"The horror of the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan is above all the result of a multitude of serious mistakes attributable to Western governments," said Sylvain Foulquier. "[...] Salafists and Islamists are strong only because today's Western world is weak."
We are living in one of the darkest pages of human history: a kind of Century of Darkness, the perfect antithesis of the Age of Enlightenment. The horror of the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan is above all the result of a multitude of serious mistakes attributable to Western governments, particularly Anglo-Saxon governments.
It all really started during the 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan between the USSR and the mujahedeen. We may recall in passing that the Red Army had intervened in this country only at the request of the local government (just as France did in Mali) to fight against jihadist fascism, and that it was the North Americans (as well as some European countries) who then armed and financed the Taliban — whose criminal nature was already known.
The USSR’s defeat was therefore a disaster in which only fools can rejoice. Western leaders were and continue to be among the most irresponsible in the world: We saw it with Donald Trump abandoning the Kurds to their sad fate, and then with Joe Biden deciding to withdraw his troops from Afghanistan — two examples among an infinity of others.
Let us add that the Taliban are no different from the fanatics of Hamas and Hezbollah, who continue to enjoy great complacency in Europe against a backdrop of totally uninhibited antisemitism, or from some well-established Salafist imams in France, England or Belgium.
[T]he enormous wealth that Trump and his family have amassed since their arrival at the White House ... could cost the Republican Party and its leader dearly.
A truce that prioritised immediate de-escalation over durable conflict resolution left critical disputes unresolved, ensuring that military confrontation would return sooner rather than later.
[T]he enormous wealth that Trump and his family have amassed since their arrival at the White House ... could cost the Republican Party and its leader dearly.
A truce that prioritised immediate de-escalation over durable conflict resolution left critical disputes unresolved, ensuring that military confrontation would return sooner rather than later.
It is unacceptable that the future of Mexico would depend on the constant changes of opinion of a president who still has 2 1/2 years of governing left.
[T]he enormous wealth that Trump and his family have amassed since their arrival at the White House ... could cost the Republican Party and its leader dearly.