Obama's Got One Thing Right About the Mess In Afghanistan-- It's Inexorably Connected To The Mess In Pakistan
DownWithTyranny! — ... This week, we'll be participating in Get Afghanistan Right Week, in the hope of helping to remind Obama that he needs to get us out of Bush's wars, not dig us deeper into the hole. Escalation is not teh answer in Afghanistan. The link above will bring you to Afghanistan-related posts from across the blogoshere all week. ...

Obama 'Get Afghanistan Right' Campaign Ramps Up
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed — ... Now, Obama will face pressure from an organization ramping up to oppose any military escalation in that region. GetAfghanistanRight.com is a coterie of "writers, bloggers, and activists," who have joined forced to urge Obama to use diplomatic means to solve the problems in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, and will ...

Obama 'Get Afghanistan Right' Campaign Ramps Up
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... Now, Obama will face pressure from an organization ramping up to oppose any military escalation in that region. GetAfghanistanRight.com is a coterie of "writers, bloggers, and activists," who have joined forced to urge Obama to use diplomatic means to solve the problems in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, and will ...

Get Afghanistan Right
Daily Kos — ... , the project is called Get Afghanistan Right. All this week - January 12-18 - bloggers across wwwLand, as well as writers in more traditional media, will be challenging the conventional wisdom - including the conventional wisdom of many progressives - regarding Afghanistan. As Howie Klein at ...

Progressive Bloggers Launch ‘Get Afghanistan Right’ Campaign Opposing Troop Escalation
Think Progress — ... — are launching a campaign called Get Afghanistan Right. Bloggers will talk about the risks of escalation, the current situation in Afghanistan, the effects of the war domestically, and potential solutions. Robert Greenwald ...

Combating Terrorism Post-Afghanistan
The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely — The main two arguments I hear against withdrawal from Afghanistan are that we must stay in order to protect Afghan women and that the Taliban's return to power would pose a critical threat to the United States. The first issue I have tried to answer here, and in this piece I tackle the second. Much here has been said before, but as I and my colleagues around the liberal blogosphere prepare for a week of blogging against escalation it's important that we have ready answers for those who argue only escalation in Afghanistan can keep us safe.

An idea whose time has come…
Upper Left — GetAfghanistanRight.com

Open Thread for Night Owls, Early Birds & Expats
Daily Kos — ... Get Afghanistan Right is an ad hoc coalition engaging in an intensive week of blogging on the subject of transforming U.S. policy toward that country. At the group's Web site, you can sign up for e-mail updates on the project and you can find these opinions, among others: ...

Maddow, Herbert, New Site Urge US to Get Afghanistan Right
Firedoglake — ... Some folks have a different idea: How about we ask those questions first? One group of such people have put together Get Afghanistan Right, a campaign and affiliated website that opposes the escalation and calls for an informed discussion of alternative, non-military strategies to end the conflict and stabilize the region. (Full disclosure: I know many of the people working on GAR, and was an early supporter of their efforts.) Maddow gave ...

The Difference Between Afghanistan and Iraq
democracyarsenal.org — ... up on the importance of having a serious and thoughtful debate about troop increases in Afghanistan and the new blog Get Afghanistan Right.  I don't disagree that there needs to be a serious discussion of the issues before a large number of troops are deployed into the region.  And I am not really sold one way or the other on troop increases.  ...

What, I Was Serious?
Winds of Change.NET — ... Today a cohort of progressive bloggers unveils a new effort against the planned 20,000-troop increase of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A website called GetAfghanistanRight, set up by bloggers at the ...

Obama Knows the Afghanistan Surge Won't Work
Open Left - Front Page — I mentioned Get Afghanistan Right in quick hits yesterday but this is an effort that deserves more attention.  The Washington Post sub-headline - "Obama sees troops as buying time, not turning tide" - offers a damning glimpse into the reasoning behind the Afghanistan surge.  The fact that the administration still hasn't decided what the troops will be doing once they get there is just frightening.  Sadly, many of the people arguing for escalation don't offer much in the way of solutions either.   It is clear that we can not afford to ...

Is Afghanistan Worth The Fight?
Taylor Marsh — ... The coming debate on Afghanistan and the policy review the Obama administration will do will happen amidst a fierce conversation among progressives. "Get Afghanistan Right" has been created for just that purpose, arguing against any further military involvement. Once Obama takes office it is sure to get even more intense. No one could suggest with a straight face that military alone will change Afghanistan. At the same time, the same applies to the U.S. having no military presence at all. Obama also has to convince other nations to commit troops in dangerous ...

Afghanistan Escalation Bootstrapping: Seabees to Afgahnistan
Firedoglake — ... by ISI supporters and ultra-nationalists. Everyone wants to get Afghanistan right, but the consensus inside the beltway is for escalation in Afghanistan, and then to spring board to ...

