Last night, President Barack Obama said he will deploy another 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. But he has ordered that the troop increase come with a built-in exit strategy. I am reminded of a statement made during the conflict in Vietnam by a young John Kerry to the...

This morning the New York Times reported that U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl W. Eikenberry, expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country. His reason: the pervasive corruption and illegitimacy of President Hamid Karzai's regime.

Concerns over the legitimacy of the U.S.-backed central government...

According to CBS News, President Barack Obama will send most, if not all, of the 40,000 additional troops that General Stanley McChrystal requested and reportedly plans to keep those troops in Afghanistan for the long-term.

If the CBS report turns out to be true -- the White House has backed...

Former Marine captain Matthew Hoh became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war. His letter of resignation echoes some arguments I have made earlier this year, namely, that what we are witnessing is a local and regional ethnic Pashtun population fighting against what they...

[UPDATE: In a new video, my colleagues at Cato and I discuss the current dilemma in Afghanistan]

After nearly a decade at war in Afghanistan, the United States still has not defined the terms of the conflict. Seven months after President Barack Obama's administration released its wide-ranging strategic review...

At a recent town hall meeting, [via Ryan Jaroncyk at The Humble Libertarian], U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL) explained why he wants a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan:

I'm suggesting to you that there is no end game. I believe that our men and women are there...

Max Boot, fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and perhaps one of America's most radical neo-imperialists, eight years ago this month likened the Afghan mission to British colonial rule:

Afghanistan and other troubled lands today cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign administration...

As outlined in a new Cato study, Escaping the "Graveyard of Empires": A Strategy to Exit Afghanistan, the United States should narrow its objectives in the region and decrease troop levels as soon as possible.

The United States has drifted into an amorphous nation building mission with unlimited scope...

In an interview with Fortune magazine, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says, "The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan, that territory became the very territory on which Al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th." She goes on to say, "So our national security...

Eight years ago, a small number of U.S. personnel, working in tandem with local Afghan leaders, entered Afghanistan with a defined aim: to punish al-Qaida and overthrow the Taliban regime that harbored them. Over the past year, that mission has morphed into the much broader objective of rebuilding the Afghan...

As public support for the war in Afghanistan hits an all-time low, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen has endorsed an increase in U.S. forces there. But President Obama should strongly resist any calls to add more troops. The U.S. and NATO military presence of roughly 110,000 troops is more...

While "Change" has been Barack Obama's mantra, as of late he has been channeling his predecessor.

"Afghanistan," according to Obama, "is a war of necessity... [And] If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more...

According to a recent Washington Post-ABC Poll, the majority of Americans say the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting.

Usually, I don't take kindly to polling data; they are ephemeral snapshots of public opinion that fluctuate with the prevailing political winds. But I will say (as I've...

Yesterday, President Obama defended his new approach to the war in Afghanistan. According to the president, our strategy is to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies. In order to accomplish this goal, Obama's strategy indicates we must create a functioning national state there.

Why?

Beltway...

July has been the deadliest month yet for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. At least 27 troops have died so far this month, and an estimated 746 soldiers have died since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom.

To combat the growing Taliban insurgency, the United States recently dispatched 4,000 troops to...

Many people would agree that modern-day Somalia represents a Hobbesian state of nature. But could anarchy strengthen Somalia's private sector? This article is certainly very old, but I came across it yesterday and thought the argument would be of interest to political theorists and classical liberals:

...local businesspeople find...

Oh, the war in Afghanistan. The more I learn, the more I'm convinced that we need to get out.

As I described the situation to my Cato colleague Chris Preble, for lack of a better analogy, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is like a balloon: pushing down on one side forces elements...

Recently former Vice President Dick Cheney had the audacity to claim the Obama administration, by reversing President George W. Bush's policy on the harsh interrogation of terrorist suspects, has endangered American lives and opened our country to another terrorist attack. Americans would be best served by ignoring the baseless accusations...

During his campaign for the presidency, Barack Obama pledged to deploy more troops to Afghanistan and to take the fight into Pakistan. During the second presidential debate, he said, "if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out,...

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan launches stinging criticisms of President Bush in his memoir, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. Some political observers have expressed shock at a top-level confidant launching attacks against a White House built on loyalty. But the true...