Interjecting the consideration of moral values into foreign policy decisions is, unfortunately, often ridiculed by the political establishment of Republicans and Democrats in the United States. For instance, one supporter of Bill Clinton in 1992, Michael Mandelbaum, expressed how foolish it is to construct policies based on moral values.
The brazen terrorist assault on Kabul on April 16 was the biggest attack on the Afghan capital in the last decade. For some 18 hours, strategically perched Taliban militants linked to the Haqqani network fired on government buildings, embassies, and foreign military bases. A total of 51 people died, including 36 militants. Some 74 were wounded in Kabul along with three neighboring provinces where government and military targets came under synchronized attack.
The Taliban shut down preliminary talks with Washington, because, according to its spokesman, the Americans were “shaky, erratic and vague.”
The New Protectorates: International Tutelage and The Making of Liberal States, edited by James Mayall and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, brings together a variety of authors to tackle the complexities of state-building and new protectorates in an era categorized by neoliberal economic policies, globalization, and the growing demand for democratic cooperation on both the national and transnational level.
Guilt for the 17 Afghan civilians that Sgt. Bales was alleged to have killed is shared by many Americans.
Lt. Col. Daniel Davis publicly called out his superior officers on their assessments of the war.
ing Afghan civilians in two shifts qualifies Sgt. Robert Bales as a serial killer.
It’s not that Afghans are inherently untrustworthy. Rather, the United States has put them in an untenable position. They must choose between supporting unpalatable insiders and unpalatable outsiders.
But it’s actually worse than this.
Nearly a decade into the Afghanistan war, foreign forces continue to demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of Islamic culture.
Many countries have contributed to Afghanistan’s reconstruction. But it’s only been since 2007 that China has attracted attention with its investments. In November 2007, the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) won the tender to invest over $2.9 billion to develop the Aynak copper mine, which is the second-largest copper deposit in the world. This was not only the second-largest investment in Afghanistan in recent years – equivalent to one-third of all foreign aid spent in the country between 2002 and 2007 – but it also raised China to the top tier of investors. In a more recent deal in October 2011, the PetroChina Company Ltd (CPNC) plans to invest about $300 million in three oil fields in northern Afghanistan.