Politics
Opposition MPs slam mismanagement, politics in health sector
Opposition MPs on Wednesday sharply criticised the government for mismanagement in the health sector, particularly politics by physicians and high fees in private hospitals.
They came up with their harsh remarks while taking part in discussions on the Medical Colleges (Governing Bodies) (Repeal) Bill 2021 in Parliament.
In response to their criticisms of doctors for their involvement in politics, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said all citizens have the right to do politics.
Joining the discussions, Jatiya Party MP Kazi Firoz Rashid (Dhaka-6) said BNP had formed DAB (Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh) and Awami League, coming in power, formed Swachip (Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad).
“We would have been happy had he (Health Minister) incorporated a provision in this bill that the doctors and scientists wouldn’t be allowed to do politics, but he didn’t,” Firoz Rashid said.
He said if the physicians do politics, what would be the job of politicians! “Meritorious students study medical courses. But get deprived of medical services if they do politics,” said Firoz.
BNP MP Harunur Rashid (Chapainawabganj-3) said the health system is still in a sorry state even after the 50 years of the country’s independence. “Now those who’re working in government hospitals are also doing business in private hospitals.”
He said so many private medical colleges were established. “Do the colleges meet the standards? How many students of the colleges can qualify BCS exams?” he said.
Read: Health sector officials and staff directed to refrain from divulging info
Blinken pushes back on GOP criticism of Afghan withdrawal
Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed back Monday against harsh Republican criticism of the handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the Biden administration inherited a deal with the Taliban to end the war, but no plan for carrying it out.
In a sometimes contentious hearing Monday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Blinken sought to blunt complaints from angry GOP lawmakers about the administration’s response to the quick collapse of the Afghan government and, more specifically, the State Department’s actions to evacuate Americans and others.
Read: Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Gaza truce
Blinken echoed White House talking points blaming the Trump administration for the situation that President Joe Biden inherited in Afghanistan. “We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan,” he said, maintaining that the administration had done the right thing in ending 20 years of war.
“We made the right decision in ending America’s longest-running war,” said Blinken, who will testify on Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Republicans savaged the withdrawal process as “a disaster” and “a disgrace.” And while some Democrats allowed that the operation could have been handled better, many used their questions to heap criticism on former President Donald Trump.
The State Department has come under heavy criticism from both sides for not doing enough and not acting quickly enough to get American citizens, legal residents and at-risk Afghans out of the country after the Taliban took control of Kabul on Aug. 15. Some seeking to leave remain stranded there, although Blinken could not provide an exact number. He said roughly 100 U.S. citizens remain along with about “several thousand” green card holders.
Read: Blinken heads to Egypt to shore up Gaza cease-fire efforts
“This was an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions,” said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the committee. He said the abrupt withdrawal along with leaving some Americans and Afghans behind had “emboldened the Taliban” and other U.S. adversaries. “I can summarize this in one word: betrayal.”
His GOP colleagues Steve Chabot of Ohio and Lee Zeldin of New York were even more blunt. “This is a disgrace,” Chabot said. “This was fatally flawed and poorly executed,” said Zeldin. “I believe that you, sir, should resign. That would be leadership.”
The chairman of the committee, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, urged his colleagues to keep politics out of their criticism. But he acknowledged that there had been problems. “Could things have been done differently? Absolutely,” he said.
As flights resume, plight of Afghan allies tests Biden’s vow
Evacuation flights have resumed for Westerners, but thousands of at-risk Afghans who had helped the United States are still stranded in their homeland with the U.S. Embassy shuttered, all American diplomats and troops gone and the Taliban now in charge.
With the United States and Taliban both insisting on travel documents that may no longer be possible to get in Afghanistan, the plight of those Afghans is testing President Joe Biden’s promises not to leave America’s allies behind.
An evacuation flight out of Kabul on Thursday, run by the Gulf state of Qatar and the first of its kind since U.S.-led military evacuations ended Aug. 30, focused on U.S. passport and green card holders and other foreigners.
For the U.S. lawmakers, veterans groups and other Americans who’ve been scrambling to get former U.S. military interpreters and other at-risk Afghans on charter flights out, the relaunch of evacuation flights did little to soothe fears that the U.S. might abandon countless Afghan allies.
