Trump's Afghanistan mother bomb

Caught between the Taliban, Islamic State and US airstrikes, Afghan civilians have been forced to flee their homes to the outskirts of Jalalabad, where they found refuge inside an unfinished university building.

As the Pentagon lobbies President Donald Trump to send up to 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan, US jets have stepped up bombing operations to levels last seen in 2012, in an effort to crush an Islamic State affiliate before it establishes a foothold.

What the US military leadership are talking about doing in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan is a further step down the road to permanent war and nation building, says investigative journalist Gareth Porter. But will Trump approve the plan?

Pope Francis has criticized the “the Mother of All Bombs” label attached to the biggest American non-nuclear explosive, saying that he was “ashamed” to find out that the word “mother” was used to describe a lethal weapon.

The US has “no choice” but to continue boosting its military power, Donald Trump has said, after Washington’s war machine showcased its latest weapons over the past week and demonstrated its willingness to use them.

Today, many erstwhile Trump supporters are suffering shell-shock after the Republican leader, who pledged like a populist on the campaign trail to scale back the US military’s overseas footprint, instead took US aggression to the next insane level.