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The Taliban must be confronted by Afghanistan itself; No more military action: US
If the Taliban had seized three provincial capitals in northern Afghanistan a year ago, like they did Sunday, the U.S. response would most likely have been ferocious. Fighter jets and helicopter gunships would have responded in force, beating back the Islamic group or, at the very least, stalling its advance.
But these are different times. What aircraft the U.S. military could muster from hundreds of miles away struck a cache of weapons far from Kunduz, Taliqan or Sari-i-pol, the cities that already had been all but lost to the Taliban.
The muted American response Sunday showed in no uncertain terms that America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan is over. The mismanaged and exhausted Afghan forces will have to retake the cities on their own, or leave them to the Taliban for good.
The recent string of Taliban military victories has not moved President Joe Biden to reassess his decision to end the U.S. combat mission by the end of the month, senior administration officials said Sunday. But the violence shows just how difficult it will be for Biden to extract America from the war while insisting that he is not abandoning the country in the middle of a brutal Taliban offensive.
In a speech defending the U.S. withdrawal last month, Biden said the United States had done more than enough to empower the Afghan police and military to secure the future of their people. U.S. officials have acknowledged that those forces will struggle, but argue they must now fend for themselves.
So far, the administration’s sink-or-swim strategy has not shown promising results.
Over the past week, Taliban fighters have moved swiftly to retake cities around Afghanistan, assassinated government officials, and killed civilians in the process. Throughout this, U.S. officials have publicly held out hope that Afghan forces have the resources and ability to fight back, while at the same time negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban that seems more unlikely by the day.
Leon Panetta, who served as defense secretary under President Barack Obama, said he had expected to see more U.S. air support Sunday, but he did not expect the situation would improve markedly even with the help of U.S. forces.
“Let’s face it,” Panetta said. “The most you can hope for now is some kind of stalemate” between Afghan forces and Taliban fighters, who have demonstrated little interest in reaching an accord since the U.S. troop withdrawal was announced.
At the Pentagon, where senior leaders have reluctantly cut off most military support to Afghanistan, officials were on phone calls Sunday about the unfolding events around Kunduz, a city of more than 350,000 people. The United States has twice in the past intervened to retake Kunduz from the Taliban.
But defense officials said there were no plans to take action this time beyond limited airstrikes. Over the past three weeks, the United States has used armed Reaper drones and AC-130 aerial gunships to target Taliban equipment, including heavy artillery, that threaten population centers, foreign embassies and Afghan government buildings, officials said.
One official acknowledged that with only 650 U.S. troops remaining on the ground in Afghanistan, a concerted air campaign was unlikely to undo the advances the Taliban had made.
Although the U.S. military mission will formally conclude at the end of this month, U.S. troops and their Western allies are mostly gone already. The U.S. handed over Bagram Airfield — once the military’s nerve center — to the Afghans last month, effectively ending major U.S. military operations.
Now, air support for the Afghan forces and overhead surveillance arrives from outside the country, from bases in Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, or from an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.
Wesley Clark, the former top NATO general under President Bill Clinton, called the weekend’s events “a tragedy for the people of Afghanistan, and a consequence of American misjudgments and failures.”
Civilian casualties have skyrocketed. Nearly 2,400 civilians have been killed or injured between May 1 and June 30, according to a United Nations report released last month, the highest number recorded for that period since monitoring began in 2009.
When asked about the Taliban’s advances Friday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Biden had long been prepared to make “difficult choices” as part of his commitment to disengaging from Afghanistan.
“The president made clear: After 20 years at war, it’s time for American troops to come home,” Psaki said. “He also feels and has stated that the Afghan government and the Afghan National Defense Forces have the training, equipment and numbers to prevail, and now is the moment for the leadership and the will in the face of the Taliban’s aggression and violence.”
Psaki’s comments echoed a prevailing view among the progressive national security wing of Biden’s party that Afghan troops would fight back if given no other option.
“Like in Iraq, at a certain point the training wheels have to come off,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran and chair of the progressive veterans group VoteVets. “That’s when the Iraqi army stepped up, and it will be when the Afghan army does.”