A particular worry are those whose U.S. special immigrant visas — meant for Afghans who helped Americans during the 20-year war — still were in the works when the Taliban took Kabul in a lightning offensive on Aug. 15. The U.S. abandoned its embassy building that same weekend.
Read: Biden defends departure from ‘forever war,’ praises airlift
“For all intents and purposes, these people’s chances of escaping the Taliban ended the day we left them behind,” said Afghanistan war veteran Matt Zeller, founder of No One Left Behind. It’s among dozens of grassroots U.S. groups working to get out Afghan translators and others who supported Americans.
An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on the commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday with the cooperation of the Taliban. Ten U.S. citizens and 11 green-card holders made Thursday’s flight, State Department spokesman Ned Price said. Americans organizing charter evacuation flights said they knew of more U.S. passport and green-card holders in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and elsewhere awaiting flights out.
In the U.S., National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said Thursday’s flight was the result of “careful and hard diplomacy and engagement” and said the Taliban “have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort.”
But many doubt the Taliban will be as accommodating for Afghans who supported the U.S. In Mazar-e-Sharif, a more than weeklong standoff over charter planes at the airport there has left hundreds of people — mostly Afghans, but some with American passports and green cards — stranded, waiting for Taliban permission to leave.
Afghans and their American supporters say the Taliban are blocking all passengers in Mazar-e-Sharif from boarding the waiting charter flights, including those with proper travel papers.
Zeller pointed to the Taliban appointment this week of a hard-line government. It includes Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $5 million bounty for alleged attacks and kidnappings, as interior minister, a position putting him in charge of granting passports.
The Trump administration all but stopped approval of the Afghan special immigrant visas, or SIVs, in its final months. The Biden administration, too, was criticized for failing to move faster on evacuating Afghans before Kabul fell to the Taliban.
The U.S. had also required some visa-seekers to go outside the country to apply, a requirement that became far more dangerous with the Taliban takeover last month.
“There are all of these major logistical obstacles,” said Betsy Fisher of the International Refugee Assistance Project, which provides legal services to SIV applicants. “How will people leave Afghanistan?”
Read: War is over but not Biden’s Afghanistan challenges
She said with no clear plan in place, the U.S. government could wind up encouraging people to go on risky journeys.
In July, after Biden welcomed home the first airlift, he made clear the U.S. would help even those Afghans with pending visa applications get out of Afghanistan “so that they can wait in safety while they finish their visa applications.”
Since the military airlifts ended on Aug. 30, however, the Biden administration and Taliban have emphasized that Afghans needed passports and visas. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday the administration was looking at steps like electronic visas.
Hundreds of Afghans who say they are in danger of Taliban reprisals have gathered for more than a week in Mazar-e-Sharif, waiting for permission to board evacuation flights chartered by U.S. supporters.
Among them was an Afghan who worked for 15 years as a U.S. military interpreter. He has been moving from hotel to hotel in Mazar-e-Sharif and running out of money as he, his eight children and his wife waited for the OK from the Taliban to leave.
“I’m frightened I will be left behind,” said the man, whose name was withheld by The Associated Press for his safety. “I don’t know what the issue is — is it a political issue, or they don’t care about us?”
The interpreter’s visa was approved weeks before the last U.S. troops left the country, but he could not get it stamped into his passport because the U.S. Embassy shut down.
He said Thursday that he doesn’t trust Taliban assurances that they will not take revenge against Afghans who worked for the Americans.
Read:Biden: Another attack likely, pledges more strikes on IS
Biden, already criticized for his handling of the evacuation, is being pushed by Democrats and also on both sides by Republicans, with some saying he’s not doing enough to help America’s former allies and others that he’s not doing enough to keep potential threats out of the U.S.
Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Mike Waltz, both Republicans, said in a statement that hundreds of those at-risk Afghans and U.S. residents remain “trapped behind enemy lines.” The Biden administration “must provide Congress and the American people ... with a plan to get them safely out of Afghanistan.”
The Association of War Time Allies estimates tens of thousands of special immigrant visa applicants remain in Afghanistan.
