The Afghan elites in 2016 are characterised by magical thinking, of a kind all too drearily familiar to anyone who has travelled in the more hapless parts of the developing world, writes Anatol Lieven. For by far the greater part of them, nothing that has happened to Afghanistan is the fault of Afghans. The Taliban are entirely created and supported by Pakistan, the USA, or some bewildering combination of the two, and have no support among Afghans. The last elections were manipulated by the USA, and the near-paralysis of the resulting "national unity government" is due to a malign American plot to ruin Afghan democracy. Western complaints about corruption, misgovernment and drug dealing in the Afghan state are because since British colonial times, "the West has hated Afghanistan".

By the same token, the solution to Afghanistan's problems is also not the responsibility of the Afghans themselves. Read more below

Marking the passing of those who have served this country in its times of need. Contributions from colleagues and families welcome.

This summer the Wall Street Journal broke news of a secret transfer of $400 million in foreign currency via an unmarked cargo plane to Iran back in January. Subsequently the White House had been forced to repeatedly deny having paid what was a ransom to Iran for the release of American hostages.

Iran has aired a documentary containing footage of pallets of millions in foreign currency that the video claims was part of the "expensive price" the Obama administration paid to free four U.S. hostages in January.

Obama has broken all the rules to appease the Ayatollahs. His administration has misled the public to spin the apparent $1.7 billion ransom payment to Iran.

Republicans believe that President Obama's disastrous nuclear deal with Iran was sweetened with an illicit ransom payment and billions of dollars for the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism,". So, why Iran is still unhappy with Obama?

Professor Malise Ruthven reviews Islamic Exceptionalism by SHADI HAMID. St. Martin's Press, 2016, 320 pp. and Islamism: What It Means for the Middle East and the World by TAREK OSMAN. Yale University Press, 2016, 328 pp.

In January 2015, after jihadists attacked the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo,killing 12 people, European leaders linked arms to lead a procession of millions through the French capital, chanting "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) in an expression of solidarity with the victims and contempt for their killers. Muslims all over the world also condemned the attacks, as did a number of Islamist organizations, including perhaps the most influential one—the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, which posted a statement on its English-language website denouncing the "criminal attack" and stating that "true Islam does not encourage violence."

Not all of the group's adherents approved of that message, however.

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Following the UK report into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which concluded that there was a "strong probability" that the murder was carried out under the direction of the FSB and with the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the question as to when the UK will finally tackle the criminal activities of the Russian state and its plutocratic associates seems wholly appropriate.

Experts have long highlighted the seamless links between Russian organised crime, the Kremlin elite and the Russian "Deep State". Edward Lucas of the Economist underlined the importance of these links in his books Deception and The New Cold War. Speaking at the Frontline Club in London in 2014, he said that no significant Russian company can operate without a licence from the state in the form of bribes in one form or another; that comment should be extended to the major criminal groups.

I reckon that Shakespeare was a bit of an insomniac. He's always banging on about sleep in his plays. But the Bard was right about recent events in Turkey, when he has the sleepless King Henry IV cry, 'uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.'

In the wake of his military's quashed coup, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is not the only world leader uneasy about his hold on power.

However Erdoğan seems safe enough for the moment. His call for the mosques and social media - which ironically he once tried to ban - to come to his rescue, proves that nowadays whoever controls social media, controls the mob. He was elected president in 2014 by over 50 percent with a voter turnout of 74% and is worshipped by his supporters on the streets. Post-coup there is little doubt that Erdogan is now master of his own AKP Rentamob.

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