“They may have their backs against the wall as things move closer to Kabul, but that’s precisely when they’ll fight the hardest and hold the line,” said Soltz, who helped to train the Iraqi army. “We have done all we can to prepare them for this moment.”
So far, no senior Pentagon official has expressed exasperation publicly with Biden over the Taliban surge, which Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III predicted this past spring, when he and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both counseled Biden against the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Austin told his boss, in a reference to the Obama-era withdrawal from Iraq, which was followed by the rise of the Islamic State group. The United States ended up returning to Iraq and launching five years of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria to help Iraqi security forces beat back that insurgent group.
Biden has argued for pulling out of Afghanistan for years. In 2009, while serving as vice president, he argued for a minimal force, only to be overruled as Obama ordered a surge of forces, then a rapid drawdown.
But a dozen years later, as president, he made the decision to withdraw, one of the most significant decisions of his presidency so far. And despite the likelihood that the White House will confront terrible images of human suffering and loss in the coming weeks and months, Biden has vowed to press ahead regardless of the conditions on the ground.
Polls show that large numbers of Americans in both parties support leaving Afghanistan.
Biden, declaring that the United States had long ago accomplished its mission of denying terrorists a haven in Afghanistan, said in April that all U.S. troops would leave the country by Sept. 11. That date has since been moved up to Aug. 31, giving the Pentagon — and Afghan forces — under a month to slow the Taliban surge.
Administration and military officials have voiced conflicting views on whether the United States will continue airstrikes after Aug. 31 to prevent Afghan cities and the Afghan government, led by President Ashraf Ghani, from falling. But even if the airstrikes continue, they can only do so much; the bulk of the effort will have to come from Afghan forces on the ground.
In any event, Kunduz was never going to be the Afghan city that might prompt Biden to rethink his strategy, two U.S. officials said Sunday on condition of anonymity.
His hand might be forced if Taliban forces are on the verge of overrunning Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, or even Kabul, where the United States maintains an embassy with some 4,000 people.
ലണ്ടന്: ഓസ്ട്രേലിയക്ക് പിന്നാലെ 16 വയസിന് താഴെയുള്ള കുട്ടികളില് സോഷ്യല് മീഡിയ നിരോധനം കൊണ്ടുവരാന് യുകെയും. ഓണ്ലൈന് സുരക്ഷ ഉറപ്പാക്കാന് തനിക്കാവുന്നത് ചെയ്യുമെന്ന് യുകെ സാങ്കേതിക വിദ്യ സെക്രട്ടറി പീറ്റര് കൈലേയെ ഉദ്ധരിച്ച് ബിബിസി റിപ്പോര്ട്ട് ചെയ്യുന്നു. എല്ലാത്തിന്റെയും രേഖകള് കയ്യിലുണ്ടെന്നും തനിക്ക് ആദ്യം കൂടുതല് തെളിവുകള് ലഭിക്കണമെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം വ്യക്തമാക്കി. യുവാക്കളിലെ സോഷ്യല് മീഡിയകളുടെയും സ്മാര്ട്ട്ഫോണുകളുടെയും സ്വാധീനത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് കൂടുതല് ഗവേഷണം നടത്തുമെന്നും കൈലേ പറഞ്ഞു.
16 വയസുവരെയുള്ള കുട്ടികളില് സോഷ്യല് മീഡിയ ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നത് നിരോധിക്കുന്നതിനുള്ള നിയമം ലോകത്തിലാദ്യമായി ഓസ്ട്രേലിയ അവതരിപ്പിച്ചിരുന്നു. ഓസ്ട്രേലിയയിലെ കമ്മ്യൂണിക്കേഷന് മന്ത്രി മിഷേല് റോളണ്ട് അവതരിപ്പിച്ച ബില്ല് ഓണ്ലൈന് സുരക്ഷയുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ടുള്ള രക്ഷിതാക്കളുടെ ആശങ്കയ്ക്ക് പ്രാധാന്യം നല്കുന്നു. ബില്ല് പാസായാല് നിയന്ത്രണമേര്പ്പെടുത്താന് ഒരു വര്ഷം വരെയെങ്കിലും സമയമെടുക്കും.
