Headlines:

• Taliban Strikes Again
• Erdogan Economic Model Collapses

Taliban Strikes Again

The Taliban targeted multiple locations over the past three days launching sustained attacks on four different fronts, in a show of strength. The hardest-hit area was the southeastern city of Ghazni, where more than 100 police officers and soldiers had been killed by Sunday, a hospital official said, and the insurgents appeared to be in control of most of the strategic city aside from a few important government facilities. Ninety miles west, in Ghazni Province, the Taliban seized control of the Ajristan District. The elite army commando unit that had been defending the district disappeared for two days, and their superiors were uncertain of their fate. When they found out on Sunday, estimates of the dead ranged from 40 to 100. Twenty-two survivors were carried to safety on donkeys by rescuers who found them lost in the mountains. In Faryab Province, 250 miles to the northwest, an isolated Afghan National Army base of 100 soldiers lost more than half of its men in a Taliban assault that ended early Sunday morning. The defenders said they did not expect to last another night. The US has downplayed this latest development, but it reveals the US trained forces cannot be resupplied or reinforced at the military bases lost. It also reveals the Taliban can easily capture US trained soldiers and their equipment.

Erdogan Economic Model Collapses

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday 14 August that Turkey will boycott American electronics, hours after the US temporarily suspended military aircraft sales to Ankara as tensions between the two countries escalated. “We will boycott US electronic goods,” Erdogan said in a televised speech. “If they have the iPhone, there’s Samsung on the other side,” he said, referring to US giant Apple’s iconic phone and the top South Korean brand. Erdogan for long prided his economic performance as his success story. But basing your economic model on foreign lending was never going to be a recipe for success and the chickens have now come home to roost. Now he is resorting to rhetoric, when painful restructuring is needed. All this shows his economic performance was always short term and nothing much else.