Inside DC| More...
 

Taliban

Iraq-Afghanistan Surge Analogies Mask Risks Of Afghanistan

New York Times | DAVID E. SANGER | Posted 12.05.2009 | Politics

Read More: Surge, Bush, Afghanistan Surge, Afghanistan, George W. Bush, Pakistan, Native, Analysis, Anbar Awakening, Taliban, Iraq, Counterinsurgency, Foreign Fighters, Politics News

In fact, Iraq analogies have been flying back and forth so furiously in recent days that Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, the only holdover from ...

Read Whole Story

Barack Obama's War: 10 Key Things To Know

William Bradley | Posted 12.04.2009 | World

Read More: Al Qaeda, Nato, Pakistan, Taliban, Afghanistan, Iraq, Soviet Union, Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Richard Nixon, Britain, World News
William Bradley

It's Barack Obama's war now -- a war in which the Nobel Peace Prize-winner has placed himself at the helm of the largest military force ever sent to Afghanistan. Here are some key things to know.

Read Post

Obama's Surge: The Real Reason

Jamal Dajani | Posted 12.04.2009 | World

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan Surge, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Pakistan, Stanley McChrystal, Asif Ali Zardari, Taliban, Barack Obama, Al Qaeda, World News
Jamal Dajani

It's not because of bin Laden, al-Qaeda, or the Taliban. The real reason behing the surge is Pakistan, a failed state with nuclear warheads.

Read Post

Karzai: "We Must Talk To The Taliban"

AP | KATHY GANNON | Posted 12.04.2009 | World

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan Surge, Afghanistan, Taliban, Karzai Taliban, Afghan Taliban, Afghanistan War, World News

KABUL — President Hamid Karzai put a brave face Thursday on President Barack Obama's decision to start pulling out troops in mid-2011, telling T...

Read Whole Story

Obama's Afghanistan Escalation: An Assessment

Phyllis Bennis | Posted 12.03.2009 | World

Read More: Taliban, Afghanistan, Obama, Empire, General Mcchrystal, Escalation, Pakistan, World News
Phyllis Bennis

The White House has dropped the rhetoric. Now it's official. It's not about Afghanistan and Afghans at all -- it's all about us.

Read Post

Obama's Afghanistan Strategy: Blogs From New York Review

The New York Review of Books | Posted 12.03.2009 | Books

Read More: Bill Clinton, Garry Wills, Mccrystal, Pakistan, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Biden, Nyr, Afghan War Strategy, Mcchrystal, Taliban, Hillary Clinton, Afghanistan, Obama Disappointment, Books News

Pakistani author and journalist Ahmed Rashid writes in the New York Review of Books about Obama's "missing strategy" in Afghanistan. After all the ta...

Read Whole Story

What Does 30,000 Troops Really Buy Us?

Megan Carpentier | Posted 12.02.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Afghanistan Troop Increase, Troops, Obama West Point Speech, Afghanistan, Us Troops Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Afghanistan War, John McCain, Saddam Hussein, Bush Administration, Pakistan, Iraq War, Taliban, Obama Administration, Politics News
Megan Carpentier

Is a graceful withdrawal and a less unstable puppet government worth more American lives? Are those lives really worth that "success"?

Read Post

Gates: Afghanistan Failure Would Have 'Severe Consequences'

AP | ANNE FLAHERTY and PAULINE JELINEK | Posted 12.03.2009 | World

Read More: Robert Gates, Afghanistan War, Taliban, Hillary Clinton, Afghanistan, US Troops, Obama Afghanistan, World News

WASHINGTON — A deeply skeptical Congress on Wednesday resigned itself to President Barack Obama's escalation of the Afghanistan war, even as the...

Read Whole Story

President Obama's Afghanistan Speech a True Capitulation

Charles Butler | Posted 12.02.2009 | Politics

Read More: Stanley McChrystal, Troops, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Afghanistan Surge, David Axelrod, Taliban, Obama Afghanistan Troop Increase, West Point, Politics News
Charles Butler

The Obama administration has to stop campaigning to get down to governing. All of the campaign-like speeches are becoming quite transparent to the American people and foreigners alike.

Read Post

How We Should Really Be Viewing Afghanistan

Melissa Roddy | Posted 12.02.2009 | World

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Bosnia, War in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Pakistan Taliban, War Wire, Taliban, Afghanistan War, World News
Melissa Roddy

The U.S. bears much responsibility for the destruction of Afghanistan during the 1980s and 1990s. We have a duty to help Afghans rebuild their country and to defend them against their enemy who we've long enabled.

Read Post

Afghanistan: A Little Something for Everyone

Nick Mills | Posted 12.02.2009 | World

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Obama, Taliban, Afghanistan Surge, Pakistan, Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, World News
Nick Mills

President Obama's Afghan strategy is an attempt to give most stakeholders something to cheer about. Except in this situation the cheer sounds something like, "Well, yeah, okay, maybe...".

Read Post

The Speech Obama Should Give Tonight

Adam Hanft | Posted 12.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan Surge, Afghanistan, 9/11, Stanley McChrystal, Taliban, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan War, Politics News
Adam Hanft

Churchill was an orator who knew the power of the simple declarative: "The news from France is very bad." In that spirit, I stand before you tonight and say the news from Afghanistan is very bad.

