RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17696/biden-kabul-travel-agency

The immediate question everyone faces is whether or not to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government.

To start with, the current international doctrine is that no government produced through war and violence should be granted de jure recognition unless and until it has submitted to some form of referendum or elections supervised by the United Nations.

Whether or not to legitimize a terrorist group determined to impose a repressive regime on a long suffering nation is the key issue. It cannot be handled without the “Great Satan,” now inspiring stand-up comedians, leading the way.

Whatever Fukuyma and others may fantasize about a “world without America” is not for today.

Twenty years ago when the United States was sucked into the Afghan cesspool, pundits were divided about the ultimate aim of intervention. President George W Bush talked of GWOT (remember the acronym?) or Global War on Terror. His critics argued that, unless it led to nation-building in Afghanistan, the intervention would make no sense.

Two decades later, the intervention has not advanced GWOT, as Islamist terrorism has spread to two dozen countries in Asia and Africa, with sleeper cells in Latin America. As for nation-building, the US has instead ended up with a travel agency based in Kabul airport under an astonishingly incompetent management.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17677/persecution-of-christians-july

A Muslim teacher raped an 8-year-old Christian in a school bathroom, and the school and police are covering it up…. “The school management is protecting the rapist, and the police are colluding with them. Who should we look to for justice?…” — Morning Star News, July 11, 2021, Pakistan.

In July 24, another Christian girl—this time only 3-years-old—was raped at a school sponsored by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). The man who raped Anna Chand is allegedly the female principal’s own husband, Muhammad Saleem…. Since filing charges, friends of Muhammad were reportedly threatening to accuse the Christian parents with blasphemy—which would likely lead to jail or worse—unless they dropped the charges. — Pakistan Christian Post, August 5, 2021, Pakistan.

“The number of defenseless Christians hacked to death by Nigeria’s Islamic Jihadists and their collaborators in the security forces in the past 200 days… has risen to no fewer than 3,462….” — Times Live, July 8, 2021, Nigeria.

Article 500 of Iran’s [new] penal code now states that “any deviant education or propaganda that contradicts or interferes with the sacred Sharia [Islamic law] will be severely punished.” … “The amendment was signed into law by then-President Hassan Rouhani on Feb. 18 and went into effect on March 5.” — Morning Star News, July 6, 2021, Iran.

The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of July, 2021:

The Abduction, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls in Pakistan

A Muslim teacher raped an 8-year-old Christian in a school bathroom, and the school and police are covering it up. According to the July 11 report, Shahzad Masih’s young daughter was “shaking and screaming in pain when she returned home from school that day, June 22, her uniform spotted with blood.” “She did not utter a word all afternoon and just kept crying and screaming in pain,” her father explained.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17678/iran-taliban-victory

In the past, the Iranian regime used to hide its ties with Taliban; not anymore…. “The Taliban today,” Kayhan wrote recently, “is different from the Taliban that used to behead people.” So far, there seems insufficient evidence if that is true. At the moment, it does not look that way.
“Thinking that the Taliban will come under Tehran’s command is tantamount to growing a snake up your sleeve.” — Ali Khorram, former Iranian diplomat, iranintl.com.
The Iranian regime seems happy to build alliances with any government or terror group that shares Tehran’s hatred towards Saudi Arabia, the Gulf countries, Israel or the US.
One of the critical opportunities that the Iranian regime sees in Taliban’s takeover is that the group can once again become a safe haven for terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, or Islamic State — called virtually identical “Pepsis” to the Taliban’s “Coke” — that attack the United States.
In 2017, a trove of 470,000 documents released by the CIA also revealed close ties between Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Iranian regime. A federal court ruling, found that “Iran furnished material and direct support for the 9/11 terrorists.” At least eight of the hijackers passed through Iran before heading to the US. A federal US District court ordered Iran, for its role in 9/11, to pay some of its victims more than $10 billion, although there may be no way to force Iran to comply. US Federal courts have also ruled that Iran still owes Americans $53 billion for Iran having bombed the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983, and other assaults.
What we are seeing is that the Biden administration just handed the mullahs of Iran – as well as the Chinese, the Russians, the North Koreans and the Turks — yet another victory as they all cheer the US failure in Afghanistan and celebrate the takeover of Central Asia by terrorists.

