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Judy Woodruff:

In just over one month, according to President Biden, the U.S. will have completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, after 20 years.

But for those two decades, Afghanistan's neighbor to the east, Pakistan, has been a key player in the regional dynamics, and stands long accused by the United States and Afghanistan of supporting Taliban insurgents.

In a moment, I will have an interview with Pakistan's prime minister, Imran Khan, but, first, some background on him and the fraught relationship with the U.S. and Afghanistan.

From the 1970s to the early 90's, Imran Khan was a professional athlete, a cricket star, guiding Pakistan's national team to victory. Now, as Pakistan's prime minister, he's leading his country at a time of regional tumult.

As the U.S. leaves Afghanistan, the Taliban is making swift territorial advances. When the Taliban recently took over a key Afghan-Pakistani border crossing, residents on the Pakistani side seemed to celebrate, waving Taliban flags and honking horns.

Recently, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made a longstanding accusation: Pakistan provides insurgents safe haven.

ASHRAF GHANI, President of Afghanistan: Intelligence estimates indicate the influx of over 10,000 jihadi fighters from Pakistan and other places in the last month, as well as support from their affiliates in the transnational terrorist organization.

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U.S. 'really messed it up' in Afghanistan, Pakistan PM says - PBS NewsHour

The U.S. military is physically withdrawing from Afghanistan, and Afghan nationals who aided the American military are trying to evacuate as the Taliban gains ground in remote areas. GBH News analyst Charlie Sennott called into Boston Public Radio on Monday from Kabul, Afghanistan, to give a sense of the situation on the ground.

Sennott, formerly a Middle East bureau chief for the Boston Globe covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, said the nation is in a moment of "tremendous uncertainty."

"You can really feel sort of the barometric pressure dropping with the U.S. pullout underway," said Sennott. "The situation on the ground is, you don't see U.S. military on the streets the way you used to see them."

"This place has always lived with violence, it's always lived with a great deal of nerve-wracking fighting going on with the Taliban for many many years," he said, but added that this moment, as the Taliban surges in outer provinces, feels unique in just how much is changing quickly.

Sennott, who was last in the country in 2016, said that while the Taliban is gaining ground outside the cities, it still feels relatively normal in metropolitan areas.

"[There's a] really strange mix of inspiring and hopeful commitment and endurance to sort of daily life going on: the vegetable markets are there, you see the butchers on the street, you see people out and about and shopping, and then ... this feeling of tremendous uncertainty with a total lack of U.S. military presence, and many questions about what that's going to mean in the weeks and months ahead," said Sennott.

Human rights groups and monitors in Afghanistan are reporting a rise in civilian casualties and executions, with the Taliban responsible for the bulk of the offenses. Sennott said his reporting so far reflects a sense that "the Taliban is going to be a part of the future of Afghanistan."

"I spoke today to a young man who was very openly in favor of the Taliban and he felt like the Taliban has changed," said Sennott, noting that footage coming out of Afghanistan showing beheadings and the slaughter of surrendering troops, shows "completely the opposite."

"I think the young people who are educated here, like the young man I spoke with, he said to me that yes he supports some of the aspects of the Taliban a sense of traditional Islam, of living by Sharia but that he would never tolerate girls not to be educated or women not to be in the workplace, and that no one his age would support that."

75% of Afghans are 25 years old or younger, said Sennott.

While the Taliban has gained ground in remote areas of the country, Sennott said he doesn't believe "they are going to come into power and surge into taking over Kabul any time soon."

"The clearest assessment I have is a shift in strategy, that the Afghan national army and security forces here have decided they're going to concentrate on the urban centers, and that's going to mean letting go of some of the outposts in more distant regions," he said.

Charlie Sennott is a GBH News analyst and founder and CEO of the Groundtruth Project.

See more here:
On The Ground In Kabul: The 'Barometric Pressure Is Dropping' In Afghanistan As US Troops Withdraw - wgbh.org

Between 29 and 31 July alone, MSF treated 70 war-wounded patients. In total from 3 May until 31 July, we have treated 482 war-wounded people, nearly all (92 per cent) for injuries caused by shells and bullets, and around a quarter (26 per cent) aged under 18. The patients seen by MSF are just a fraction of the totalnumber injured by the violence.