An American citizen in New York is trying to get two cousins out of the country who applied for SIVs late last year and were still waiting for approval when the U.S. Embassy shut down. She said both cousins worked for a U.S. aid group for a combined eight years and are frightened the Taliban will find them.
“They’re scared, they feel abandoned. They put their entire lives at risk, and when the U.S. was exiting, they were told they would get out,” said the American, Fahima, whose last name and the name of the aid group are being withheld to protect her cousins. “Where is the helping hand?”
AL exploiting people, alleges Fakhrul
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said people will never forgive Awami League as it has become a ‘repressive’ political party.
“Awami League is exploiting the country and its people in collaboration with some individuals and bureaucrats,” he said.
Talking to journalists at Kalibari residence here, the BNP leader said the Awami League, which once had struggled for establishing people’s rights and democracy, is now repressing people and snatching their rights.
He said the ruling party leaders are now indulging in widespread corruption deviating from the party’s old tradition and stance on democracy since it has got isolated from people. “Now it has no relation with people’s hopes and aspirations.”
READ: Fakhrul takes dig at AL, says now ‘bureaucrats running’ country
Fakhrul said bureaucrats now “own assets worth crores of taka. A police inspector has 18 houses in Dhaka city alongside having more houses abroad. If a police officer can amass such wealth, then you think about the condition of the entire system,” the BNP leader said.
“Now people aren’t getting justice. They’re being deprived of their rights. But Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader regularly says many things only to appease his leaders,” he observed.
Fakhrul said their party has only one demand for arranging a credible election under a neutral government and the impartial Election Commission.
He said their party is in negotiations with the opposition parties to wage a united movement to ensure the fall of the current government and establish a pro-people government. “We’re taking preparations for that movement.”
READ: AL 'tainted' independence by distorting history: Fakhrul
Replying to a question about BNP’s position on Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Fakhrul said it is an internal matter of Afghanistan. “Afghanistan will run the way its people want. But I would like to say one thing that we don’t support any fundamentalism, militancy and extremism.”
The BNP leader said their party hopes that whichever government comes to Afghanistan, they will fulfill the hopes and aspirations of people and ensure their rights and work for their welfare.
Jill Biden heads back to classroom as a working first lady
Jill Biden is going back to her whiteboard.
After months of teaching writing and English to community college students in boxes on a computer screen, the first lady resumes teaching in person Tuesday from a classroom at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has worked since 2009.
She is the first first lady to leave the White House and log hours at a full-time job.
“There are some things you just can’t replace, and I can’t wait to get back in the classroom,” she recently told Good Housekeeping magazine.
Read:Jill Biden, Joe's chief protector, stepping up as first lady
The first lady has been anxious to see her students in person after more than a year of virtual teaching brought on by a pandemic that continues to challenge the Biden administration.
A working first lady is a “big deal,” said Tammy Vigil, a Boston University communications professor who wrote a book about first ladies Michelle Obama and Melania Trump.
The nation’s early first ladies did not work outside the home, especially when home was the White House. They supported their husbands, raised children and performed the role of hostess.
Some first ladies acted as special ambassadors for their husbands. Eleanor Roosevelt was especially active, traveling around the U.S. and reporting back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose activities were limited by polio. She advocated for the poor, minorities and other disadvantaged people, and began writing a nationally syndicated newspaper column from the White House.
More recent first ladies, like Laura Bush, who was an elementary school teacher and librarian, had stopped working outside the home after having children and were not employed when their husbands were elected. Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama were working mothers who decided against continuing their careers in the White House.
Jill Biden, 70, is forging a new path for herself and her successors.
The first lady has said she always wanted to be a career woman. She taught at the Virginia community college during the eight years that her husband was vice president and was not about to let the added responsibility of being first lady force her to give up a career she so closely identifies with.
“Teaching isn’t just what I do. It’s who I am,” she says.
Women made up nearly half, or 47%, of the U.S. labor force in 2019, according to Catalyst, a women’s workplace advocacy group.
Leaders of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions are pleased that one of their own is now in a position to help influence the administration’s education policies and raise the profile of a profession in which many have long felt unappreciated.
