In the West, when we evoke the Afghan War, we think about the NATO troops pitted against the Taliban insurgency. Of course in Afghanistan, the war isn't called the Afghanistan War, it's called the 'NATO invasion' or maybe 'the American War" and for them, the war is not about Americans fighting the Taliban, it's just a continuation of a civil war that's been ongoing for a very long time.

Journalist May Jeong examines the fracturing of Afghanistan under 16 years of US-lead, off-record, war-lord empowering occupation, passed unchanged from US President to US President, and explains why a Balkanized country patrolled by armed groups, local elites and foreign governments is exactly what America wants in a warzone.

May wrote the feature The U.S.-Trained Warlords Committing Atrocities in Afghanistan for In These Times.