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?
Does the U.S. Really Want Talks With the Taliban to Succeed?
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Afganistan
Why Don’t Iraqis and Afghans Embrace Democracy?
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
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.
A Way Forward: Reexamining the Pentagon’s Spending Habits
The U.S. has spent a trillion dollars since 2001 on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, it is being estimated that another $800 billion plus will be added to the tab before the wars are ended, yet it’s questionable what the return on that investment is. New ideas and new perspectives are needed to rebalance a deeply dysfunctional system.
Petraeus Harbinger of Peace, Not Another Surge?
Obama has stated that, despite firing Gen. McChrystal, our Afghanistan strategy will remain the same. The appointment of Gen. Petraeus to succeed him suggest otherwise — for better or worse.
Are Foreign Lives of Equal Worth to Ours?
The mechanization of war has resulted in treating other nations’ citizens as less than equal to citizens of the United States. U.S. military actions kill innocent civilians in a repeated and almost routine manner. However, modern communications are informing people around the world that U.S. policies value other citizens less than its own.
Question: Will Lithium Be Good For Afghanistan?
Imagine the Pentagon officials supposedly part of the team that discovered significant mineral wealth in Afghanistan spelunking about in pith helmets with their little rock hammers.
A Lesson on Nonviolence for the President
In Oslo last week, President Barack Obama ironically used his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize to deliver a lengthy defense of the “just war” theory and dismiss the idea that nonviolence is capable of addressing the world’s most pressing problems.
The AfPak Train Wreck
When President Barack Obama laid out his plan for winning the war in Afghanistan, behind him stood an army of ghosts: Greeks, Mongols, Buddhists, British, and Russians, all whom had almost the same illusions as the current resident of the Oval Office about Central Asia. The first four armies are dust. But there are Russian survivors of the 1979-89 war that ended up killing 15,000 Soviets and hundreds of thousands of Afghans as well as virtually wrecking Moscow’s economy.
Iraq Throws Obama a Curve Ball, Key 2010 Elections in Peril
Reminiscent of the political problems in Afghanistan that have plagued the Obama White House, on Monday Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi vetoed a set of amendments to Iraq’s election law approved by the Iraqi parliament. The veto may lead to a delay of the Iraqi elections, currently scheduled for January 21, 2010, and could trigger a debate over U.S. plans to withdraw from Iraq.