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Sunday, March 15, 2026
TopicUS-Taliban

Topic: US-Taliban

What happens in Kabul won’t stay in Kabul. US can get ready for challenge across Muslim world

Having failed to manage its exit from Afghanistan well, the US must now focus on the second order consequences of its disastrous endgame.

5 reasons the West lost in Afghanistan

The Western withdrawal from Afghanistan has gone hand in hand with a narrative of defeat, repeated so often it’s in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Taliban contesting election is a risk. But India must support Ghani’s democratic appeal

Formally and openly engaging the Taliban is a high-cost strategy. But India has long supported dissidents and insurgents to stand for elections within its own boundaries.

Year on, Trump’s Doha accord with Taliban grows into a headache for Biden — and for India

Should the Biden administration go ahead with Trump’s plan to withdraw troops and risk plunging Afghanistan into further chaos and bloodbath like the Obama administration did?

As Taliban-Afghan govt talk peace, lessons from an Afghan hero killed 19 years ago

Ahmad Shah Massoud, the lion of Panjshir and arguably Afghanistan’s most well-known mujahideen fighter, had attempted to prevent civil war in 1995 but was killed by the Al Qaeda 6 years later. 

How the world, especially India, should read JeM’s celebration of US-Taliban peace deal

An article in Jaish-e-Mohammed journal ‘Medina Medina’ gives a sense of how the organisation is trying to survive. But its two crucial takeaways are in Indian context.

US’ hurry to hand Afghanistan back to Taliban is a sign India must also push its PoK project

India must quickly put a strategy in place to initiate action at a suitable time to reclaim Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In historic call, Trump discusses peace with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar

If you strip the hysteric details away, the debate on coronavirus comes down to numbers and whether you're a 'growther' or a 'base-rater' in how you respond to the pandemic.

US-Afghan peace deal relies on old flaws, dated assumptions. Taliban of 2020 has changed

Afghan deal menu was made by Pakistan, cooked by US, paid by Doha. Taliban gets the starter, Pakistan & Trump campaign gets main dish, Afghan govt, the dessert. 

India has invested too much in Afghanistan to let Taliban hold sway again with US blessings

Just like US dumped Kurdish allies in Syria and allowed Turkish army to run havoc, Taliban would do the same with Ashraf Ghani govt in Afghanistan.

On Camera

Menstrual leave doesn’t work in ‘real world’. And that real world is designed by, for men

When a woman menstruates, when/if she decides to marry, when/if she decides to have kids, should not be factors when looking at a woman’s potential from a hiring standpoint.

US strike on Iran’s key oil export island Kharg raises fears of wider supply disruption

President Trump said the US had bombed military targets on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, but spared oil infrastructure.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba, the man Iran must keep alive & the secret force ‘tasked with it’—all about NOPO

The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.

Peaceful power transfers followed uprisings in India’s neighbourhood. It’s a sign of mature democracies

Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.