Veteran: We Lied to You About What Happened in Afghanistan

Just over four years ago, the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan rapidly collapsed, marking the end of a two-decade effort to transform the country. The final days of U.S. involvement proved bizarrely emblematic of the tragedy that had unfolded up to that point. Afghans clinging to a U.S. airplane tumbled from the sky to their deaths. A suicide bomb left 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans dead. A U.S. drone killed seven children in what the U.S. military ineptly mischaracterized as a “righteous strike.” Good intentions and moral high ground gave way to national embarrassment.

Veteran: We Lied to You About What Happened in Afghanistan

Russia, Iran were urged not to intervene militarily in Syria

Türkiye says its embassy in Damascus to open on Saturday (Anadolu Agency)

On the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime earlier this month in the face of rapid anti-regime advances, Fidan said Türkiye “paved the way for this to happen in a bloodless manner” by continuing to pursue talks with “two key actors,” referring to Russia and Iran.

*Fidan said before the latest developments, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was controlling an area where 5 million Syrians were living and highlighted that they have gained experience in providing municipal services, education services, basic services, transportation and many other services in the past 5-6 years. [Idlib]

Related:

New Syria govt won’t recognise PKK/YPG terror group’s authority  — Fidan (TRT)

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What’s Behind Regime Change in Bangladesh

Violent regime change in the South Asian country of Bangladesh unfolded rapidly and mostly by stealth as the rest of the world focused on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, growing tensions in the Middle East and a simmering confrontation between the US and China in the Asia-Pacific region.

What’s Behind Regime Change in Bangladesh (archived)

Related:

The Partition of South Asia Strikes Again

There is a problem, fundamentally, in viewing the regime change in Bangladesh as a ‘stand-alone’ event. The caveat must be added right at the outset that when it comes to processing situations, nothing happens for no reason at all. There is very little awareness in India, especially in the media, about what has been going on. Mostly, it’s ‘cut-and-paste’ job culled out from the jaundiced western accounts from a new Cold War angle.

Clear signs of US trying to topple Sheikh Hasina govt: Regime change operation underway in Bangladesh and why India should be alert

The Genocide the U.S. Can’t Remember, But Bangladesh Can’t Forget

Ukraine: Preparing for capitulation

Since the beginning of the disaster of the Ukrainian counter-offensive against the Russian troops, followed by the understanding by the Western partners of the bankruptcy of their project on the territory of Ukraine, the power in Kiev has been confronted with an appalling reality: the refusal of the continuation of the investments coming from the sources which previously ensured them to be imperishable – the beginning of the end of the reign of Zelensky and his entourage.

Ukraine: Preparing for capitulation

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Dozens of social media accounts operating for years in an attempt to influence people in the Middle East and Asia have been shut down. Now a major new study believes the US is likely behind it

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Related:

CONOPs

Evaluating Five Years of Pro-Western Covert Influence Operations

The US government got caught using sock puppets to spread propaganda on social media

The data analyzed came from 146 Twitter accounts (which tweeted 299,566 times), 39 Facebook profiles, and 26 Instagram accounts, along with 16 Facebook pages and two Facebook groups. Some of the accounts were meant to appear like real people and used AI-generated profile pictures. Meta and Twitter didn’t specifically name any organizations or people behind the campaigns but said their analysis led them to believe they originated in the US and Great Britain.

For anyone who’s ever been within 15 feet of a history book, the news that the US is using covert action to push its interests in other countries won’t come as a surprise. It is, however, interesting that these operations were uncovered just as social media companies are gearing up to deal with a wave of foreign interference and misinformation in our own elections.

The report also comes right on the heels of a bombshell whistleblower report from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, which accused the company of lax security practices and misrepresenting the number of bots on its platform (something the US government is investigating and that Twitter has strongly denied).