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Counterinsurgency

The March of Folly, Continued

Norman Solomon | Posted 06.21.2009 | Politics

Read More: Cognitive Dissonance, Barbara Tuchman, Predator Drones, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Vietnam, John Kennedy, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Counterinsurgency, The March of Folly, Baghdad-Iraq, Iraq, Fallujah-Iraq, Politics News
Norman Solomon

Obama can make many wise comments about past international affairs while proceeding with actual policies largely unfettered by the wisdom.

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A Progressive Case for the Supplemental

Lorelei Kelly | Posted 06.14.2009 | Politics

Read More: Strategy, Military, National Security, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Progressives, Obama Administration, Counterinsurgency, Politics News
Lorelei Kelly

This is an excruciating vote for many on the Left who want to support their new president, but decry the fact that less than 10% of the funds will go to non-military items. What to do?

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Torture ... Fifty Years of U.S. Practice

Thomas A. Bass | Posted 06.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: Vietnam, Torture Memos, Counterinsurgency, Dick Cheney, Disinformation, Torture, Politics News
Thomas A. Bass

Torture works. Hanging from the yardarm works. Disembowelment, rape, death by stoning, electroshock -- they all work at extracting information. But what kind of information?

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Striking the Right Balance: The Utility of Drone Attacks in AfPak

Sam Black | Posted 06.04.2009 | World

Read More: Polls, US Drone Missiles, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan Taliban, Pakistan, Drones, Afghanistan War, David Kilcullen, Counterterrorism, Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan Crisis, Pakistan Drone Attacks, Taliban Pakistan, Us Troops Afghanistan, Counterinsurgency, World News
Sam Black

Finding a way to conduct effective tactical counter-terrorism operations without compromising counterinsurgency in Pakistan or Afghanistan should be a U.S. priority.

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The Victory of the Neoconservatives

Bernard I. Finel | Posted 05.28.2009 | Politics

Read More: Iraq War, Neocons, Neoconservatives, Robert Gates, Defense Budget, Counterinsurgency, Barack Obama, Politics News
Bernard I. Finel

Let us make no mistake; the new defense budget unveiled earlier this month marks the final victory of the neoconservative worldview.

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Lawrence Korb is Wrong on Afghanistan

Derrick Crowe | Posted 05.25.2009 | World

Read More: Lawrence Korb, Afghanistan, Escalation, Counterinsurgency, War on Terror, Troop Surge, Progressives, World News
Derrick Crowe

The War on Terror is a metaphor designed to bludgeon the progressive movement to death. Write that in stone. Tattoo it somewhere on your body where it will hurt.

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Fiasco Author: Obama's Iraq Optimism "Sounds a Lot Like Bush"

David Quigg | Posted 05.11.2009 | World

Read More: Iraq War, John McCain, The Gamble, Thomas Ricks Fiasco, Thomas Ricks, Afghanistan, Success of the Surge, George W. Bush, David Petraeus, Iraq, Counterinsurgency, Barack Obama, World News
David Quigg

There's the saying about how people who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. But what about people who actively lie to themselves about the past, about something like the surge?

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No Vietnam is This

Stephen Herrington | Posted 04.30.2009 | World

Read More: Russia, Great Britain, Pakistan, Vietnam War, President Obama, Iraq Insurgency, Counterinsurgency, Afghanistan War, Afghanistan, World News
Stephen Herrington

The Afghan conflict, in which we find ourselves, is a war simply neglected, materially and strategically.

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(Re-) Creating Anbar's Awakening

Gabriel Ledeen | Posted 04.27.2009 | World

Read More: Afghanistan War, Anbar, Afghanistan, Anbar Province, Iraq War, Iraq Veterans, Global War on Terror, Iraq, Anbar Awakening, Iraq Anniversary, War in Iraq, Anbar Surge, Counterinsurgency, War on Terror, Veterans, World News
Gabriel Ledeen

Describing the Anbar Awakening movement as a miraculous Sunni uprising blinds us to the lessons we ought to have learned.

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Iraq War Year Six: Our Long Goodbye to the Cold War

Lorelei Kelly | Posted 04.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: Iraq War, Strategy, Military, Cold War, National Security, Counterinsurgency, Iraq War Anniversary, Sixth Anniversary of Iraq War, Politics News
Lorelei Kelly

On today's sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, we must require that our leaders create a security strategy that keeps us safer, costs less and restores the boundaries of a healthy civil-military relationship.

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Shoot First, Ask Questions Later? Say It Ain't So, Mr. President

Tom Andrews | Posted 03.21.2009 | Politics

Read More: Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Troops, Department of Defense, Military, National Security, Afghanistan, Taliban, Barack Obama, Counterinsurgency, Al Qaeda, Politics News
Tom Andrews

We hope that this early display of shoot first, ask questions later will be an anomaly for the new administration.

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Five Myths About the Afghanistan Escalation

Brandon Friedman | Posted 03.01.2009 | World

Read More: Insurgency, Military, Robert Gates, Surge, Escalation, John Nagl, Taliban, Afghanistan, Counterinsurgency, Barack Obama, Michele Flournoy, Obama Afghanistan, Troops, Afghanistan Surge, Foreign Affairs, Afghanistan Escalation, Obama Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan War, Soldiers, Us Troops Afghanistan, World News
Brandon Friedman

If we're going to win back the Afghans' support, then we need to show them that we can protect them from the Taliban -- something that will clearly take more troops -- both U.S. and Afghan.

