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Emran Feroz is an Afghan-Austrian journalist currently based in Stuttgart, Germany. He is regularly writing from Afghanistan, often focusing on the Middle East, Central Asia, drone warfare, refugee policies and human rights. Emran is writing in both German and English. His work has already appeared in international media outlets such as Al Jazeera, The Intercept, Alternet, The Atlantic or the New York Times and in various German and Austrian news papers and magazines.
In November 2001, Donald Rumsfeld Did Not Know Which Languages Were Spoken In Afghanistan
Two months after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan started, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not know about the languages that were spoken in the country, so he asked his aides to provide him a report on the subject.
That and other revelations come from a collection of hundreds of Rumsfeld’s communications recently released by the National Security Archive.
Rumsfeld's "Languages" memo makes clear how little the U.S. knew about Afghanistan, although it had already started to bomb the country after the September 11 attacks.
Today, almost 17 years later, Afghanistan is more violent and unstable than ever.
Rumsfeld did not see this coming.
But considering his general knowledge on the issue, it is definitely not a surprise.
