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Category Archives: accountability
USA’s Bungling-Programmes in Afghanistan
“Double Eagle’s” Serial Commentary
ONE
Even as the Vice-President with Obama, Biden was opposed to keeping US troops in Afghanistan. When Obama supported the Army’s request for a troop surge in 2009, VP Biden strongly opposed it. It is also known that most Americans did not want their soldiers and airmen to remain in that country after Bin Laden was taken out.
Biden made the announcement in May this year, that he will pull out all US troops by the end of August. His desire was to complete the withdrawal before Sep 2021 (the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 attacks on the USA).
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, atrocities, foreign policy, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, law of armed conflict, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, Taliban, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
USA Falls on Its Own Sword in Afghanistan
A friend in the Antipodes whom I shall call “A Modern Anzac” has provided a long-term appraisal of Western intervention in Afghanistan which questions the interpretation from Clive Williams as well as those voiced by former PM, John Howard, and by Greg Sheridan and others in The Australian newspaper [i] In doing so, I have imposed by own highlighting…. Michael Roberts
A Modern Anzac
A = Frontal Challenge One
This kind of narrative belongs to a 1800s mindset of military thinking: it is outmoded and irrelevant to the 21st Century.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Taliban, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes
Afghanistan Withdrawal: Trump Initiated, Biden Followed, Pentagon Unhappy ….
Clive Williams in Email Note to Michael Roberts, 18 August 2021 *&*
President Trump made the political decision to withdraw and committed the US to a withdrawal schedule in 2020. President Biden followed through on that commitment. It was not a military decision. The US military could have stayed indefinitely. They had no fatalities this year and only nine in 2020, so it was a sustainable deployment. There was no prospect of defeating the Taliban militarily though without the cooperation of Pakistan.
State [i.e. the State Department] accepted President Trump’s decision, but the Pentagon was not happy about it, particularly because so much equipment had to be abandoned due to the accelerated withdrawal schedule. The biggest mistake the Americans made was supporting corrupt Afghan political leaders who lacked popular support. The second biggest was not adequately monitoring and mentoring the ANSF. [i.e. = Afghan National sEcurity Force].
Clive
Taliban fighters in Kabul on Monday. Picture: ReutersFiled under accountability, Al Qaeda, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
Horror and Terror in Kabul: Pictorials
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, martyrdom, military strategy, political demonstrations, power politics, taking the piss, Taliban, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Walter J. May: A Marvellous Richmondite and Ceylonese
The Richmond Sixty Club & Others
Richmond 60 Club Wishes Walter J. May Happy Birthday, 8th January 2021
A Sixty Club Publication 
MESSAGE OF THE 6O CLUB PRESIDENT
As the President of the Richmond 60 Club, I am happy to write a few words for the special supplement issued to coincide with the 92nd birthday of Walter J. May on 08th January 2021.
Afghanistan’s Turmoil Replayed at Lords Cricket Ground
Michael Roberts
In my reading, the spirit of cricket was spiked and shattered at its iconic home-ground of Lords yesterday. Not only yesterday –the fifth day. IThe “spiking” occurred throughout the match with (A) tailenders’ bombarded with headhigh short-pitched bowling by both sides; (B) verbal badinage and assualts — camouflaged as “badinage” and presented with smiles — from both parties; and (C) the spiking of the ball by Jimmy Anderson [according to one report] among the events on the ground.
Kumar Oh Kumar …. what future for “The Spirit of Cricket” talk you delivered during the famous COWDREY LECTURE some years back!
… https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/kumar-sangakkara-s-mcc-spirit-of-cricket-lecture-522183
Sanga Rules at the Lords’ Cricket Establishment
News Item in The Island, 14 August 2021, with this headline “Kumar Sangakkara opens new Compton and Edrich stands at Lord’s”
The Changing Face of Cricket
Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricketers assembled together
QUESTION FOR Aficianados: In what way are they different from Today’s Cricketers in the 2010s and 2020s?
MY TRUMP-CARD ANSWER = They are all clean-shaven and beardless …. and distinctly better-looking as a result.
A FOOTNOTE: When one of the World Series matches pitted a combined team against the West Indies Squad at the huge football stadium at West Lakes in Adelaide in January !978 (or 1979?), Michael Roberts was one of the mere 800 or 900 spectators in that giant arena.
I consider WHAT WE the few WITNESSED to be a privilege that I shared with that small cluster of cricket fans: we were seeing great cricketers in action within a form of televsion documentation that was revolutionizing the format–notably by having cameras at both ends and others cameras for special side-shots …. besides drop-in wickets, et cetera, et cetera.
