A short story by Grifon for The Saker Blog On the path of the warrior are 4 enemies. Fear, clarity, power, and old age (or death). No warrior has conquered the last. (The Teachings of Don Juan ) Clearly the world is gripped by an Apocalyptic Plague and the salvation is in the hands of the Corporate Overlords. It is the vaccine, it is fact checked, and it is
By Zamir Awan for The Saker Blog The US, along with its 46 Allies and additional 11 nationals supporting the war on terror, 150,000 well-trained, well-equipped, most sophisticated and lethal weapons, hi-tech and advanced military techniques, two trillion dollars, and two decades, altogether destroyed Afghanistan. The explosives drooped in Afghanistan is much more than the compiled explosive used in World war I & II, yet not satisfied, and before leaving
By Michael Hudson and posted with special permission. In a Financial Times op-ed, “Investors in Xi’s China face a rude awakening” (August 30, 2021), George Soros writes that Xi’s “crackdown on private enterprise shows he does not understand the market economy. … Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has collided with economic reality. His crackdown on private enterprise has been a significant drag on the economy.” Translated out of Orwellian Doublethink, the
by Pepe Escobar for The Saker Blog and friends Dear reader: this is very special, a trip down memory lane like no other: back to prehistoric times – the pre-9/11, pre-YouTube, pre-social network world. Welcome to Taliban Afghanistan – Talibanistan – in the Year 2000. This is when photographer Jason Florio and myself slowly crossed it overland from east to west, from the Pakistani border at Torkham to the Iranian
By Peter Koenig for The Saker Blog All flags are on half-mast in the US of A. The cause are the 13 American soldiers killed in this huge suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, on Thursday, 26 August. As it stands, at least 150 people – Afghans, including at least 30 Taliban – plus 13 American military – were killed and at least 1,300 injured, according to
By Observer R for the Saker Blog In my previous article, A Poisoned Chalice? (The Saker Blog, December 15, 2020), I noted that there were so many crises and troubles ahead for the United States (US) that it was questionable as to whether it was a good idea to be the winner of the 2020 election. Whichever candidate took office in January 2021 would inherit a vast slate of problems.
By Aram Mirzaei for the Saker blog These past weeks in Afghanistan have been what some would call a shit storm, in lack of better words. What is unfolding in front of our eyes is truly both a tragedy of great proportions and a spectacle of some sort I guess. After 20 years of occupation, Washington and its obedient dogs are not just retreating, they are fleeing in panic from
by Pepe Escobar and first posted at AsiaTimes It was 20 years ago today. Asia Times published Get Osama! Now! Or Else…The rest is history. Retrospectively, this sounds like news from another galaxy. Before Planet 9/11. Before GWOT (Global War on Terror). Before the Forever Wars. Before the social network era. Before the Russia-China strategic partnership. Before the Dronification of State Violence. Before techno-feudalism. Allow me to get a little
The Kabul Airport bombing shows there are shadowy forces in Afghanistan, willing to disrupt a peaceful transition after US troops leave. But what about US intel’s own ‘shadow army,’ amassed over two decades of occupation? Who are they, and what is their agenda? by Pepe Escobar with permission and special and first posting for the new website The Cradle. So we have the CIA Director William Burns deploying in
ISIS-Khorasan aims to prove to Afghans and to the outside world that the Taliban cannot secure the capital By Pepe Escobar posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times The horrific Kabul suicide bombing introduces an extra vector in an already incandescent situation: It aims to prove, to Afghans and to the outside world, that the nascent Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is incapable of securing the capital. As it
Whoever bought Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and other US defense stocks made a literal killing By Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times After 20 years and a staggering US$2.23 trillion spent in a “forever war” persistently spun as promoting democracy and benefiting the “Afghan people,” it’s legitimate to ask what the Empire of Chaos has to show for it. The numbers are dire. Afghanistan
From Zamir Awan for the Saker Blog 46 allies, plus 11 supporter countries, totaling 57 countries, deployed 150,000 troops at peak time, all modern weapons, latest technology, advanced tactics, and trillions of dollars could not defeat the Taliban. Taliban were poorly equipped with light weapons, barefooted, empty stomach, and untrained, and poorly organized groups, yet, won the war. Americans must have learned a bitter lesson that it is not their
Germany has been the keystone of the failing EU. Does it intend to remain so, or is it time to pursue its own interests? by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Germany has been and still is the most important economy in Europe, the export-driven colossus and if not yet the most important imperial power; that designation belongs to France with its Force de Frappe (Nuclear Strike Force), and additionally
By Larry Romanoff for The Saker Blog What do the following people have in common? George Soros, Elon Musk, Jeffery Epstein, Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Sanger, Jimmy Wales. Two things. One, they are Jewish. Two, they condensed from a spiritual mist to almost suddenly become household names, men of immense wealth whose companies exert huge influence on Western society – but men who apparently achieved these enviable heights without the usual
By Larchmonter445 for The Saker Blog Whether you supported the 20-year war in Afghanistan or not, if you are American, you paid for it. Two Trillion Dollars. Your personal tax tab is 7 thousand dollars. If you sent a relative or friend into this horror in South Asia, you paid an emotional price also. If your relative or friend lost his or her life, you paid again, most grievously. If
By Michael Hudson, first posted at Unz Review and Expanded for The Saker Blog President Biden put a popular flag-waving wrapping for at America’s forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in his 4 PM speech on Monday. It was as if all this was following Biden’s own intentions, not a demonstration of the totally incompetent assurances by the CIA and State Department as recently as last Friday that the Taliban was over
By Pepe Escobar: The Saker Blog and cross-posted at the Unz Review. The first Taliban press conference after this weekend’s Saigon moment geopolitical earthquake, conducted by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, was in itself a game-changer. The contrast could not be starker with those rambling pressers at the Taliban embassy in Islamabad after 9/11 and before the start of the American bombing – proving this is an entirely new political animal. Yet
The US ‘loss’ of Afghanistan is a repositioning and the new mission is not a ‘war on terror,’ but Russia and China By Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first published at Asia Times Wakil Kohsar Wait until the war is over And we’re both a little older The unknown soldier Breakfast where the news is read Television children fed Unborn living, living, dead Bullet strikes the helmet’s head And
A Case Study by Francis Lee for The Saker Blog Civil wars are by their nature rather messy and often brutal affairs involving inter alia internecine conflicts, secessions, forced reunifications, mass murder, military stand-offs and long-lasting periods of bitterness. Most states in Europe and North America have not managed to avoid this regrettable pattern of conflict, looking back, this much always seemed unavoidable. The English Civil War was no exception
By Zamir Awan for the Saker Blog Life is very much normal, internet service, mobile service is functioning in a routine. Shops are opened, traffic is in normal routine, schools are opened, everything seems very much normal. The government is functioning, bureaucracy is functioning, police is functioning, just ex-president Ashraf Ghani is not in Afghanistan. Just a few days ago, the US announced that it will take three months for
