Counter Insurgency

Why Oversight Matters: The Consequences of Hiring Criminals and Insurgents to Guard US Bases

Erica Gaston | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Corruption, Detention, Afghanistan, Exit Strategy, Senate Armed Services Committee, Civilian Casualties, Afghanistan War, Detainees, Anti-Corruption, Senate, Detainee Abuse Afghanistan, Counter-Insurgency, Counter-Terrorism, Detainee Abuse, Accountability, Counterinsurgency, Afghanistan Civilian Deaths, World News
Erica Gaston

When U.S.-employed base guards commit extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, or other harassment of the local population with no consequences, the local community holds the U.S. responsible.

Read Post

Enough Is Enough: War Chatter From the Oval Office

Jake Diliberto | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: George Bush, Obama Afghanistan, Iraq Surge, Obama-Speech-August-31, Veterans PTSD, Afghanistan Surge, Kabul, Wartime Sacrifice, Iran, Obama Afghanistan Troop Increase, Yale, Deficit, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Jeff Taylor, McDonald's, Stanford University, Operation Enduring Freedom, Ptsd, President Bush, Vets for Freedom, Obama Iraq Speech, Coin, Iraqi Refugees, Hamid Karzai, War in Iraq, Barack Obama, Presidents, Afghanistan War, Harvard University, Counter-Insurgency, Troops Coffins, Rethink Afghanistan, Iraq, Counterinsurgency, Obama Iraq, Politics News
Jake Diliberto

2010 is the deadliest year thus far in Afghanistan. How much war chatter do Americans have to endure? When does the President call it "game over"?

Read Post

The Global Village of Terrorism

Hedieh Mirahmadi | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Al Qaeda, Times Square, Counter-Insurgency, Jihadists, Pakistan, Ahl as-Sunnah Wa?L-Jam??Ah, ASJ, U.S., Iraq, Afghanistan, Taliban, Faisal Shahzad, New York City, Home News
Hedieh Mirahmadi

As facts unfold in the Times Square incident, we quickly learn that terrorism training and execution has no geographical boundaries. Terror suspect Fa...

Read Post

Stanley McChrystal's Departure a Blow to US-Muslim Relations

Frankie Martin | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Islam, Af-Pak, Coin, Politics, President Barack Obama, Counter-Insurgency, Stanley McChrystal, Diplomacy, Taliban, Afghanistan, World, US-Muslim Relations, David Petreaus, World News
Frankie Martin

McChrystal was succeeding by playing not by the traditional rules of the military, but the rules of Afghanistan, specifically the Pashtun tribesmen. These relationships, based on building trust, take time.

Read Post

McChrystal: Anatomy of An Accident on Purpose

Mark Olmsted | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Stanley McChrystal, Afghanistan, Bp, Petraeus, Vietnam, Counter-Insurgency, Sarah Palin, Rolling Stone, Michael Hastings, Politics News
Mark Olmsted

McChrystal had a choice: Go down with the ship, being remembered forever as the General who "lost" Afghanistan; or be fired, with plenty of time to rewrite the narrative of why he really left.

Read Post

Shadow Elite: McChrystal, Through the Looking Glass

Linda Keenan | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Coin, Afghanistan, Counter-Insurgency, Shadow Elite, Obama McChrystal, Stanley McChrystal, Rolling Stone, Joe Biden, Rolling Stone Mcchrystal, Afghanistan War, Politics News
Linda Keenan

Over the past couple of decades, power brokers within the military increasingly have been subverting established official procedures, bucking authority, and exploiting ambiguity.

Read Post

Fresh Talking Point: Poor Afghanistan, They're Rich!

Josh Mull | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Minerals, Resources, Anti-War, Coin, Lithium, Resource Curse, Propaganda, Andrew Exum, Spencer Ackerman, Rethink Afghanistan, Think-Tank, Copper, Counter-Insurgency, New York Times, Afghanistan, Imperialism, Politics News
Josh Mull

The Afghan minerals report isn't some everyday propaganda trying pitifully to sell a trillion dollar debt-war to a nation of unemployed. This is a very specific talking point explicitly targeting the foreign policy community

Read Post

Doctors Without Borders President: U.S. Military Hampering Haiti Relief Efforts

Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Haiti Earthquake, Haiti Aid, Counter-Insurgency, Haiti Relief Effort, U.S. Military, Msf, Doctors Without Borders, Impact News

Doctors Without Borders President Christophe Fournier said the U.S. military presence is reducing the efficiency of the organization's medical efforts...

