It's Not Science Fiction
We all need to raise awareness about these inhumane, unjust military practices funded by our taxes.
We all need to raise awareness about these inhumane, unjust military practices funded by our taxes.
Even with so much sophisticated military hardware at their disposal, half a million Pakistani soldiers can't seem to counter the determined efforts of, at most, 15,000 Taliban fighters.
Whether it realizes it or not, Washington has placed itself in a fight for its life in Afghanistan, just the way the Soviets did.
More and clearer information would go a long way towards winning over a still- skeptical public burned by three failed operations in the past.
Huffington Post caught up with Afghanistan experts Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald and discussed recent developments in Afghanistan. Here's what they had to say.
North Korea was to have been the drama of the day. But it turned into a major fizzle.
I remember as a child that whenever the 4th of July rolled around, I would try earnestly to reflect on the significance of the holiday. That is not an...
While it may be comforting for State Department employees to know that they have some protection, they will now be part of an in-your-face American imperial presence.
Afghan Star is the perfect window into a country's tenuous, ongoing struggle for modernity. What I would normally consider frivolous entertainment is downright revolutionary here.
The impoverished North-West Frontier Province lays claim to devastating maternal and child mortality rates, and scant education for girls. But courageous women here are increasingly agents of change.
When I moved back to Pakistan in 1995 as a teenager I was surprised to see how prevalent Jackson was here. He was as ubiquitous as Coca Cola.
The younger lot who return to Pakistan feel insecure at times, but understand that this is a temporary phase Pakistan is experiencing, and that eventually things will return to normal.
The flood of millions of Afghan refugees into Pakistan after the Cold War led to an explosion of extremism, while American leaders were too busy celebrating the Cold War victory.
Suspicions over a cooked election in Iran have brought a glimmer of hope for real reform. Can we find one in the toxic fight that has plagued India-Pakistan relations for six decades?
Recent actions by the DCCC and House Democratic leadership reveal that electing more Democrats and defeating Republican incumbents has taken a back seat to a radical, pro-war agenda.
The Week's Top Stories in Foreign Affairs : The End of Iran's Post-Electoral Uprising... for now Facts: Protests initially spread from Tehran to the t...
Even when we don't recognize the humanity of people bearing the brunt of our wars, these very people have eyes to see and ears to hear. They must be asking themselves, who are the terrorists?
Somalis are given two alluring choices: join the Islamists' fight or head to the high seas. There's no state to either welcome them or be aligned with.
Mukhtar Mai, a leading Pakistani women's rights advocate, has been celebrated across the globe. But her future, in light of a recent Multan Electric Power Company's raid, remains uncertain.
A much heralded meeting between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and newly reinstalled Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took place a few days ago.
Friday, Obama became the first U.S. president to do a one-on-one interview for any media outlet in Pakistan. This is how we fight terrorism; by promoting dialogue from a place of love and kindness.
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
The word "suspected" always amuses me in these stories. Like who really knows? The missiles might have been sent by Zeus.
Doesn't matter Zeus, Thor or a virtuoso Sony PlayStation trained kid. As long as some Talib/AQ types were taken out.
One cannot win a war without breaking the will of the opponent to fight on.
"Independent verification of the targets and casualties was not possible because the region is remote, dangerous and largely inaccessible to journalists."
If you don't know then why is this article loaded with terms like 'militants' and 'insurgents'? Now you're just acting as a mouthpiece for US military propaganda.
The fact is, we don't know the facts. I do know that IF innocent civilians were injured or killed in this attack, it is, unfortunately, the wages of war. On the other hand, what are we to do? We operate on the best intelligence available and my guess is that most of those killed or injured were legitimate targets. One thing I know for sure, is (as far as Afghanistan/Pakistan) goes, we didn't start this mess. Most importantly, those that attacked us couldn't find refuge in an area that didn't support them (through intimidation or otherwise. We have a sovereign obligation to defeat our enemy; if that means that those that harbor our enemy sustain casualty so be it. Every "innocent" civilian who dies or is wounded should blame their own government for the problem and not the U.S. It should give them every reason to rise up and rebel against a government that supports terrorism.
I love the way there is no mention of "collateral damage", read: civilian deaths...
Whether Obama does it, or Bush, the casualties of war are a serious and problematic outcome of this continued engagement in both Iraq and Pakistan...winning hearts and minds has been a fruitless endeavor for the most part; in Pakistan, it took the public flogging of a woman by the Taliban to wake them up to the reality that those medieval religionists were trying to destroy their country...Obama killing a few militants when there are probably more civilians killed is not going to help matters in how Pakistani public views us. THEY have to realize what is happening...when they do, as they have, they take action...I think the Afghanis and Iraqis feel the same way...
What are we to do? Stopping the excessively imprecise air campaign would be a start. Civilian casualties lead the otherwise pacifistic local population to support and join the Taliban insurgency, and thus any strategy which results in significant civilian casualties is self-defeating. No action would be better than this action.
Steps in a positive direction would entail listening to what the Afghanis want, like a focus on reconstruction, not war, and perhaps just getting the f*** out because we seem so woefully incapable of doing what's effective or right.
By the way, we DID start this mess back when we funded the mujahideen in the 1980s. These anti-Soviet forces quite literally morphed into the Taliban.
Oh, and thanks for your completely arbitrary and inexpert guess that "most of those killed or injured were legitimate targets."
And what the hell is "a sovereign right to defeat our enemy"? No such right exists under current international law. I suppose you're saying, "we're attacking the Taliban because they harbored Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for 9/11". But he probably wasn't, hence the FBI's unwillingness to list him as wanted for that crime. And the Taliban offered to term him over in exchange for evidence from the Bush administration, none of which was produced. But we went to war anyway. And now eight years later we're still doing a bad job at it. And people like you are still sitting around justifying it.
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
Good!
How to create terrorists forever.
Exactly...Obama is not any different than Bush in Pakistani, Afghani or Iraqi eyes if innocent civilians die. Obama's backers are deluding themselves into thinking it is different.
"if innocent civilians die."
But according to all reports none did. Happy?
You must be logged in to reply to this comment. Log in or