Afghanistan Archives - Page 24 of 76 - Foreign Policy In Focus

The White Noise of War

by John Feffer | Oct 12, 2010

In the high-vaulted main hall of Union Station in Washington, DC, the sound of a drone attack interrupts the morning rush hour. A dozen people suddenly freeze in place. Some point up into the air. Others crouch with hands over their heads in a vain attempt at self-protection. The commuters on their way to and from the trains pause to look at the stationary figures. After a minute or so, the leaf-blower sound of the drone attack cuts off, and the figures crumple to the ground, crying out in pain. As the cries of the victims fade, two attendants cover the bodies with blood-stained sheets.

Backed-up NATO Vehicles Stood in Mute Testimony to Futility of Afghanistan War

by Russ Wellen | Oct 11, 2010

Too bad that the Torkham border was re-opened: the United States could have used an indefinite halt to the convoys as a pretext to leave Afghanistan.

The War Addicts

by Tom Engelhardt | Oct 7, 2010

On Monday, The Washington Post ran the first of three pieces adapted from Bob Woodward’s new book Obama’s Wars, a vivid account of the way the U.S. high command boxed the Commander-in-Chief into the smallest of Afghan corners.

It’s When He Most Tries to Appear Strong That Obama Is at His Weakest

by Russ Wellen | Oct 5, 2010

Waging war is more often a sign of weakness, not strength, on the part of our leaders.

Would a U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan Drive India Into China’s Arms?

by Russ Wellen | Sep 22, 2010

Much as the United States needs to withdraw from Afghanistan, it needs to keep in mind the effects that our military standdown would have on India.

Does the U.S. Really Want Talks With the Taliban to Succeed?

by Conn Hallinan | Sep 18, 2010

Why is the U.S. launching an offensive in Kandahar just as the process of bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table is gaining momentum?

War and DIplomacy – Part II: A Way Out of Afghanistan

by Daryl Copeland | Sep 17, 2010

Afghanistan is a crossroads of civilizations and an almost bewilderingly complicated place.

Over the past few centuries, however, it has more often than not been treated as a pawn in the “great game”. The country has also developed a reputation as the “graveyard of empires”, not least because outsiders’ forces have never succeeded in pacifying the place. Internal stability, such as it has ever existed, has been predicated typically upon de-centralized, and frequently shifting political arrangements between a weak centre and roiling periphery.

The American Way of War Quiz: This Was The War Month That Was (Believe It or Not)

by Tom Engelhardt, Nick Turse | Sep 17, 2010

Yes, it would be funny if it weren’t so grim. After all, when it comes to squandering money and resources in strange and distant places (or even here at home), you can count on the practitioners of American-style war to be wildly over the top.

Why Don’t Iraqis and Afghans Embrace Democracy?

by Russ Wellen | Sep 8, 2010

There are other reasons besides the bad example we set why states we occupy fail to jump through the U.S. democracy hoop.

Beating Swords Into Ploughshares

by Hannah Gurman | Aug 16, 2010

In last month’s blitzkrieg tour of Central and Southeast Asia, two of the four stops Secretary Clinton made share the unfortunate bond of enduring an invasion by U.S. air and ground forces. In the space of a few days, Clinton visited both Vietnam and Afghanistan, thus physically linking what had once been, and then what has now become the United States’ longest war. One of the more insidious links that tie these conflicts together was highlighted in a few of the news stories about Clinton’s trip. That link, in a word, is agribusiness.