EVER since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the country has been on a downward slide and its people have been suffering unprecedented hardships.

The never-ending trauma of war, poverty, and the disastrous state of public health and the education system continue to haunt the country which, prior to the invasion was one of the best governed States in the Arab world.

THE visit of US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and US defence secretary Mark Esper for the 2+2 Dialogue with their Indian counterparts, in the middle of the second surge in Covid-19 pandemic and merely a week prior to US presidential polls, is being projected as the coming of age of a long-cherished military relationship. One of the highlights of the meeting was the signing of the Basic Exchange and Co-operation Agreement (BECA), at a time when the military standoff across the undefined border with China shows no signs of de-escalation. 

THE US has been fighting Taliban for the last 19-years at a cost of more than $2 trillion. However, President Donald Trump believes that the Taliban might be America’s newfound ally in South Asia in bringing back peace to war-torn Afghanistan.

JOHN Bolton, former national security adviser (NSA), in the Trump administration, in his controversial book The Room Where It Happened, has alleged the US President Donald Trump demanded that Japan pay $8 billion per year for costs associated with hosting American troops in Okinawa – or risk their withdrawal.

AFGHANISTAN’s seven-day “reduction in violence” plan negotiated by the US and the Taliban commenced on February 21. Subsequently, the two erstwhile warring parties signed a deal on February 28, to bring peace to Afghanistan. America promised phased withdrawal of its military forces from Afghanistan. It is hoped that this will mark the beginning of end of the American involvement in nearly two-decade-old Afghan war which began after the September 11 attacks.