By Steve Hynd
We've already covered some of the news on Afghanistan readers might have missed over Thanksgiving. Now, what about its neighbour Pakistan?
Well, the big pre-Turkey story was Jeremy Scahill's expose of the involvement of a Blackwater subsiduary in gathering intelligence, drone operation and covert operations there. The U.S.' [...]
By Steve Hynd
We hope all our American readers had a good Thanksgiving. But the news keeps rolling on despite holidays, so it's time to play catch-up with foreign policy and affairs. Let's start with Afghanistan and the ongoing U.S.-led occupation there.
With Obama's speech on his new Afghanistan strategy due on [...]
I've been reading a remarkable book, An Unexpected Light, about Afghanistan which I plan to review here soon. Today I wanted to share one passage in which Jason Elliot recounts how a drunk Frenchman sees Afghans (pp 440-1 in the paperback edition).
[The young drunk Frenchman] asked how I would' [...]
So the hawks circling Obama will get their escalation in Afghanistan. God save us!
It galls me how these people pose as Brave Thinkers Who (Alone) Understand The Dangerous World We Live In:
I say to them: if the troop surge so vital to our security, show real political spine and support [...]
Word is out this morning that President Obama has decided to send an additional 34,000 troops to Afghanistan. If true, this could well rank as the worst decision so far in his Administration.
The fiasco of the Afghan elections, which underscored the Karzai government’s lack of any real [...]
Strongly Approve - 27%..........Strongly Disapprove 42%
While Americans continue to die in the God forsaken hell hole that is Afghanistan, and Obama seems bound and determined to do what it takes to...
By Steve Hynd
McClatchy has the scoop - President Obama will announce on Dec 1 that he will order 34,000 additional troops sent to Afghanistan.
As it now stands, the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division [...]
4 US service members die in Afghan attacks
KABUL — Bomb attacks and a firefight killed four U.S. troops in 24 hours in Afghanistan, the military said Monday, adding to the growing toll as NATO and...
[...] by Eric Martin
Steve Clemons tries to suss out the price tag associated with escalation/continuation in the rudderless conflict in Afghanistan:
The White House is suggesting the price tag will be...$1 million per new soldier per year.
And can I add that these figures do not seem to include the long term health costs that [...]
By Derrick Crowe
If Matthew Hoh could tell you one thing to help you understand the U.S.'s predicament in Afghanistan, he'd tell you:
The presence of our ground combat troops is not doing anything to defeat al-Qaida.Think about that for a moment. We are paying roughly $1 million per troop, per' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
I have said for years that the best way to end foreign misadventures like Iraq and Afghanistan was to make the millionaire pundits and neocons pay for them. Let's see how enthusiastic Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes are when their wars are being paid for by them. [...]
By Steve Hynd
David Milliband, the British Foreign Secretary, is a typical Blairite. If his lips are moving, he's spinning something - nothing gets said without it serving a domestic political purpose. Yesterday he had this to say about Afghanistan:
In an interview with the Guardian at the end of a visit [...]
Those are Fred Thompson's words and it comes as no surprise to readers of this blog that I agree with him. I even made the call to Republican Congressional Candidates to begin calling for the...
[...]
An Afghan policeman auditions for the role of Estragon
By Steve Hynd
Even those of us who oppose any kind of McChrystal Plan for troop escalation in Afghanistan are getting a bit antsy waiting for Godot Obama to make his mind up. I realise that its a complex set of issues [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Obama has to make a decision of Afghanistan - is he going to make an LBJ decision and be a one term president or.....? Harvey Wasserman explains the wrong decision will make him a one term president.
As the world awaits Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan, [...]
By Steve Hynd
Wonderful news: our protoges have learned their lessons well and outstripped us:
Lawless Somalia and war-torn Afghanistan topped a blacklist on Tuesday of the world's most corrupt countries drawn up by the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International.
TI's annual corruption index showed how countries devastated by conflict have become overrun by [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Pakistan supports the Quetta Shura Taliban and other anti-government insurgent groups/networks in Afghanistan because Pakistan wants strategic depth against India. The warlords of the Northern Alliance and the Karzai government have a long history of having good working ties with India. Crushing Pashtun nationalism and strength in the [...]
By Steve Hynd
Faced with cratering support for the occupation in Afghanistan, Britain's Gordon Brown is trying to thread the needle by claiming that the UK's presence there is justified while looking for the fastest possible exit strategy- preferably a strategy that shows tangible progress before next year's general election. In what' [...]
By Steve Hynd
Support for the continuing occupation of Afghanistan is cratering in Britain, according to a new poll for the Independent on Sunday.
In a ComRes poll for the IoS this weekend, an overwhelming proportion – 71 per cent – supported this newspaper's call for a phased withdrawal of British [...]
By Steve Hynd
The Pakistani press has noticed a letter by Sir Nicholas Barrington, former British envoy to Pakistan, in the London Times:
“Massive foreign bases encourage ideas that the Americans and NATO want to stay in, and dominate, Afghanistan . Many think that the West is motivated by a [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
David Broder proves beyond all doubt that he is not just a senile old fool but a dangerous one at that. In Enough Afghan debate he channels Dick Cheney and says:
The more President Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he likes the choices he sees. [...]
By Steve Hynd
A shockingly insensitive U.S. Army has arrested a single mother and soldier who couldn't find a carer for her child while she was on deployment to Afghanistan. The Army also handed the child over to Child Protective Services and now plans to fly the soldier to Afghanistan for' [...]
An American soldier knew Sabi was not aBy Steve Hynd
According to the Financial Times:
As US President Barack Obama prepares to make a final decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, his visit to Beijing next week will be an opportunity to press China to [...]
