Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

  Afghanistan maybe half-way around the world - and seemingly in another planet - the fact is that it matters. Responsible citizens needs to know and then respond accordingly. After twenty years of war, engagement, and ‘nation-building,’ America and its allies are withdrawing from Afghanistan. We were told that now is the time. Intelligence agencies said it would take eighteen months for Kabul to fall to the Taliban. Only in July 2021, Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Afghan security forces had the capacity to sufficiently defend themselves. They had twenty years of training and tens of billions of dollars worth of high quality US weaponry. They had two air bases in Bagram and Kandahar. Joe Biden said that the Afghan army had 300,000 troops, armed with high quality US equipment versus 75,000 Taliban. ’ There is going to be no circumstance in which you are going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afg...

Another tragedy, another headline: Paris, Ankara, Istanbul, and now Brussels. Belgium authorities knew that an attack was possible. The stakes were raised even higher after the capture a few days earlier of Salah Abdel Salaam, an Islamic State operative accused of being part of the Paris Massacre of Friday 13th November 2015. The death total was 129. Yet, when on March 22, 2016, terrorists struck Zaventem International Airport in Brussels, transit point for 23 million people a year, and a train station, resulting in over 31 deaths, several missing, and 270 injured, it seemed to come as a surprise. What was not a surprise is that the so-called Islamic State claimed credit. Yes, there were condemnations from world leaders, expressions of sympathy to the people of Belgium, declarations of support as well as action against terrorism. Before all else, we need to ask: how do we make sense of the senseless? First, it is important to face the situation with healthy realism an...

It was meant to be a fun and relaxing night in the ‘City of Lights.’ It was Friday night, 13 November 2015. People were dining out, attending a sports event, and also a concert. It was around 9:00 PM. Like the notorious attacks seven years ago, where 10 men from a boat terrorised and paralysed the city of Mumbai, Paris came under a well-planned, simultaneous series of attacks: La Belle Equipe: 19 dead by shooting; Le Carillon Bar & Le Petit Cambodge Restaurant: 12 dead by guns; La Casa Nostra Restaurant: 5 dead by gunfire; Stade de France, where 80,000 gathered to watch France v. Germany: explosion outside, 3 attackers dead; Batacian Concert Hall: several gunmen killed 80 dead. Death toll so far: 127 dead. The Islamic State has claimed credit for these attacks which are in retaliation of France’s participation in the Allied bombing of IS positions in Syria. Initial assessments say that these are jihadis who have returned back to France after trainin...