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FROM AP: Quotations of the day
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
October 7 marks the tenth anniversary of the US war in Afghanistan. After expending $4 trillion and thousands of lives, the US needs an exit from the depressing impasse of its militarized foreign policy.
General David Petraeus is now the most influential figure in making American foreign policy. He has unrivaled prestige in Washington, he has close allies in the Pentagon and White House, and receives reflexive deference from President Obama.
If we gave Corporate America the same tax benefit to on-shore instead of off-shore, we could cut taxes, provide billions to pay down the debt, create millions of jobs, promote exports and cut the size of government.
Exactly what is COIN? Simply put, it is the theory and practice of suppressing insurgencies that mix violent and non-violence methods to topple existing governments and to seize power. Indeed, COIN is a growth industry.
While some secrecy is obviously necessary in the conduct of a war, the U.S. government's extreme secrecy about its detention of thousands of Afghans without charge or trial at the U.S.-run Bagram Air Base is actually creating a threat to U.S. troops, not alleviating one.
During his confirmation hearings to become the head of the CIA, General David Petraeus spoke to the issue of torture during the Bush/Cheney years with...
Having been co-opted by greedy defense contractors, corrupt politicians and incompetent government officials, America's expanding military empire is bleeding the country dry.
War is waged to achieve political objectives, not to kill enemies. Politically, the US has achieved nothing in Afghanistan after ten years of desultory war and destruction.
Does the president's troop withdrawal from Afghanistan represent a qualitative change in official American thinking about its stakes in the region and in the wider 'war on terror'?
War can't be strategized on compromise, trying to make everyone happy. Our decision to end our involvement must be firm. Right now, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, we're seeing none of that.
Amid a surging fear of Muslims in our nation, it is time for all of us to improve our understanding of Islam and our relationships with Muslims -- if not because it is right to do this morally, then because it is in our best interests nationally.
A Soldier's Dream: Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq highlights the efforts of one soldier whose dream helped capture the momentum of the Sunni "Awakening" in Iraq in 2006.
We need vital institutions in this country that have no political agenda and no partisan bias. USIP convenes the left and the right, the civilian and the military, the national and the international players.
Haunting Legacy is a clear-eyed look at the Vietnam War's fateful consequences up until the present in Afghanistan. It could not be a more timely and thoughtful contribution to the literature.
The trends in America's engagement in Afghanistan bothered Richard Holbrooke greatly, and it's important for the Obama administration to take serious account of Holbrooke's concerns as the next steps on Afghanistan are weighed.
