The West had 20 years to advance the cause of social development in Afghanistan. Its failure opened the door for the return of the Taliban.

Why is the “open secret” of Israel’s nuclear weapons kept secret? Because if the US government revealed what it knows it would immediately raise uncomfortable questions about the legality of foreign aid to Israel.

The Taliban defeat of the United States is a turning point in world history. Not only will the power of the American empire be weakened, but the War on Terror has also been politically defeated in within the United States. This is the beginning of the end of the American century.

Israel has stopped arguing for years the actual content of human rights reports or allegations directed at its conduct. Instead, Israel’s strategy is to simply attack human rights organizations themselves.

Park Avenue synagogue uses images of occupied Jerusalem along with a psalm Jews recite in the days leading up to the High Holidays. “It’s a perfect one verse statement of contemporary synagogue Judaism. I have only one ask of God: Zionism.”

Many of the wounds of the Israeli occupation are bloodless and invisible. But like pieces of shrapnel lodged in the chest, they will eventually find their way to pierce the heart.

A month after Osama bin Laden was killed Barack Obama declared that the United States was reaching its goals in Afghanistan and that he’d begin withdrawing troops. By 2016 he went back on that promise. Joe Biden’s speech defending the U.S. withdrawal was a terrible exercise in imperial hubris, but it reflected an attitude that has been consistent across the U.S. political class since 9/11.

The Taliban’s leadership has tried to reassure the public of a “peaceful transition,” but has not yet articulated a plan for Afghanistan. What comes next is unknown.

As the tragedy in Afghanistan continues, there is at least one positive consequence. The warmongers in Israel and their allies in the neoconservative Washington, D.C. war party will find it even harder to convince the American public to support an invasion and “regime change” in Iran.

“Israel never misses a chance to ruin Gaza’s mornings.” Israeli drones are an ever present part of life in Gaza, and serve as a trigger for painful memories of war.