The fighting exacerbates health needs beyond trauma care. Given the lack of well-functioning and affordable medical facilities in Helmand, people rely on the 300-bed Boost hospital, the only referral hospital in the province, for essential neonatal, paediatric, inpatient, intensive care, maternity, malnutrition, and surgical services among others.

Since May,however, MSF staff have witnessed an alarming increase in the severity of patients illnesses when they arrive at the hospital. People have described how, despite needing medical care, they have been forced to wait at home until the fighting subsides or to take dangerous alternate routes. With fighting taking place not far from Boost hospital, and people too afraid to leave their homes due to the violence, access to healthcare is dangerously limited.

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Intense fighting leads to severe trauma causalities in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan | MSF - Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) International

ISLAMABAD:

When National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt General Faiz Hameed arrived in Washington last week, there were no photo ops or any fanfare about their visit taking place at a critical juncture.

The NSA and the ISI chief met concerned officials during their stay in the US capital but the only statement was from the US NSA, Jake Sullivan, who tweeted after meeting Dr Moeed and Lt Gen Faiz.

But Dr Moeed was not bothered about it, insisting the PTI governments US policy is pragmatic and unapologetic, but not boastful and urged people not to look for big pictures and all-embracing headlines. He on Sunday said the focus of the visit was more on substance than optics.

Behind the scene there were indeed substantive discussions focused largely on the Afghan endgame and future of Pakistan-US ties, sources familiar with the development told The Express Tribune.

Read: 'US really messed it up in Afghanistan': PM Imran

According to the sources, the NSA and the ISI chief delivered a message to the US authorities, warning them not to abandon Afghanistan. The US was told that the complete detachment of the US from Afghanistan after their troops withdrawal would allow terrorist outfits such as Al Qaeda to regroup and eventually become a security threat not only to the region but also to Washington.

Pakistan wants the US to remain engaged with the Afghan situation in order to ensure that there is some political settlement after its withdrawal instead of civil war. Prime Minister Imran Khan also recently criticised the US approach and blamed Washington for the Afghan mess.

The worry in Pakistan is that the US may abandon Afghanistan altogether leaving regional countries to face the blowback of a potential civil war in Afghanistan. It is because of this reason that Pakistan has been working with regional countries including Russia and China to prevent the civil war in Afghanistan.

Both Russia and China are also critical of the US strategy on Afghanistan and publicly blamed Washington for leaving the neighbouring country in a total mess. But given the role of the US, Pakistan, Russia and China are still seeking to engage with the Biden administration.

For this purpose senior officials of Pakistan, China, Russia and the US are scheduled to meet in Doha on August 11. The so-called Extended Trioka will discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and discuss ways to seek a political settlement.

Read more: US lauds Pakistan's 'sincere' efforts for peace in Afghanistan

In Washington while the NSA and the ISI director general shared Pakistan's perspective, the US conveyed its expectations. Despite Pakistan's insistence on not having a similar influence over the Afghan Taliban, the US feels Pakistan can still play an important role.

However, Dr Moeed dismissed the perception that Pakistan has great influence over the Taliban. If that was the case, Pakistan would have at least persuaded the Taliban to force out the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from Afghanistan.

Pakistan and China have been pushing the Afghan Taliban to cut ties with the TTP and East Turkestan Islamic Movement ((ETIM). The Taliban in general have made a commitment that they would not allow Afghan soil to be used against any other country.

But observers are skeptical as the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report suggested that the Taliban still maintain contacts with al-Qaeda and other terrorist outfits.

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Pakistan asks US not to abandon Afghanistan - The Express Tribune

The U.S. military hit a series of alleged small drone facilities across Iraq and Syria with airstrikes on Sunday evening. Two locations inside Syria and another in Iraq were hit in order to disrupt and deter...unmanned aerial vehicle attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Four militiamen were allegedly killed in the strikes, the Associated Press reports, citing militia officials without specifying affiliations. The U.S. military alleges militiamen with Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada were among several Iran-backed militia groups that worked inside the buildings now destroyed. (According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, those two groups are closely linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.)