Read Whole Story

Afghanistan: A Whole New Approach

Jim Wallis | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Capitol Hill, White House, President, Relief, President Obama, International, Indigenous, Council, Washington, War, Oxfam, Muslim Countries, Collateral Damage, Surge, America, Dick Cheney, Muslim, World Vision, Counter Insurgency, Terror, Development, Faith, History, Tragedy, Afghan Government, Democracy, Counter Terrorism, Special Forces, Religious, Terrorist, Richard Stearns, Congress, Unmanned Drones, Religious Leaders, Foreign Policy, Urgency, Moral Issues, Occupier, Arab, Taliban, Military, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Humanitarian Assistance, D.C., Casualties, Faith-Based, World News
Jim Wallis

When you massively intervene in a country as much as the U.S. has in Afghanistan, you can't responsibly just walk away. We must lead with what works -- development.

Read Post

Afghanistan, Again: The Thicket Obama's Not Getting Out Of

William Bradley | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Jihadists, Al Qaeda, Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan, 9/11, Joe Biden, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Nato, Counter-Insurgency, Northern Alliance, Counter-Terrorist, Stanley McChrystal, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Taliban, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Nation-Building, Nobel Peace Prize, Osama Bin Laden, World News
William Bradley

We can't afford to build a nation in Afghanistan. We have one reasonable goal there, and everything else, no matter how seemingly noble it may or may not be, is a luxury.

Read Post

Afghan Troop Request Hides Real Numbers

Jeff Stein | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Politics, Pentagon, Counterterrorism, Afghanistan, Counter-Insurgency, War, Obama, stanley_mcchrystal, Frontline, 60_minutes, celeste_ward, john_nagl, World News
Jeff Stein

Despite grim new portraits of U.S. fortunes in Afghanistan, Washington's debate over troop levels continues unhinged from reality.

Read Post

D-Day For The U.S. In Afghanistan: Realism Vs. Idealism

William E. Jackson Jr. | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Counter-Insurgency, Al Qaeda, President Obama, Pakistan, Strategy, Taliban, Afghanistan, Realism Over Idealism, Politics News
William E. Jackson Jr.

It troubles me that Obama is to give his big speech at West Point, because it only increases the pressure to pledge to the armed forces he will not permit an eventual end to the war that might prove their lives were lost in vain.

Read Post

Three Choices in Afghanistan: Counter-Terrorist War, Counter-Insurgency, and Containment

Howard Schweber | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Mcchrystal, Counter-Insurgency, Counter-Terrorism, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Obama, War on Terrorism, Containment, World News
Howard Schweber

The problems that McChrystal identified with the present approach are daunting: a corrupt and illegitimate government, insurgents' use of safe havens in Pakistan, and pervasive fear and mistrust of the international forces.

Read Post

The Resilience of Terror

Peter Henne | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Obama Transition, India, Al-Qaeda, Kashmir Conflict, Pakistan, Terrorism, War on Terror, Afghanistan, Obama Administration Afghanistan, 9/11, Bush Administration Foreign Policy, War on Terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, Lashkar-E-Taiba, Counter-Insurgency, Counter-Terrorism, Mumbai Attacks, Bush Administration Iraq, Obama Administration Foreign Policy, World News
Peter Henne

As we enter the last month of the Bush presidency, progressives around the country are increasing in giddiness. Given the president's legion mistakes ...

Read Post

The Military Coup of 2012 Revisited

Bernard I. Finel | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: American Security Project, Military, Department of Defense, Iraq, Counter-Insurgency, World News
Bernard I. Finel

The United States has not undertaken a serious defense policy review since the Cold War. We have not paused to ask the most basic question, which is what precisely our military is for in this day and age.

Read Post

Will Barack Obama Think Twice about Afghanistan?

Stephen C. Rose | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: World, War in Afghanistan, Terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, President Obama, War, Diplomacy, Taliban, Obama Cabinet, Salon, Barack Obama, Gary Kamiya, National Security, Counter-Insurgency, New York Times, Michael Gordon, Afghanistan, Great Game, World News
Stephen C. Rose

If Michael Gordon's New York Times report is indicative, the window for a real debate leading to alternatives to an extended military event in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) is only open a crack.

Read Post