“She sees it up close and personally and now, in the position as first lady, not only does she give voice to that from a place of understanding, she has an opportunity to create a platform and to have influence,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.
Read:White House upgrade: First lady's done a lot with the place
President Joe Biden told teachers attending the NEA’s annual meeting that he learned about what they were going through by watching his wife as she learned how to teach online.
“It gave me an appreciation firsthand that I thought I had, but I wouldn’t have had had I not seen it,” he said at the July meeting. “And then going out and teaching — she was working four or five hours a day, getting ready to teach, putting her lesson plans together ... a different way.”
In 1976, a year after she met and began dating then-U.S. Sen. Biden, Jill Biden started teaching English at a Roman Catholic high school in Wilmington, Delaware. She later taught at a psychiatric hospital and at Delaware Technical Community College.
She earned two master’s degrees and a doctorate in educational leadership during those years.
After Joe Biden became vice president in 2009, she joined the faculty at Northern Virginia Community College. She continued to teach there after he left office and throughout his 2020 presidential campaign, including virtually after the pandemic hit.
Her virtual teaching continued as first lady, from her office in the White House East Wing or hotel rooms when she traveled to promote administration policies. She grades papers on flights.
“It shatters the norms of what first ladies do,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Jill Biden tries to keep her political identity out of the classroom and has said that many of her former students in Virginia had no idea she was married to the vice president. She also did not talk about it. Secret Service agents accompanied her for security, but she had them dress casually and tote backpacks in an attempt to blend into the campus environment.
But being first lady, for which there is no job description or pay, comes with a much higher level of visibility, security and scrutiny.
First ladies make numerous public appearances — with or without the president — to promote their own or the president’s issues, garnering coverage from national and local news media. Vogue magazine splashed the first lady on the cover of its August issue.
Read: Michelle Obama, Mia Hamm among 9 chosen for Women's HOF
Jill Biden will teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with travel on days when she is not in the classroom. Her employer, the commonwealth of Virginia, requires everyone to wear face coverings indoors on Northern Virginia Community College campuses, regardless of vaccination status. The first lady is fully vaccinated.
The school is offering fall classes in a variety of formats, including fully remote, in-person on campus and a hybrid.
Anne M. Kress, president of Northern Virginia Community College, said she looked forward to welcoming the students and faculty, including Jill Biden, for the fall semester and expressed gratitude for their commitment to “excellence in instruction and equity in opportunity.”
“Their belief in our students is deep, real, and transformational,” Kress said.
Uneasy calm in Fatikchhari following issuance of section 144
Fatikchaari, Aug 27 (UNB)- An uneasy calm prevails in the College Road area in Fatikchhari upazila of Chittogram following the issuance of section 144, prohibiting assembly of five or more people, holding of public meetings, and carrying of firearms.
The local administration issued the section 144 on Friday to avoid imminent clash as two disputing parties of the ruling Awami League led by Nazim Uddin Muhuri, general secretary of Upazila Awami League and Upazila Chairman Abu Tayyab announced a program in the premises of Fatikchhari Government University College and auditorium at the same time.
Read: Section 144 imposed in Thakurgaon temple area
As a result, neither of the groups were unable to hold their pre scheduled program on Friday, but local Chhatra league activists, followers of the upazila chairman held a press conference briefing on the development .
When contacted, Upazila Awami League publicity secretary Borhan Uddin said, "Upazila Chhatra League announced a three-day program on the occasion of Bangabandhu's martyrdom anniversary." Upazila Awami League general secretary Nazim Uddin Muhuri and other upazila leaders were invited. However, a section of the Upazila Mahila League called for a retaliatory program in the same venue at the same time under the banner of Awami Paribar.”
Fatikchhari Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mohammad Rabiul Islam confirmed the information to UNB.
“ Additional police have been deployed in Fatikchhari and the situation is currently under the control of the law enforcement agencies.”
Wuhan lab leak theory more about politics than science: The Guardian
The Wuhan lab leak theory is more about politics than science, The Guardian newspaper reported Sunday.
