Group items tagged

"Afghanistan's Minister of Energy and Water Mohammad Ismail Khan on Thursday said that the process of creating a military unit made up of the former mujahedeen fighters is underway to protect and secure Afghanistan because Nato had failed to do so."

"In a brazen demonstration of its ability to hit some of the best defended targets in Kabul, the Taliban mounted its largest ever co-ordinated attack in 11 years of resistance to Afghanistan's post-2001 rulers."

"Another Mississippi book that made a difference. 'The Help' reminds us of the power of publishing to change things that need changing. "

" As Americans pull back from Afghanistan, Kabul Bank's Mr. Farnood exemplifies how the United States is leaving behind a problem it underwrote over the past decade with tens of billions of dollars of aid and logistical support: a narrow business and political elite defined by its corruption, and despised by most Afghans for it. "

"Senior American military figures have warned Britain that a hasty exit from Afghanistan could strain relations between the two countries. The Daily Telegraph last week revealed that David Cameron has ordered British commanders to draw up plans to start pulling hundreds of British troops out of Afghanistan within weeks. "

In 2001, fearing ethnic strife, the international community pushed for a strong central government in Kabul. But such fears were based on a false reading of Afghan history and fostered a system of regional and ethnic patronage. To correct matters, the United States should de-emphasize Afghanistan's ethnic fault lines and push for more devolved and inclusive governance."

" United States officials modified their narrative on Osama bin Laden's killing, saying that the Pakistanis had little involvement. However, well-placed security sources maintain that the operation was without a doubt a joint Pakistan-US effort and that all logistics were arranged inside Pakistan. "

"As President Obama prepares to announce his policy for drawing down U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the percentage of Americans who favor removing the troops as soon as possible has reached an all-time high...56%."

"President Obama plans to announce his decision on the scale and pace of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan in a speech from the White House at 8 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday evening. "

"The CIA director's resignation over a sex scandal has obscured how badly his counterinsurgency strategy failed in Afghanistan"

Interesting US Institute of Peace report on the feared Civil War 2.0 in Afghanistan.

"Yet the empirical case for a worldwide state of war against a corporeal thing called Al Qaeda looks increasingly threadbare. A war against a name is a war in name only."

"The main US foreign aid agency is preparing to switch from private security contractors in Afghanistan to Afghan government-provided security this month under a new policy mandated by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, raising concern in Washington that this could put US civilians at greater risk. "

"More than 400 Afghan soldiers and police officers are dying each month, and the insurgency remains stronger than many had anticipated. "

"U.S. Special Operations Forces have a brand new home in Afghanistan. It's owned and operated by the security company formerly known as Blackwater, thanks to a no-bid deal worth $22 million"

"WASHINGTON - The debate over how many U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan after 2014 comes down to risky business."

"WASHINGTON - Reflecting a war-weary nation, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday for an accelerated withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan after more than a decade of fighting."

At last, a whiff of diplomatic candor about the Western failure in Afghanistan that I covered in "Funding the Enemy."

"KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said he wanted "at least $2 billion" a year from the United States after it withdraws its troops in 2014."

Bin Laden has been dead for a year, but his strategy continues to work in Afghanistan. Well over a decade after he first formulated his economic "bleed until bankrupt" strategy, the United States continues to spend hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars in Afghanistan on generally fruitless counterinsurgency operations"