeover, there have also been protests in Khost and Asadabad. There were no reports of shots being fired at other demonstrations.
On Tuesday evening, Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar returned to Afghanistan from his exile in the Qatari capital, Doha. Some believe he will be the country’s next president following the fall of Kabul and after ousted President Ashraf Ghani fled to safety in the United Arab Emirates.
US ambassador to UN mocked for suggesting body expects Taliban
to respect its 'strongly worded statement' on women’s rights
18 Aug, 2021 16:23
at UN headquarters in New York © REUTERS/Mike Segar
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, is facing pushback for citing a “strongly worded statement” demanding the Taliban “respect women’s rights” when asked about reports of human rights violations.
The ambassador has done her best in a handful of media interviews this week to do public damage control on the situation in Afghanistan, after the Taliban captured Kabul and as President Joe Biden faces international scrutiny for struggling to evacuate both Afghan allies and American citizens amid the chaos.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday, Thomas-Greenfield was confronted about “mounting reports” of the Taliban threatening citizens and committing violence that goes against the supposed promise they made this week for peace and maintaining rights for women.
In response, the ambassador awkwardly cited the UN security council’s “strongly worded press statement” that “expressed in no uncertain terms” that the Taliban must “respect women’s rights” and “humanitarian law” going forward.
A Taliban spokesperson said at a press conference this week that a new government is being formed in Afghanistan and promised that women would maintain their right to work and education. The promise was taken with a pinch of salt by critics, given the group said the rights will be under “our cultural framework” and the severely restrictive Sharia law.
The US State Department responded to the Taliban’s new power grab by calling for an “inclusive” and “united” government that includes the “full participation” of women.
There are already reports of violence on the ground, including a woman reportedly killed on Tuesday for not wearing a head-covering in public, according to Fox News, as well as attacks on the press.
Thomas-Greenfield claims, however, that the US’ commitment to “Afghan women and children” is “unwavering.” She added that the US government will only judge the Taliban based on their “actions,” as opposed to public statements – presumably a reference to future “actions,” as the militant group has a well-documented history of oppression against women and others.
As thousands of citizens and allies still wait to be evacuated from the country – some have even been told to make long treks during which their security cannot be guaranteed – Thomas-Greenfield also claimed flights are actually leaving “24 hours a day” and the US will not stop until everyone is out.
The ambassador has faced accusations of downplaying the situation in Afghanistan and hiding behind a “strongly worded” press statement to avoid directly addressing the issues at play.
“The Taliban just survived a 20-year dose-e-doe with the greatest combined military might in the history of the world and we expect them to yield to a ‘strongly worded press statement,’” the Daily Caller’s Geoffrey Ingersoll tweeted in response to Thomas-Greenfield.
“Oh [yeah]… The Taliban cares about a ‘strongly worded press statement.’ We live in the stupidest of regimes,” activist Erielle Davidson added.
In March, Thomas-Greenfield appeared to take a much more assertive stance on women’s rights around the globe at a virtual discussion on “gender priorities.” The ambassador called for women to be in more leadership roles, specifically in regards to situations like the one the US is facing in Afghanistan.
“The evidence is overwhelming: involving women in peacekeeping significantly increases the probability that violence will end. And by promoting women’s participation and leadership – in politics, in mediations, in negotiations – we promote more security and more peace for women,” she said.
The stupidity of threatening someone who has just sorely defeated you is astonishing. A freshly defeated country should show some humility. Since they are not going back into Afghanistan no matter what, their threats sound like the Monty Python sketch where the Knight loses he arms and legs and threatens the villain - "Come back here, I'll bite your kneecap off".
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Some countries learn from recent history, some don't.
Swiss govt says it won't accept large groups of Afghan refugees
18 Aug, 2021 15:54
Amid chaotic scenes in Kabul as thousands of Afghans attempt to flee the Taliban takeover, Switzerland has said it will not accept large groups of refugees from the war-torn country, but is prioritizing helping its local staff.