Whatever this week's Biden review on the virus's origins finds, the cause of the pandemic lies in the destruction of animal habitats. As for the "lab leak" theory of the disease, scientists refuted the idea in the paper.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, made clear in his recent book that he changed his mind after intense consultations with other researchers, though initially he believed that COVID-19 escaped from a virus research centre, said an article in the paper.
READ: What the WHO coronavirus experts learned in Wuhan
"As things currently stand, the evidence strongly suggests that COVID-19 arose after a natural spillover event," Farrar was quoted as saying.
Farrar's point is backed by Professor James Wood, of Cambridge University.
"I think there is very strong evidence for this being caused by natural spillovers but that argument simply does not suit some political groups. They promote the idea that COVID-19 was caused by a lab leak because such a claim deflects attention from increasing evidence that indicates biodiversity loss, deforestation and wildlife trade - which increase the dangers of natural spillovers - are the real dangers that we face from pandemics," said Wood.
READ: WHO expert skeptical coronavirus leaked from controversial Wuhan lab
Biden orders 1,000 more troops to aid Afghanistan departure
President Joe Biden authorized on Saturday an additional 1,000 U.S. troops for deployment to Afghanistan, raising to roughly 5,000 the number of U.S. troops to ensure what Biden called an “orderly and safe drawdown” of American and allied personnel.
U.S. troops will also help in the evacuation of Afghans who worked with the military during the nearly two-decade war.
The last-minute decision to re-insert thousands of U.S. troops into Afghanistan reflected the dire state of security as the Taliban seized control of multiple Afghan cities in a few short days. The militant and fundamentalist movement gained control of key parts of the country it governed until being ousted by U.S. and coalition forces after the Sept. 11 attacks. Biden had set an Aug. 31 deadline for fully withdraw combat forces before the 20th anniversary of the attacks.
Read: US keeping distance as Afghan forces face Taliban rout
Biden attributed much of the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war, which Biden said created a blueprint that put U.S. forces in a difficult spot with an emboldened Taliban challenging the Afghan government.
“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor — which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019 — that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001,” Biden said in a statement Saturday. “I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”
In his statement Biden didn’t explain the breakdown of the 5,000 troops he said had been deployed. But a defense official said in a media statement that the president had approved Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recommendation that the lead battalion of the 82nd Airborne Brigade Combat Team assist in the State Department’s drawdown.
Initially 1,000 troops were in place to aid with the withdrawal, and administration officials quickly judged that total to be insufficient. An additional contingent of Marines arrived in Kabul as part of a 3,000-troop force intended to secure an airlift of U.S. Embassy personnel and Afghan allies as Taliban insurgents approached the outskirts of the capital. The additional 1,000 troops approved Saturday appeared to bring the total to 5,000.
Officials have stressed that the newly arriving troops’ mission was limited to assisting the airlift of embassy personnel and Afghan allies, and they expected to complete it by month’s end. But they might have to stay longer if the embassy is threatened by a Taliban takeover of Kabul by then.
In a sign of fears that the Taliban could soon capture Kabul, U.S. Embassy personnel were urgently destroying sensitive documents, according to two U.S. military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation.
Read: Battle gains challenge US hopes of better-behaved Taliban
As the situation in Afghanistan rapidly worsened, Biden, who was spending the weekend at Camp David, and Vice President Kamala Harris held a secure video conference on Saturday morning with national security officials before Biden announced the additional troops.
On Saturday, the Taliban captured Mazar-e-Sharif, a large heavily defended city in northern Afghanistan, and closed in on Kabul by taking the Logar province just to the south. The Taliban have made major advances in recent days, including capturing Herat and Kandahar, the country’s second- and third-largest cities.
“Clearly from their actions, it appears as if they are trying to get Kabul isolated,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, referring to the Taliban’s speedy and efficient takedown of major provincial capitals this past week.
Biden had given the Pentagon until Aug. 31 to complete the withdrawal of the 2,500 to 3,000 troops that were in Afghanistan when he announced in April that he would end U.S. involvement in the war. That number has dropped to just under 1,000, and all but about 650 were scheduled to be gone by the end of the month; the 650 were to remain to help protect the U.S. diplomatic presence, including with aircraft and defensive weapons at the Kabul airport.