Among the many winners of the Biden administration’s failure in Afghanistan and takeover of the country by the Taliban, are the mullahs of Iran’s regime. The assumption that Iran and the Taliban are not allies because one is Shia and the other is Sunni, is woefully inaccurate.

Iran’s leaders have long been waiting for this takeover — at least one of the reasons they have been cheering America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Even before the American surrender, the Iranian regime had been meeting with the leaders of the Taliban. In January, a delegation from the Taliban was already publicly consulting with senior Iranian officials, including then Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. According to him, both parties held productive talks, and discussed their ties and the future of Afghanistan

As Zarif pointed out during his discussions with the Taliban delegation, the Iranian regime was lobbying for the Taliban and stating that:

“political decisions cannot be made in a vacuum and an inclusive government must be formed in a participatory process and needs to consider all fundamental structures, institutions, and laws, such as the constitution.”

In addition, in late January, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, tweeted:

“In today’s meeting with the Taliban political delegation, I found that the leaders of this group are determined to fight the United States.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistan-kabul-airport-explosion-11629976397

More than 100 people were killed, including at least 13 U.S. service members and 90 Afghans, at the Kabul airport Thursday when two blasts ripped through crowds trying to enter the American-controlled facility, disrupting the final push of the U.S.-led evacuation effort.

A suicide bomb attack at the airport’s Abbey Gate was followed by an assault by gunmen, officials said. Another bomb attack took place nearby, at a hotel outside the airport, officials said. Eighteen U.S. service members were injured, the Pentagon said.

The attack marked the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2011, and came just five days before the Biden administration’s deadline for the complete military withdrawal from the country. The military expects more attacks, Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie told reporters.

President Biden on Thursday evening said he was heartbroken by the violence and vowed to retaliate for the attacks, while promising to continue evacuation efforts.

“We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Mr. Biden said in remarks at the White House. He said he had instructed his national security advisers to develop response plans to the attack.

U.S. officials attributed the violence to Islamic State’s regional offshoot. Islamic State claimed responsibility in a report posted by its Amaq news agency.

The Taliban are a sworn enemy of Islamic State, and shot dead one of the group’s top leaders in Afghanistan hours after taking over the Kabul prison where he was held. The two Islamist groups have fought each other in Afghanistan since 2015, particularly in the eastern part of the country. As recently as Tuesday, a Taliban spokesman told Iranian state media that Islamic State no longer existed in Afghanistan.

“We strongly condemn this gruesome incident and will take every step to bring the culprits to justice,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17680/europe-afghan-migrants

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has estimated that up to five million people will try to leave Afghanistan for Europe.

“I am clearly opposed to us now taking in more people. That will not happen under my chancellorship. Taking in people who then cannot be integrated is a huge problem for us as a country.” — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

“As minister of the interior, I am primarily responsible for the people living in Austria. Above all, this means protecting social peace and the welfare state over the long term.” — Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer.

“It is clear to us that 2015 must not be repeated. We will not be able to solve the Afghanistan issue by migration to Germany.” — Paul Ziemiak, general secretary of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

Afghan criminals, including rapists and drug traffickers, who previously had been deported to Afghanistan, have now returned to Germany on evacuation flights. Upon arrival in Germany, they immediately submitted new asylum applications.

“Our country will not be a gateway to Europe for illegal Afghan migrants.” — Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarachi.

“We need to remind our European friends of this fact: Europe — which has become the center of attraction for millions of people — cannot stay out of the Afghan refugee problem by harshly sealing its borders to protect the safety and wellbeing of its citizens. Turkey has no duty, responsibility or obligation to be Europe’s refugee warehouse.” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Taliban conquest of Afghanistan is poised to trigger an unprecedented wave of Afghan migration to Europe, which is bracing for the arrival of potentially hundreds of thousands — possibly even millions — of refugees and migrants from the war-torn country.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, expressing an ominous sense of foreboding, has estimated that up to five million people will try to leave Afghanistan for Europe. Such migration numbers, if they materialize, would make the previous migration crisis of 2015 — when more than a million people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East made their way to Europe — pale by comparison.

Since 2015, around 570,000 Afghans — almost exclusively young men — have requested asylum in the European Union, according to EU estimates. In 2020, Afghanistan was the EU’s second-biggest source of asylum applicants after those from Syria.