If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
The U.S. war in Afghanistan is one of three U.S. wars against low-income countries (Vietnam war and Iraq war) which posed no security threat to the U...
Whatever the case may be, without knowing the goals we set out for, it's difficult for us to claim that we accomplished our mission in Afghanistan, or to justify that our men and women need to remain in that country for even one more day, let alone another two years.
Last week the Obama administration sent clear signals that it was planning to fold its tents in Afghanistan earlier than previously advertised. That set off a flurry of speculation as to why and whether we were giving up on the mission. Most of the talk is about how a retreat could be accomplished with credibility intact. After all, Afghanistan is where the "war on terror" began more than ten years ago. Once again, though, we are focusing on means and modalities without specifying the ends. And the bitter truth is that the Obama administration's foreign policy team is witless about too many things. There is a strong case to made that it is not competent to be the custodian of the nation's welfare in the larger world; nor is it honest about its shortcomings.
"Western soldiers will no longer be dying on a daily basis and, frankly, who will care any more about the deaths of Afghans after 2014? Can we honestly believe that, in this likely scenario, combating the abuse of poor children will be a priority?"
Over the last several months, at great risk to his career and personal life, LTC Davis has documented the deliberate misleading of the American people and Congress by the leaders of the Department of Defense. He has done his nation and the U.S. Army a tremendous service.
You may call me a flip-flopper, but after supporting our efforts in Afghanistan for so many years, and in view of recent developments, I now have some serious concerns about that war.
In a tightening presidential contest, will President Sarkozy be forced to also pledge to bring French troops home this year to blunt his opponent's growing appeal?
Media coverage and op-eds on last week's incident involving the desecration of Taliban corpses by U.S. Marines has been subdued in the United States, but it gathered the attention of many in that part of the world where we have had the most trouble.
Fareed Zakaria discusses the economic and geopolitical complexities facing Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, the influence of Saudi Arabia on the region, as well as regional challenges in the Middle East.
America's troops may be returning home from Iraq, but we're far from done paying the costs of war. In fact, at the same time that Obama is reducing the number of troops in Iraq, he's replacing them with military contractors at far greater expense to the taxpayer.
As the United States begins to tidy up its affairs in Afghanistan, I have a bad feeling about the women we'll leave behind.
Taliban peace talks are riddled with challenges: the Taliban has sought the release of at least five senior Taliban leaders from the Guantanamo Bay prison and poor Afghan governance continues to undermine a lasting solution.
What is there to think about, anyway? What is there to say, really, except that there's absolutely no excuse? No excuse for the policy makers and officers, but neither is there one for the brutalized young perpetrators.
I honestly don't understand the pixelization.
Whether many want to admit it or not, what our soldiers allegedly did -- urinating on dead Taliban militants -- represents "us" today; and that's yet another part of the malignant manifestation of these current conflicts.
With a whiff of the paranoia that most Afghan leaders have historically and not unreasonably had toward their sworn supporters, both foreign and domestic, Afghan president Hamid Karzai fears being left behind.