After a Swiss Army unit arrived in Kabul to assess the tumultuous situation, the Alpine country said on Wednesday it had decided against accepting mass intakes of Afghans and instead will assess applications for asylum on a case-by-case basis.
“Switzerland is not going to sit back and do nothing,” Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said, adding “we must first look at what the needs are.”
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said that she understood appeals to take in large numbers of desperate Afghan refugees, but it was not currently possible. “There are different UN organizations trying to work out in an unclear situation if and how many people need long-term protection and if these people need to be resettled,” she told reporters.
The Swiss government said that humanitarian visas would only be considered for people facing an “immediate, concrete, serious and directly life-threatening threat.”
The statement came as reports emerged of the Taliban opening fire on civilians protesting against the militant group in Jalalabad, and following shocking footage on Monday showing several Afghans plunging to their deaths after climbing onto the exterior of US military aircraft in heartbreaking attempts to escape via Kabul airport.
Similar to other foreign governments, Switzerland has prioritized evacuating its own nationals from Afghanistan, as well as 348 locals who worked on the ground for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and their families, who the Swiss government said could be seen as “Western collaborators” by the Taliban.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry tweeted on Monday that the remaining three Swiss staff members of the development office had landed in Doha.
The humanitarian and security situation in Afghanistan has rapidly worsened since the withdrawal of US troops started in earnest in May – a decision initiated by former President Donald Trump and implemented by current President Joe Biden. More and more key cities fell to Taliban militants in recent weeks, with the group capturing the capital on Monday.
‘No reason why Afghans should come here’: Austrian minister rebuffs
calls to take more refugees after Kabul takeover by Taliban
18 Aug, 2021 12:18
© Stringer / Reuters
Austria’s interior minister said that Vienna does not plan to accept more refugees after the Taliban seized power in Kabul. Austrian officials proposed setting up deportation sites around Afghanistan instead.
“Illegal migration that comes through a dozen safe countries, and where migrants simply choose the country of their destination, must be stopped,” Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told the German newspaper Die Welt on Wednesday.
There is no reason why Afghans should come to Austria now.
The minister from the conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP) said that the landlocked country of nearly nine million has granted protection status to more than 130,000 people over the past five years.
“Almost 35,000 of these people arrived from Afghanistan. The majority of them are young men, who often have a low level of education or are illiterate, and pose a major challenge for integration and [our] social system,” Nehammer said.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his government have long been insisting that Austria continue deporting rejected asylum seekers and illegal migrants to their home countries.
On Monday, a day after the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, fell to the Taliban with little to no resistance, Nehammer and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schellenberg proposed that the EU set up deportation centers in the region around Afghanistan if it will be impossible to return people to the country due to European human rights law.
Other Austrian politicians took a different stance. Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPO), tweeted that the city is ready to accept Afghans who helped Austrian diplomats and campaigned for the rights of women and girls.
A similar pledge was made by Innsbruck Mayor Georg Willi (The Greens) who said in an open letter that the city of close to 300,000 people “has space, and can – and will – offer protection.”
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen wrote on social media that deporting Afghans home right now will place them in imminent danger.
International observers were shocked by the chaotic scenes in Kabul over the weekend as locals rushed to the Hamid Karzai Airport and desperately swarmed the tarmac in the hope of catching a plane to flee the country. Although the Taliban said it would prevent violence, the situation on the ground remains tense.
EU nations like Germany and the Netherlands suspended deportations to Afghanistan, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling for a humanitarian effort to help the refugees.
Hungary, which is ruled by a conservative government, meanwhile, said it will not allow unrestricted access of Afghan asylum seekers into its territory. The dramatic developments in Kabul and other parts of the country “could bring about an era in migration and international terrorism that we didn't want and perhaps could have avoided,” Levente Magyar, state secretary of Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday.
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