nytimes.com - 1/6/2009
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The time to go all out in Afghanistan was in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks. That time has passed. >
nytimes.com - 1/9/2009
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nytimes.com —
President-elect Barack Obama explained why the nation needs
aggressive action to deal with the economic crisis, and...
he’s right. But his economic plan falls well short of what’s needed. >
(more)
Op-Ed Columnist: The Obama Gap
foreignpolicy.com - 1/5/2009
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foreignpolicy.com —
or the past five years, the fight in
Afghanistan has been hobbled by strategic drift, conflicting tactics,...
and too few troops. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, got it right when he bluntly told the U.S. Congress in 2007, ...
(more)
Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition
michaelyon-online.com - 1/9/2009
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michaelyon-online.com —
A missive arrived to me from a well-placed
British officer. I know this officer well, and respect...
his abilities. He has been to both Iraq and Afghanistan. In part, the missive said: “Please have a look at the attached from the UK Times. ...
(more)
Red Flag
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Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up
Daily Kos —
Your one stop pundit shop. Bob Herbert argues forcefully and persuasively against escalating our involvement in Afghanistan: The government we are supporting in Afghanistan is a fetid hothouse of corruption, a government of gangsters and weasels whose customary salute is the upturned palm. Listen to this devastating assessment by Dexter Filkins of The Times: “Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the ...
NSN Daily Update 1/6/09
democracyarsenal.org —
... Bob Herbert writes on the “Afghanistan quagmire,” describing U.S. efforts there as a “fool’s errand” and arguing against President-elect Barack Obama’s proposed troop increases. ...
High Time for Change
N/A —
... Power is the opiate of great nations. And Afghanistan? “Afghanistan is a fetid hothouse of corruption, a government of gangsters and weasels.” ...
Get Afghanistan Right
Daily Kos —
... into the hole." Given the likely arc of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, we should expect that this one-week of intensive discussion about getting Afghanistan right may change but will not end on January 18. You can read several recent pieces on the subject at Get Afghanistan Right's newly launched Web site, including Robert Drefuss's Hey Obama, Don't Let Afghanistan Be Your Quagmire, dcrowe's Afghanistan War: Unfunded and a Liability, Bob Herbert's The Afghan Quagmire, and Andrew Bacevich's Winning In Afghanistan: Victory there won't look like ...
A Little More Conversation is Key for Afghanistan
democracyarsenal.org —
... Even as the bulk of foreign policy attention stays fixed on events in Gaza, a real debate is beginning to open up over the Obama administration’s plans to tackle the Afghanistan problem. Bob Herbert and ...
Norman Solomon: 44 Years Later, LBJ's Ghost Hovers Over the 44th President
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... Several weeks ago, a Bob Herbert column made a practical moral argument: "Sending thousands of additional men and women (some to die, some to be horribly wounded) on a fool's errand in the rural, mountainous guerrilla paradise of Afghanistan would be madness." ...
With No End Game in Sight, the Time Has Come to Rethink Afghanistan
Open Left - Front Page —
... to the war-torn region--the first of several planned deployments. This escalation, according to a new report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, will only sustain a Taliban resurgence that until now has thrived off of our military's deeply unwelcomed presence. It will perpetuate a violent conflict while hurting our chances of effectively using reconstructive aid and diplomacy to help the suffering people of Afghanistan.
This war has been called a quagmire. It has been compared--by everyone from Brave New Films bloggers to ...
Related Content
What, I Was Serious?
windsofchange.net 1/15/2009 — I saw this the other day, and waited for it to get picked up and commented on. It wasn't, so I'll raise it here.
Here's Spencer Ackerman writing in the Washington Independent :
Today a cohort of progressive bloggers unveils a new effort against ...
Afghanistan and Pakistan take center stage in 2009
csmonitor.com 1/11/2009 — Under Obama, the US may send 20,000 more troops and encourage talks with the Taliban in an effort to reclaim the upper hand in Afghanistan. By Anand Gopal | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the January 2, 2009 edition Kabul, ...
GetAfghanistanRight.com
washingtonindependent.com 1/12/2009 — 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 Seminal and Brave New Films — and with the ...
Obama's Team Stumbling into Afghan Trap
thewashingtonnote.com 1/26/2009 —
(photo credit: Jon Taplin's Blog )
In the book, America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy , which is an April-May 2008 rolling conversation between former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and ...
Afghan Police Update: February 2009
longwarjournal.org 2/26/2009 —
Afghanistan Regional Commands and Provincial Reconstruction Teams.
The Afghan National Police continues to lag behind the Afghan National Army in its readiness to take on its duties without outside help. Most Afghan police ...
Get Afghanistan Right
dailykos.com 1/13/2009 — An ad hoc group of bloggers has come together for the purpose of opposing a U.S.-led escalation in Afghanistan that is slated to double the number of American troops there. Organized by Alex Thurston at The Seminal and Robert Greenwald's ...
Infidels Quagmired!
julescrittenden.com 1/6/2009 — Just ask the Taliban. They slayed more than 5,000 of the hated Crusaders in righteous battle last year. AP:
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban has long exaggerated its military successes, but its recent claim that it killed more than 5,000 ...
McCain on Afghanistan at AEI
weeklystandard.com 2/25/2009 — Senator McCain is just now delivering a speech at AEI on the war in Afghanistan. Some highlights:
"Success is possible in Afghanistan. Afghans reject the Taliban. Just 4 percent of Afghans wish them to rule the country, and they rate the Taliban ...
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