By Paul Butchard, Divergent Options: “Given the territorial degradation being suffered by Daesh in Iraq and Syria and the presence of a Daesh affiliate in Afghanistan, the Taliban may once again find itself in the crosshairs of an international anti-terrorism coalition.”
By John Q. Bolton, Strategy Bridge: “Perhaps the Afghan’s advice that the best thing we can do is “leave now” is a starting point. In an era when “thank you for your service” and similar bromides surround military service, War Machine is a welcome (if failed) satire that will undoubtedly become politicized by those with no skin in the game.”
More civilians were killed and wounded in Kabul during in the first six months of 2017 than in war-ravaged Helmand, according to a United Nations midyear report on civilian casualties that showed deaths and injuries in Afghanistan remained near record levels documented last year. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
During nearly two months of de facto exile in Turkey, Afghanistan’s embattled vice president, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, hastily formed a new coalition of the discontented. On Monday, he tried to return to Afghanistan, to add to the woes of his own struggling president. But as hundreds of supporters waited late into the night at an airport in the country’s north, the small private plane carrying Mr. Dostum, an ex-warlord accused of torturing and sexually assaulting a political rival, was denied permission to land on orders from the central government, according to several Afghan and Western officials. – New York Times