20 dead in two U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... to undertake these attacks on its own, without approval from the top, but after searching for half an hour I’ve come up empty. Doesn’t matter: Presumably that rule would have been suspended after Obama was sworn in lest a freelance operation spoil his plans for Pakistan, which in turn means he must have signed off on this one. Smells like a message to the other side that he means business. Mission accomplished. The left, you’ll be pleased to know, is already starting to kick around “non-military solutions” to the good war in Afghanistan. Exit question: Never mind the drone ...

Brandon Friedman: Five Myths About the Afghanistan Escalation
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... On the other, we have a very vocal and growing grass-roots movement of bloggers, journalists, and activists who believe that this is a dangerous advance in the wrong direction. ...

Afghanistan: No Exit Plan
Daily Kos — ... Tonight they will discuss with Moyers what they think the United States should be doing, and not doing, in Afghanistan. Whatever the exchange these three have, the discussion of Afghanistan policy is one the entire nation needs to join, as people at Get Afghanistan Right have been urging the past several weeks. ...

With No End Game in Sight, the Time Has Come to Rethink Afghanistan
Open Left - Front Page — ... yesterday.  In other words, the ultimate outcome for our military presence in Afghanistan is unclear, not just to the activists and bloggers who have been wrestling with this war at Get Afghanistan Right, but to those inside the Pentagon as well.  If we have any chance of avoiding further catastrophe in the region, we better make damn sure we ...

30K? 300K? How Many More for Afghanistan - and Why?
Firedoglake — ... if we do not defeat “them” there, we are inviting another 9/11 – an argument that not only seems oddly reminiscent of Bush GWOT rhetoric, but also does not answer how control (even if achievable which is dubious) of Afghanistan would prevent the actions of the small and semi-autonomous cells who after all did their most significant preparation in Hamburg apartments and Florida flight schools. ----------------------------------- As the debate continues, keep an eye on Get Afghanistan Right for a selection of posts questioning the way forward in Afghanistan. ...

Knowing Where We Stand On Afghanistan
Wonk Room — As last Friday’s Progress Report noted, and today’s underlines, President Obama has inherited a crisis in Afghanistan. The problems identified in the Center for American Progress’s December 2007 report still exist, and have gotten worse. There is a serious and growing debate within the progressive community over the U.S. and international mission in that country, and how best to complete that mission. While there are no easy answers, I think a couple of recent items might help to focus this discussion. Dana Milbank has ...

Troop Surge in Afghanistan Means No Progressive Consensus
Daily Kos — ... The split among progressives became pronounced today in the form of a letter soon to be sent by the Get Afghanistan Right coalition to the President, his most powerful Cabinet members and the chief of the Afghanistan policy review team, ex-CIA employee Bruce Riedel. The letter, which argues that it is misguided to escalate U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, comes in response to efforts by the National Security Network to present a progressive consensus statement on the situation. ...

Talk with the Taliban, Just Leave Your Troops at Home
Open Left - Front Page — Over the weekend, President Obama confirmed what many Get Afghanistan Right bloggers, myself included, have been saying for months: resolving the war in Afghanistan will require negotiating with elements of the Taliban.  17,000 more troops will be " ...

The Sex Appeal of Congressional Oversight Hearings
Open Left - Front Page — ... an additional 17,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, here's how he tactfully voiced his dissent: The last thing in the world that I want to see is our new President -- who I have a lot of confidence in in many respects -- we don't want to see him bogged down the way LBJ was bogged down in Vietnam.  We don't want to see another war in Iraq, which was so disastrous in so many respects. Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation's Editor-in-Chief and a Get Afghanistan Right supporter, echoed this admonishment to avoid history repeating in her ...

ZP Heller: The Sex Appeal of Congressional Oversight Hearings
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... send an additional 17,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, here's how he tactfully voiced his dissent: The last thing in the world that I want to see is our new President -- who I have a lot of confidence in in many respects -- we don't want to see him bogged down the way LBJ was bogged down in Vietnam. We don't want to see another war in Iraq, which was so disastrous in so many respects. Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation's Editor-in-Chief and a Get Afghanistan Right supporter, echoed this admonishment to avoid history repeating in ...

The Case for the Middle Path in Afghanistan
democracyarsenal.org — ... and the coalition behind Get Afghanistan Right offer a different take on minimalism – one that is more skeptical of any use of military force but is willing to do more on the non-military side.  ...

Ilan Goldenberg: The Case for a Middle Path in Afghanistan
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... and the coalition behind Get Afghanistan Right offer a different take on minimalism - one that is more skeptical of any use of military force but is willing to do more on the non-military side.  ...

