Although news out of Afghanistan was less last week, the subject of terrorism was still in news feeds,  with media elites and politicians seemingly wanting to shift focus a little. President Biden’s proclamation that domestic terror was the most “lethal threat” to the USA earlier this year, was echoed by former President Bush’s statements at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony. But Twitter NPCs went one better, with a professor claiming that September 11 was actually an attack on the “heteropatriarchal capitalistic systems” that “many white people fight to protect.” Really. So, we’re not in Kansas any more. Or, at least our elites aren’t.

Former President Trump said during an interview with Fox that he would not be surprised if China and Russia already have American Apache helicopters that were left behind in Afghanistan in their possession. He speculated that taking the machines apart would give them the opportunity to reverse engineer them, in order to copy the design.

Those following the Brief History of Power podcast will have heard Dr. Koontz speak of the importance of opium poppy production to Afghanistan and America’s strange relationship with the trade. An insightful article from Unherd outlines the politics around the drug’s production, noting “those who control Kabul do not control the periphery.” While the Taliban have previously outlawed poppy farming, they must now win over regional tribes, who depend on the crop for their livelihood and resist anyone who tries to take it away.