THE future of Afghanistan will be determined not only in Kabul, where the Taliban is now firmly in power but also in places such as the Wakhan Corridor. A narrow strip of land that runs along the northern fringe of Afghanistan, the Corridor was formed in 1893 as a buffer between the Tsarist empire of Russia and the British empire of India. It is sparsely populated, its roughly 15,000 Wakhi (Kyrgyz) residents reliant upon adventure tourism.

THE impact of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is slowly being felt on geo-politics. NATO allies of the US, mostly from Europe, felt betrayed by the US decision, as they were not consulted. Rubbing salt over these injuries is the announcement of a new defence arrangement between the US, UK and Australia, termed as AUKUS. Coincidentally, within a day of the announcement of the AUKUS, the EU had come out with its own strategic document on the Indo-Pacific. Few days from now, a meeting of the Quad group, consisting of US, Japan, Australia and India, is scheduled in the US.

ON February 18, 2010, Anadarko Moçambique – a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum (bought by Occidental Petroleum in 2019) – discovered a massive natural gas field in the Rovuma Basin off the coast of northern Mozambique. Over the next few years, some of the world’s largest energy corporations flocked to Cabo Delgado province, where the basin is located. These included corporations like France’s TotalEnergies SE (which bought Anadarko’s project) and the United States’ ExxonMobil.

AS a tsunami of crocodile tears engulfs Western politicians, history is suppressed. More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the United States, Britain and their “allies” destroyed.In 1978, a liberation movement led by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) overthrew the dictatorship of Mohammad Dawd, the cousin of King Zahir Shar.

ON August 15, the Taliban seized Kabul with barely any gunfire. The Afghan National Army (ANA) – trained with $88 billion from the United States – faded into the byways, unwilling to fight the Taliban troops. Afghanistan’s president – the former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani – boarded a flight out of the country as soon as the Taliban stepped into greater Kabul; he was not going to lead any fight to defend his government. The previous day, when it was already clear that the Taliban would seize power, US president Joe Biden conceded that the United States had lost the war.