Background: Since April, Iranian-backed militias have launched at least five drone attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reports. Reuters reported on one of earliest of those, which occurred on April 14 in Erbil. The apparent uptick suggests the units are turning to more sophisticated means of putting pressure on the American presence in the country, according to U.S. officials.

Iraqs prime minister and military condemned the strikes in statements via their spokesmen.

Defensive precision airstrikes on operational and weapons storage facilities is how the Pentagon described its actions in a statement from spokesman John Kirby. (The Pentagon also released three video clips of the strikes, which you can find here, here, and here.)

Disrupt and deter trivia: The last such strike was at the end of February, Reuters Idrees Ali tweeted Sunday evening.

Worth noting: At least two larger developments are unfolding as this militias-vs.-U.S. beef plays out:

One last thing about small drones: For at least the past year, CENTCOMs Gen. Frank McKenzie has been sounding the alarm bells over the disruptive and dangerous threat from unmanned aerial systems and armed small dronesnot that there are a whole lot of countermeasures widely available, as weve reviewed in our podcast as recently as this past October:

Afghanistan is Not a Winnable War, White House Says as Taliban Storms Country // Jacqueline Feldscher: President Ghani leaves Washington empty handed, as Biden rejects Republican calls to reverse U.S. troop withdrawal.

Digital Authoritarianism is a National Security Threat, Pentagon Cyber Leader Says // Mila Jasper: The U.S. must fund the development of technology that can compete with the offerings of authoritarian countries, said Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant defense secretary for cyber policy.

New Laws Are Probably Needed to Force US Firms to Patch Known Cyber Vulnerabilities, NSA Official Says // Patrick Tucker: Too many firms are shying away from replacing old gear that is only getting easier for criminals to attack

The Army Brief // Caitlin M. Kenney: Plans for Afghan visa applications; Next-gen vaccine; Racism-teaching debate; and more...

Were Not Ready for Another Pandemic // Olga Khazan, The Atlantic: The next big plague is coming, and despite making progress on pandemic preparedness, the U.S. might still suffer mass casualties. Heres why.

Defense Business Brief // Marcus Weisgerber: Defense Business Brief: In-person networking is back; Turkey builds largest wind tunnel; 3D printing advancements and more.

The Only Way Well Know When We Need COVID-19 Boosters // Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic: Research can tell us only so much. The rest is a waiting game.

Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief from Ben Watson with Jennifer Hlad. If youre not already subscribed to The D Brief, you can do that here. On this day in 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The Afghanistan conflict is not a winnable war, and the U.S. will continue withdrawing troops from the country, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday, the same day President Biden met with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani.One big reason this matters: Republicans had been pressing Biden to reverse course and stop the withdrawal, Defense Ones Jacqueline Feldscher reports.As for Ghani, he said he respects Americas decision to withdraw and rejects any false narratives of abandonment. But he still painted a grim picture of the security situation in Afghanistan, comparing it to 1861, when the Civil War began in the United States. The then-young republic of the United States was under attack and unity, determination, and ensuring that an exclusionary agenda was not allowed[this] is the type of moment for us, Ghani told journalists. Read on, here.

And finally today: Allegedly classified British documents were found in a soggy heap behind a bus station in Kent last Tuesday morning, the BBC reported this weekend.There were at least two sets of documents recovered in the almost 50-page heap, and one batch concerned the likely Russian reaction to [the Royal Navys HMS Defenders] passage through Ukrainian waters off the Crimea coast. (That event occurred one day after the documents were found.) The other bundle detail[ed] plans for a possible UK military presence in Afghanistan after the US-led Nato operation there ends, the BBC reports, and even shared photos of some of what was found.Said the British military in a statement: As the public would expect, the Ministry of Defence plans carefully. Read on, here.

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Today's D Brief: US strikes militias in Iraq, Syria; Afghanistan, cont.; the next pandemic; And a bit more. - Defense One