Afghanistan: 'There is a lot of noise'

As well as "both unintentional and intentional, misinformation"

The truest line in a recent @ChathamHouse interview with Martine van Bijlert, Co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network has to be as follows: “…there is a lot of noise and, both unintentional and intentional, misinformation”.

Quite so.

Ms van Bijlert offered the following corrective perspectives.

First, reports of the Taliban looking for people by name and going from house to house. Ms van Bijlert noted that “it is not always clear which visits are indeed menacing and really targeting people and which are just to see who is living where and if there are weapons and government cars they can take”. She added, however, that even “in the midst of the noise and uncertainty there are strong indications that people are being personally sought and reports of violence, particularly further outside the cities where there are less people paying attention. There will be a reckoning, there is likely to be revenge, as with every turn of power. There will also be a lack of discipline. The Taliban …