കുട്ടികള് അക്കൗണ്ട് എടുക്കുന്നത് തടഞ്ഞില്ലെങ്കില് സാമൂഹ്യ മാധ്യമങ്ങള് നഷ്ടപരിഹാരം നല്കേണ്ടി വരുമെന്നും ബില്ലില് പറയുന്നുണ്ട്. ഇങ്ങനെ സംഭവിച്ചാല് ടിക് ടോക്, ഫേസ്ബുക്ക്, സ്നാപ്ചാറ്റ്, റെഡ്ഡിറ്റ്, എക്സ്, ഇന്സ്റ്റാഗ്രാം തുടങ്ങിയ പ്ലാറ്റ്ഫോമുകള് 3.3 കോടി ഡോളര് പിഴ നല്കേണ്ടി വരും. സോഷ്യമീഡിയ പ്ലാറ്റ്ഫോമുകളില് സംരക്ഷണം ഒരുക്കേണ്ട ചുമതല കുട്ടികള്ക്കോ മാതാപിതാക്കള്ക്കോ അല്ലെന്നും മൈക്കിള് റോളണ്ട് പറഞ്ഞു. 18 വയസിന് താഴെയുള്ളവർക്ക് ഓണ്ലൈന് പോണോഗ്രഫി നിരോധിക്കാനുള്ള നിയമവും ഓസ്ട്രേലിയ ആലോചിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
LONDON – An ex-Muslim turned Christian evangelist has been beaten, chased by angry mobs, unlawfully jailed and even stabbed, all for the sake of the Gospel.
This is not in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia. It is officially happening in Christian Britain.
Her name is Hatun Tash, and what has been done to her has even caught the attention of the British media.
Tash grew up in Turkey as a Muslim and became a Christian after moving to England. And being an ex-Muslim speaking out against Islam has made her a target.
She told us she has changed residences more than 50 times in the past four years because she knows Muslims are looking for her in order to kill her. One man has already been sentenced to 24 years in prison for trying.
Because of this ongoing danger, she asked that we interview her from a secret location.
Tash told us her conversion to Christ began when she learned the truth about Islam and Mohammed.
“As I read biography, it was very disturbing to me. So, the man you grew up to love and honor suddenly turns out to be like, yeah, not good, not good. And I decided, I can’t be Muslim.”
Then she learned about a very different God than the one of Islam, telling us, “As you dig into it, you get to meet with a God who is not silent or far or distant from you, but you meet with a God who loves you, who pours out himself on you. And not only that, He just puts himself on the cross and then says, ‘I love you from everlasting to everlasting, Come to me.'”
Tash began sharing this message to Muslims at Speakers Corner, in London’s Hyde Park, where speakers climb atop stepladders and vigorous debates ensue, often between Muslims and Christians.
Her preaching and criticism of Islam has sometimes enraged Muslims, and three years ago a man slashed her face with a knife. He has never been caught.
She however has been arrested unlawfully more than once. The London Police have twice paid her damages for wrongful arrests, including two years ago when she refused to leave the area where she was preaching. Tash was forcibly marched through Hyde Park, followed by Muslims celebrating her arrest. She was placed in a police van, strip-searched, and jailed.
This has not stopped Tash from going to mosques and sharing the Gospel daily.
“I would simply stand in front of the mosques, and I’d say ‘Muhammad is a false prophet. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Tell me, what is your objections?’ Hundreds of Muslims just stop and then they want to talk to you. Sometimes you get harmed, sometimes it gets dangerous. Sometimes you end up in hospitals, sometimes you end up in people’s homes for a cup of tea,” Tash said.
“I don’t care whether people reject me or not. They need to hear the gospel,” she said.
Christian Concern’s Christian Legal Centre has defended Tash. Christian Concern’s Andrea Williams told us, “The truth is that those that have attempted to kill her have been caught on camera. The police know who they are, but they have not been arrested. She is feared by and targeted by Muslim groups because she is fearless for the gospel. She loves Jesus so much that nothing will halt her.”
