Image is of China's ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Sheng, meeting Taliban Prime Minister Hasan Akhund in September 2023.

I know the Rambo title card is a hoax.

The COTW was chosen in the wake of the aborted sequel to the attempted assassination of Trump being performed by a guy who is VERY enthusiastic about Ukraine, to the point of trying to sneak Afghan soldiers into Ukraine by setting up a house in Pakistan to house them and then further transport them. He also apparently offered to send thousands of Afghan soldiers to Haiti to help them combat gang violence. Whomst among us doesn't have the numbers of thousands of Afghan soldiers on speed-dial. Do you reckon there's a group chat?

Anyway, while there is still no official recognition of the Taliban's government by any country, China has taken a different course than the late USSR and the US - forming economic in-roads, rather than trying their own invasion. This has been a big boon for the struggling country, with various mines and oil and agriculture deals helping keep things barely afloat. A total disintegration of the social fabric of Afghanistan is not in the interest of any of the powers that border it - China, Pakistan, and Iran, with Russia not too far away - so an interesting dynamic of helping-without-official-recognition has been established. I wonder who will be the first country to fully recognize them?

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Afghanistan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I'm joining the nothing ever happens crowd on Iran's counterattack to the assassination. I don't think it's ever happening.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      The "retaliation" from Iran will probably be acquiring advanced technology from Russia that they do not have a domestic equivalent for, like S400 air defence systems, Su-35 fighter jets, or assistance with nuclear weapons technology. That's been my guess for a while now. This, in combination with more extensive collaboration with the Yemeni Armed Forces with more advanced weaponry, which has already started with the Palestine-2 missile in my opinion. This is going to be bigger than another retaliatory strike by Iran. It's about changing the balance of power long term. Working with Yemen on missile technology described here in this white paper PDF is a big deal. Just some excerpts worth taking note of:

      • Launch detection by US spaceborne assets – no change versus similar ballistic missile. However, those sensors cannot provide impact point prediction anymore.
      • Throughout all the flight phases, up to the impact, there is no way to predict impact point. Moreover, during the initial sustainer burn the final impact point deviations might exceed 100’s of Km. (each delta speed of 1 m/s is equivalent to about 1 Km deviation). The Iranian videos show sets of 3D maneuvers during this phase. This Iranian design might negate some western ballistic missile defense selective engagement strategies.

      In short, the missile can manoeuvre and change course in certain stages of flight, there is no way to predict the target after the launch (which was previously possible with previous ballistic missiles).

      Some assess that the “Fattah” missile will use a depressed trajectory, so it will limit ground radars and Electrical-Optical (EO) sensors range due to Line of Sight (LOS) geometry.
      • High Radar Cross Section (RCS) and EO/Infrared(IR) signature due to the unique configuration, sustainer rocket and heat load.
      • Various tracking and Track While Scan (TWS) algorithms might require adaptation to this non-ballistic behavior.
      • Pull up maneuver phase – as the Re-entry Vehicle (RV) altitude might reach up to about 15 Km. most sensors (which are not close to the missile this point) might lose LOS to the RV target.
      • Pull down maneuver – potential high g maneuvers might challenge tracking elements.

      Basically the missiles depressed trajectory and pull up phase takes advantage of the earth's curvature so that ground radars cannot get a line of sight on the missile

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          2 months ago

          I think it's why the Israelis detected the missile so late when it was launched against them, and several interceptor missiles failed to hit their targets. Imagine for a second, if this missile had a nuclear warhead, what kind of capabilities that would give Iran.

      • EmoThugInMyPhase [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        In fact, there have been many zionist opeds saying nuking the world out of defeat is a right exclusively for Jews lol

      • Boredom [none/use name]
        ·
        2 months ago

        The end goal is not ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Rather it is ethnic cleansing from the west bank to the euphrates.

        • Awoo [she/her]
          ·
          2 months ago

          I believe the same.

          However, I also don't think they would stop there. They aren't suddenly going to say "yes that's enough arabs killed" or "yes that's enough land for Israel". If opportunity exists they will keep taking it.

      • Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        Israel will exploit it as much as they can knowing no one wants to get into a regional war. Soon there will be no regional anything to defend.

    • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      back in late August I was thinking "wouldn't it be hilarious if they did it on October 7th? nah, probably not"

      now I'm beginning to think that they might

    • Teekeeus
      ·
      20 days ago

      deleted by creator

    • Sulvor [he/him, undecided]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I'm sorry but defeatism will soon be against the rules, please remove your post and think about what you did wrong. /j

      • FungiDebord [none/use name]
        ·
        2 months ago

        this is a very serious "materialist" forum and if you don't constantly beam positive vibrations to socialist hero and geopolitical mastermind Mr Ali Khamenei at all times you will be banned.