Don't Go There Mr. President!
The Nation: Top Stories — 17,000 or 21,000 more US troops will not protect Americans against Al Qaeda attacks. The Obama plan instead will accelerate any plans Al Qaeda commanders have for attacking targets in the United States or Europe. The alternative for Al Qaeda is to risk complete destruction, an American objective that has not been achieved for eight years. A terrorist attack need not be planned or set in motion from a cave in Waziristan. The cadre could already be underground in Washington or London. The real alternative for President Obama should be to maintain a deterrent posture while immediately accelerating diplomacy to meet legitimate ...

Tom Hayden: Don't Go There, Mr. President!
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — GO THERE, MR. PRESIDENT! 17,000 or 21,000 more American troops will not protect Americans against Al Qaeda attacks. The Obama Plan instead will accelerate any plans al Qaeda commanders have for attacking targets in the United States or Europe. The alternative for al Qaeda is to risk complete destruction, an American objective that has not been achieved for eight years. A future terrorist attack need not be planned or set in motion from a cave in Waziristan. The cadre could already be underground in Washington or London. The real alternative for President Obama should be to maintain a deterrent ...

Obama Calls for World without Nuclear Weapons
Firedoglake — ... Tomorrow, Get Afghanistan Right, in coordination with bloggers, writers, and activists all over the country, will participate in demonstrations both online and offline around the war in Afghanistan, with the aim of getting our fellow Americans to break their silence and voice their views on planned escalation. ...

Why Dr. King Would Break the Silence on Afghanistan
Open Left - Front Page — This week, my Get Afghanistan Right colleagues and I want you to flash back to 1967, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lashed out at the US government over the Vietnam War.  We remember Dr. King's speech, " ...

Iraq and Afghanistan: Dual Fronts
The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely — Apr 6 Blogging to Get Afghanistan Right We oppose military escalation in Afghanistan and support non-military solutions to the conflict. We are concerned citizens and activists from around the country intent on disrupting the notion that a 'consensus' exists on escalation in Afghanistan by laying out our position online. Below are the latest pieces we've written. If you'd like to contribute your thoughts, write a post on Afghanistan and email us a link so we can feature you here. Check It Out! A Few ...

Jason Rosenbaum: Breaking the Silence: Escalation in Afghanistan Does Not Keep America Safe
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... , a site where anyone can write a post. (Click here for instructions.) Whatever you choose to do, just break the silence. The world will be better for it. ...

Breaking the Silence on Afghanistan
Firedoglake — ... This is just one part of what is so wrong with the new plan for Afghanistan. Today, as part of Get Afghanistan Right’s campaign, you can ...

Afghanistan: Where Progressives Turn Into Hawks?
Newshoggers.com — ... Today, GetAfghanistanRight.com are holding a day of blogging from those who don't accept these partisan fabrications to protect a rotten plan. OxDown Gazette is aggregating many of those posts. ...

ZP Heller: Why Dr. King Would Break the Silence on Afghanistan
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... This week, my Get Afghanistan Right colleagues and I want you to flash back to 1967, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lashed out at the US government over the Vietnam War. We remember Dr. King's speech, " ...

Tension Over Afghanistan
Open Left - Front Page — According to Al Jazeera, Pakistan's a bit worried about India's aid to Afghanistan. The folks at Get Afghanistan Right have more on US involvement in the country. What do you think about our too-long-forgotten war?

Ten Things: How to Oppose Afghan War
The Nation: Top Stories — ... ." 3 Check out the coalition of bloggers and activists seeking nonmilitary alternatives to escalation at Get Afghanistan Right . 4 Demand Congressional oversight hearings. It is Congress's duty to challenge policy-makers and inform the public about everything from the overall mission to the efficiency of military agencies. Sign a ...

Josh Nelson: ACES is Not a Victory for the Environmental Movement
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... to Afghanistan to the climate crisis, activists and advocacy organizations are going to have to make President Obama do it. He simply won't do what is necessary otherwise. ...

The right way in Iraq is out.
Upper Left — Colonel Timothy Reese, one of those 'commanders in the field' the politicians like to defer to on matters of deployment... We too ought to declare victory and bring our combat forces home. Due to our tendency to look after the tactical details and miss the proverbial forest for the trees, this critically important strategic realization is in danger of being missed.Yep. It applies elsewhere, as well. ...

Success In Afghanistan? "We'll Know It When We See It," Says Holbrooke
Newshoggers.com — ... exploring exactly how the few voices of the Get Afghanistan Right blogger coalition have slowly but surely morphed into a mainstream unease about "early signs of erosion over unclear goals, increased U.S. resources, and new concern that the counterinsurgency strategy embraced by the administration commits the U.S. too deeply to peripheral tasks." ...

In the World of Politico, Progressives are Chimeras and Unicorns
Firedoglake — photo by zoomar [editor's note: Spencer will be talking about US Afghanistan policy on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show tonight, 9PM EDT.] For an example of how to write a conventional-wisdom story extremely badly, all eyes are on Mike Allen. Allen's piece today is about how ...