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Tactics Used In Afghanistan Illustrate U.S. Failed To Learn From Iraq

BraveNewFilms | Derrick Crowe | Posted 01.27.2009 | World

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Iraq Night Raids, Afghanistan War, Bush Administration, US Military Afghanistan, US Military, Afghanistan Human Rights Commission, Afghanistan, Iraq War, Iraq War Mistakes, Afghanistan Night Raids, Counterinsurgency, Usarmy AfganistÁN, World News

Afghanistan is larger, less hospitable, more populous and proportionally more expensive and deadly for U.S. troops. That's what makes the United State...

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Nature Abhors a Vacuum but so do Wingnuts: The Bailout and our National Security

Lorelei Kelly | Posted 11.03.2008 | Politics

Read More: Iraq War, Wall Street Crisis, Conservatives, National Security, Terrorism, Missile Defense, The White House Project, Congressional Oversight, Sarah Palin Vice President, Political Corruption, Alaska, Palin Biden Debate, Counterinsurgency, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politics News
Lorelei Kelly

Conservative lip service to ideas like free markets and a strong defense produced neither. These "values" were never actually turned into priorities for policy making.

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Taliban Planning "Hot Winter" In Afghanistan

Washington Independent | Posted 10.25.2008 | Politics

Read More: Taliban Offensive, U.S. Afghanistan, War in Afghanistan, u.s. Counterinsurgenc, Taliban Counter Insurgency, Taliban, Taliban Afghanistan, Counterinsurgency, Taliban Winter Offensive, Politics News

Since Afghans took up arms against the Soviet occupation in 1979, insurgency in war-torn Afghanistan has followed a cyclical pattern. The spring and t...

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7 Years Later: Could Civilians Be Key to Winning the War on Terror?

Frances Moore Lappe | Posted 10.12.2008 | Politics

Read More: John McCain, Civil War, War on Terror, Gwot, Afghanistan, Homeland Security, Terrorism, War, Civilian Casualties, Barack Obama, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, Military, Surge, Iraqi Civilian Deaths, Counterterrorism, Human Rights Watch, World Trade Center, Iraq, September 11th, Counterinsurgency, Politics News
Frances Moore Lappe

More and more people around the world are disavowing violence against civilians, and support for terrorism is drying up.

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McCain's Premature Surge Adulation

David Quigg | Posted 08.07.2008 | Politics

Read More: Iraq War, Paul Wolfowitz, Politics, Iraq Surge, Max Boot, John McCain, Thomas Ricks Fiasco, Counterinsurgency, David Petraeus, Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq, 2008 Election, Eric Shinseki, Politics News
David Quigg

McCain's failure of judgment, conscience, and courage during the rush to war cannot be erased. He turned his back on the only surge that might have spared us this: a surge before the invasion.

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Jason Linkins

Rice Adviser: Iraq Invasion Was 'F*cking Stupid'

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 08.05.2008 | Politics

Read More: Spencer Ackerman, Iraq War, Rise of the Counterinsurgents Series, War in Iraq, Counterinsurgency, David Kilcullen, David Kilcullen Iraq, Rice Iraq, Politics News

Over at the Washington Independent, Spencer Ackerman continues his enlightening "Rise of the Counterinsurgents" series with "A Counterinsurgency Guide...

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Digging a Deeper Hole

Shawn Brimley | Posted 08.01.2008 | Politics

Read More: Obama, Iraq, Surge, Mccain, Counterinsurgency, War, Politics News
Shawn Brimley

A surge is really a counterinsurgency? That argument isn't going to fly, McCain.

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Pentagon Fighting Off Peace Majorities in Iraq and US, A Crisis of Democracy

Tom Hayden | Posted 07.20.2008 | Politics

Read More: Peace Movement, Iraq, Counterinsurgency, Torture, Iraq Withdrawal, Al-Maliki, Obama Iraq, Politics News
Tom Hayden

Al-Maliki and the Pentagon are conspiring to fool public opinion in the US and Iraq during an election year by finally promising a withdrawal deadline with vague parameters. What's going on here?

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Fixing Iraq: Cops for COIN

Adam Elkus | Posted 06.20.2008 | Politics

Read More: Police, Afghanistan, Iraq, Intelligence, Counterinsurgency, Iraq Police, Iraq Reconstruction, Police Reconstructrion, Peackeeping, Afghan Taliban, Politics News
Adam Elkus

The time has come for the development of standing constabulary forces that can draw talented and intelligent individuals for overseas policing.

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Up Close With The Counterinsurgency

Columbia Journalism Review | Paul McLeary | Posted 03.28.2008 | Politics

Read More: Iraq Counterinsurgency, Iraq War, Warwire, Iraq Insurgents, Iraq, Iraq Insurgency, Counterinsurgency, Politics News

Last week, the news from Iraq was grim. Five U.S. soldiers were killed near Mosul, two female suicide bombers killed scores of civilians in Baghdad, a...

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Military's Newest Counterinsurgency Weapon: Anthropologists

New York Times | DAVID ROHDE | Posted 03.28.2008 | Home

Read More: Afghanistan, Pentagon, Counterinsurgency, Anthropology, Home News

In this isolated Taliban stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, American paratroopers are fielding what they consider a crucial new weapon in counterinsur...

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