But the decision in recent days to dispatch 4,000 fresh troops suggested that American forces and their allies were at risk. There was no discussion of rejoining the war, but the number of troops needed for security will depend on decisions about keeping the embassy open and the extent of a Taliban threat to the capital in coming days.
Having the Aug. 31 deadline pass with thousands of U.S. troops in the country could be problematic for Biden, who said he had no regrets about stopping the U.S. war by that date. Republicans criticized the withdrawal as a mistake and ill-planned, though there was little political appetite by either party to send fresh troops to fight the Taliban.
Read:US vows to isolate Taliban if they take power by force
The president said Saturday his administration had conveyed to Taliban representatives in Qatar that any actions in Afghanistan that harm U.S. personnel will be met by a “swift and strong” military response. Biden also directed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to support Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and engage with regional leaders in the pursuit of a political settlement with the Taliban.
Ghani delivered a televised speech Saturday, his first public appearance since the recent Taliban gains, and pledged not to give up the “achievements” of the 20 years since the U.S. toppled the Taliban.
Despite the Taliban’s gains, the Biden administration has said that Afghan security forces’ air force and superior numbers could give them an edge against the insurgents. The statement served to highlight the lack of morale by Afghan forces to fight in a situation where the Taliban seemed to be speeding forward.
The State Department said the embassy in Kabul would remain partially staffed and functioning, but Thursday’s decision to evacuate a significant number of staff suggested concerns about protecting American and Afghan lives as the Taliban progressed through the country. The Biden administration has not publicly ruled out a full embassy evacuation or possibly relocating embassy operations to the Kabul airport.
US keeping distance as Afghan forces face Taliban rout
Afghan government forces are collapsing even faster than U.S. military leaders thought possible just a few months ago when President Joe Biden ordered a full withdrawal. But there’s little appetite at the White House, the Pentagon or among the American public for trying to stop the rout and it probably is too late to do so.
Biden has made clear he has no intention of reversing the decision he made last spring, even as the outcome seems to point toward a Taliban takeover. With most U.S. troops now gone and the Taliban accelerating their battlefield gains, American military leaders are not pressing him to change his mind. They know that the only significant option would be for the president to restart the war he already decided to end.
The Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 until U.S. forces invaded after the 9/11 attacks, captured three more provincial capitals Wednesday, giving them effective control of about two-thirds of the country. The insurgents have no air force and are outnumbered by U.S.-trained Afghan defense forces, but they have captured territory with stunning speed.
John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the Afghans still have time to save themselves from final defeat.
Read:India begins evacuating its nationals from Afghanistan
“No potential outcome has to be inevitable, including the fall of Kabul,” Kirby told reporters. “It doesn’t have to be that way. It really depends on what kind of political and military leadership the Afghans can muster to turn this around.”
Biden made a similar point a day earlier, telling reporters that U.S. troops had done all they could over the past 20 years to assist the Afghans.
“They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation,” he said.
The United States continues to support the Afghan military with limited airstrikes, but those have not made a strategic difference thus far and are scheduled to end when the U.S. formally ends its role in the war on Aug. 31. Biden could continue airstrikes beyond that date, but given his firm stance on ending the war, that seems unlikely.
“My suspicion, my strong suspicion, is that the 31st of August timeline’s going to hold,” said Carter Malkasian, who advised U.S. military leaders in Afghanistan and Washington.
Senior U.S. military officials had cautioned Biden that a full U.S. withdrawal could lead to a Taliban takeover, but the president decided in April that continuing the war was a waste. He said Tuesday that his decision holds, even amid talk that the Taliban could soon be within reach of Kabul, threatening the security of U.S. and other foreign diplomats.
Read:2 more Afghan provincial capitals fall to Taliban on Monday
The most recent American military assessment, taking into account the Taliban’s latest gains, says Kabul could be under insurgent pressure by September and that the country could fall entirely to Taliban control within a couple of months, according to a defense official who discussed the internal analysis Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
Officials said that there has been no decision or order for an evacuation of American diplomatic personnel from Afghanistan. But one official said it is now time for serious conversations about whether the U.S. military should begin to move assets into the region to be ready in case the State Department calls for a sudden evacuation.