Tash says she will continue to preach and continue to challenge Islam.
“Things are dangerous. Should I choose to stay silent? Like when people are spending 5,000 Pounds to buy a gun, to shoot you and shoot your loved ones? The Gospel is so glorious, I cannot be silent. And the Lord is the giver of life. So, when it’s my time, He will take me home. But until He gives me breath, we continue to preach.”
Sources:CBN News
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‘Christ Laid His Life Down for Me’: Greg Laurie Gives Powerful Gospel Presentation to Jordan Peterson
Christian megachurch leader Greg Laurie recently appeared on psychologist Jordan Peterson’s podcast, where he gave the professor-turned-cultural commentator a powerful presentation of the Gospel.
“When everything’s said and done, what’s more important than the afterlife?” the California-based pastor asked Peterson. “What’s more important than where we spend it? According to the Bible, I believe there’s a literal heaven, a literal hell, and I believe we choose in this life where we will spend the afterlife.”
Laurie added he’s going to spend eternity in heaven “not because I’ve lived a good life — because I failed in many ways — but because Christ laid His life down for me on the cross.”
“Coming back to Abraham, and what a picture, the son was willing to go and be sacrificed by the father,” the pastor continued, referring to the Old Testament story of Genesis 22. “[Isaac] knew what was going on: ‘Hey, Dad, where’s the sacrifice?’ ‘My son, God will provide for Himself a sacrifice.’ But Isaac made that sacrifice, too. The Son Jesus made that sacrifice for us, because He knew there was no other way that we could reach God, no other way we could satisfy the righteous demands of God. So Heaven isn’t for good people, as it’s often said; heaven is for forgiven people.”
The conversation between Peterson and Laurie stemmed from the 71-year-old minister opening up about the death of his son, Christopher, who passed away in 2008 as a result of a tragic car accident.
He described that day in July of 2008 as the “worst” day in his life. Nevertheless, Laurie said he is not without hope — because of his faith in the redemptive work of Jesus.
“I believe I’ll see my son again, because he believed in Jesus,” Laurie explained. “He won’t be in heaven because I’m his dad; he’ll be in heaven because he put his faith in Christ and he had that relationship. He’s a part of my future as well, so that gives me hope. But, also, I realize that God can allow these things in our life. I don’t know why. I can’t explain it. I don’t even try to explain it.”
Peterson, author of the new book, “We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions of the Divine,” admitted to Laurie he struggles to intellectually reconcile a desire to perfect the earthly world with the knowledge the Christian life is heavily weighted toward considering eternity.
The famed psychologist and podcast host asked, “How do you reconcile, in your own mind, the insistence that part of the Christian moral pattern is to perfect the world and to raise the material up to the heavenly with the notion of the afterlife and immortality?”
Laurie referenced 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, in which the Apostle Paul wrote about experiencing a “third heaven,” as well as the thief on the cross next to Jesus, Who promised the man, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43, NIV).
The pastor explained he has felt closest to God — and His promises of eternity — through life’s trials.
“God made a lot of promises,” said Laurie. “I’ve put those promises to the test, including the worst thing of all, to lose a child. And I’ve seen how God had come through for me. If He hadn’t come through for me after my son died, I would have given up preaching, for sure. Why carry on? But He came through for me.”
Sources:faithwire
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കായംകുളം ഓപ്പൺ ബൈബിൾ ചർച്ചിൽ ഗുഡ്ന്യൂസ് ഫെസ്റ്റിവൽ
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Movie8 months agoActor Ryan Phillippe ‘Craving’ Relationship With God After Movie About Christian Missionary
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National9 months ago300,000-Member Indian Church to Plant 40 More Megachurches
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Movie11 months agoBrazilian gospel singer Pedro Henrique dies of heart attack after collapsing on stage
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Articles5 months ago8 ways the Kingdom connects us back to the Garden of Eden
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Hot News8 months ago3 key evidences of Jesus’ return from the grave