As of Thursday morning, August 12 the Taliban were in control of eleven provincial capitals in Afghanistan, including the important northeastern city of Kunduz, following a sweep across the north of the country in recent days. The insurgents encountered minimal resistance from the Afghan National Army. The insurgents now have their sights on Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in the mostly
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“After the quiet 1950s…incidents of political violence again became more frequent and now we may be in the middle of another wave of sociopolitical instability.” Thus five years ago wrote Peter Turchin, a University of Connecticut professor specializing in “historical social science,” a.k.a. Cliodynamics. After 2020’s violent nationwide political protests and the pandemic’s destruction of
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On the windowsill above my kitchen sink is a small sign reading, “It’s so good to be home.” I found this sign in a box in the basement a while ago and decided to give it a place of honor upstairs. Though I live as caretaker for my daughter’s house and rattle around in a
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Suddenly, Sunday, a riveting report came over cable news: The U.S. embassy was urging all Americans to “leave Afghanistan as soon as possible.” Message: Get out while you can. Adding urgency was news that three northern provincial capitals, including Kunduz city, had fallen to the Taliban, making it five provincial capitals overrun since Friday. The
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I have just completed a three-week tour of Europe starting from a home base in Switzerland to southern Germany, thence to the south of France, and finally to northern Italy. Each of these places is unique. Each is delightful in its own way, rich in culture and history, a pleasure to be in. The food
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An uneasy relationship with the truth seems especially prevalent in America’s most prestigious schools. Ambitious academics quickly realize that upward mobility requires a knack for convincing deceit. Long gone are the days when brilliant scholarship was the ticket to moving up the ladder. The provost who can say with a straight face, “all of our
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