Kirby declined to discuss any evacuation planning, but one congressional official said a recent National Security Council meeting had discussed preliminary planning for a potential evacuation of the U.S. Embassy but came to no conclusions.
Any such plan would involve identifying U.S. troops, aircraft and other assets that may have to operate from within Afghanistan or nearby areas. The U.S. already has warships in the region, including the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and the USS Iwo Jima amphibious ready group with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard.
Military officials watching the deteriorating situation said that so far the Taliban hasn’t taken steps to threaten Kabul. But it isn’t clear if the Taliban will wait until it has gained control of the bulk of the country before attempting to seize the capital.
Military commanders have long warned that it would be a significant challenge for the Afghan military to hold off the Taliban through the end of the year. In early May, shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal decision, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he foresaw “some really dramatic, bad possible outcomes” in a worst-case scenario. He held out hope that the government would unify and hold off the Taliban, and said the outcome could clarify by the end of the summer.
Read: Battle gains challenge US hopes of better-behaved Taliban
The security of the U.S. diplomatic corps has been talked about for months, even before the Taliban’s battlefield blitz. The military has long had various planning options for evacuating personnel from Afghanistan. Those options would largely be determined by the White House and the State Department.
A key component of the options would be whether the U.S. military would have unfettered access to the Kabul international airport, allowing personnel to be flown systematically out of the capital. In a grimmer environment, American forces might have to fight their way in and out if the Taliban have infiltrated the city.
The U.S. also would have to determine who would be evacuated: just American embassy personnel and the U.S. military, or also other embassies, American citizens, and Afghans who worked with the U.S. In that last category are former interpreters and those who face retaliation from the Taliban. The U.S. has already started pulling out hundreds of those Afghans who assisted troops during the war.
Senior defense leaders have been talking and meeting daily, laying out their grim assessments of the security situation in Afghanistan. Officials pointed to the fall of Baghlan Province as a worrisome bellwether, because it provides the Taliban with a base and route to Kabul from the north.
Media: May we have a 'Hurmoni' now, please?
These are very trying times for the media as public interest in usual issues are very low. Politics is gone and most are relieved because they say the same thing. Some politicians are still popular but that’s because they are amusing and make the audience smile loudly. People hardly care who has to say anything about anything.
While activist-journalists care about who rules Bangladesh and “dhandabaz” ones with whom to line up, for most media workers politics is a source of news. Now that politics is shut, news is shut too. How long can one report what the Opposition leader says about the ruling party’s failure to handle the Corona situation and the response of the ruling party that the Opposition doesn’t know what it's talking about?
Read:Is it tackling dengue or tackling Porimoni?
Economy never made much news because people are more busy making money or trying to survive than reading about it. As it is, most news is not positive with a corona hit economy so most stay away from reading them. Sometimes there is news but they are largely about people who have committed economic crimes but are now free for one reason or another or economic criminals but there are so many that the public no longer cares. However, a story with pics which show a criminal leading a fancy life abroad sitting on a sofa in his plush home is a better read than hearing about a group of hyper rich who just got off police charges as “ its ok now bro.” It happens so often that it’s no longer a crime, hence not news.
Sports and Sex?
Sports news is fun but not opinions. We are nowhere in any sports except cricket, - one of the top 11 in a sport which 15 play- so we want to see and hear about it. The problem is we are only in one sport but the most popular sport is soccer which we play so badly, we don’t want to hear or know about it. So it’s basically international sports and we don’t care about local politics or sports barring cricket.
Which basically leaves "entertainment media", always full of juicy stuff. And the crowd loves it. As of now we know practically everything about Porimoni and her crowd including gifts of qurbani cows though not enough about their patrons. A newspaper did publish a list of sorts and that led to screaming and jeering and a well-known banker-author was named who has denied any involvement. It was bad media or media desperate for anything about sex and scandals?
Read:Can the media survive without Porimoni… ?
So was the Porimoni affair created by the authorities in partnership with the media to save the media industry now in trouble? But Porimoni as a source of news also has limits. So in view of the crisis, may we have Hurmoni please to keep us going when Porimoni ends?