Read Post

Questions Obama Has To Answer Tonight

Jon Soltz | Posted 12.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Stop-Loss, Obama Afghanistan, Warwire, Dwell Time, Afghanistan, President Obama, Obama West Point Speech, Taliban, Afghanistan War, Al Qaeda, Politics News
Jon Soltz

By deploying an additional 34k troops, without speeding up the departure from Iraq, our force will remain overstretched. How does the administration reconcile this issue?

Read Post

Misreading Afghanistan

Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi | Posted 12.01.2009 | World

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Obama Afghanistan, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Stanley McChrystal, Taliban, Barack Obama, Afghan Taliban, Afghanistan War, India, Pakistan India Relations, Afghanistan India, World News
Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi

Both the United States and Great Britain have failed to confront the role that Pakistan's fear of India plays in its conflict with Afghanistan. And more troops will only worsen what is already a misunderstood situation.

Read Post

Why I Changed My Mind On Afghanistan

Cenk Uygur | Posted 12.01.2009 | World

Read More: Escalation, Matthew Hoh, Taliban, Barack Obama, Withdrawal, Afghanistan War, Al Qaeda, Afghan Election, World News
Cenk Uygur

We don't have a viable partner in Afghanistan and we don't have the legitimacy that is essential to rebuilding the country. The Afghans don't view us as their saviors. They view us as the latest intruder in their valley.

Read Post

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

William E. Jackson Jr. | Posted 12.01.2009 | Politics

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

The Fool's Errand

Daniel Bruno Sanz | Posted 11.30.2009 | Politics

Read More: Karzai, Kurds, Algeria, Dubai World, Greg Craig, Doobie Brothers, Peter Galbraith, Taliban, Mathew Hoh, Franz Josef Jung, Charles De Gaulle, Diem, South Vietnam, Guantanamo Bay, David McKiernan, Stanley McChrystal, French Fourth Republic, Porcupine, Politics News
Daniel Bruno Sanz

Change the names, dates and particulars of the Algerian War, the Vietnam War and Soviet war in Afghanistan, and the history of mighty powers recycles itself in Af-Pak-Iraq.

Read Post

How US Aid Helps the Taliban

Miles Mogulescu | Posted 12.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan Surge, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Mcchrystal Afghanistan, Mcchrystal Obama, Taliban, Hoh Resignation, Afghanistan War, Obama McChrystal, Stanley McChrystal, Matthew Hoh, Taliban Afghanistan, Afghan Taliban, Us Troops Afghanistan, Politics News
Miles Mogulescu

The movement which campaigned so hard to elect Obama may now have to actively fight against some of Obama's key policies. If not, protesters may soon be chanting the same slogans at Obama as were once chanted against LBJ.

Read Post

Advice to Karzai: Build Support To Bring Taliban Into Loya Jirga

Gerard Russell | Posted 11.30.2009 | World

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Afghan President Karzai, Afghanistan Election, Taliban, Afghanistan, Elections in Afghanistan, World News
Gerard Russell

Military force alone cannot roll back the Taliban's influence in Afghanistan. Karzai has promised a 'Loya Jirga,' a consultative gathering to discuss how to include the Taliban in the political system. But is the Loya Jirga going to be enough?

Read Post

Thomas Friedman -- Hasbara GrandMaster Or Elitist Dupe?

Sharmine Narwani | Posted 11.30.2009 | Politics

Read More: Egypt, Jordan, Al Qaeda, Thomas Friedman, David Miliband, Al Jazeera, Nyt, New York Times, Lebanon, Obama, Idf, Cluster Bombs, The Narrative, Gaza War, Muslims, Arabs, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Taliban, Israel, Hasbara, Politics News
Sharmine Narwani

My mouth is fixed in a gape -- unable to correct itself after Thomas Friedman's pronouncement that for two decades, U.S. foreign policy has been dedicated to rescuing Muslims or freeing them from tyranny. Where does one begin, pray tell?

Read Post

Beard Feared, Sheared

Summer Qassim | Posted 11.29.2009 | World

Read More: Taliban, U.S. Visas, Pakistan, Beard, World News
Summer Qassim

After I asked my then-fiance to grow a beard, the biggest cliche that I've encountered has been hearing people tell him, 'Your beard makes you look like a [insert Taliban, mullah, religious fundamentalist].'

Read Post

Washington Post: 9,000 Troops Will Deploy To Afghanistan Soon After Obama's Speech

Washington Post | Greg Jaffe | Posted 11.28.2009 | World

Read More: Karzai, Afghanistan War, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Troop Levels, Kabul, Deployments, Helmand, Obama, Taliban, Mcchrystal, Marines, Nato, Afghanistan Decision, South Waziristan, World News

KABUL -- Days after President Obama outlines his new war strategy in a speech Tuesday, as many as 9,000 Marines will begin deploying to southern Afgha...

Read Whole Story

Life, Death And The Taliban

GlobalPost | Posted 11.25.2009 | World

Read More: Taliban, Afghanistan, World News

Life, death and the Taliban seeks to enhance America's understanding of Taliban history in Afghanistan and Pakistan. At this crucial time in the U.S.-...

Read Whole Story

Mullah Omar, Taliban Leader, Issues Eid Holiday Message, Rules Out Talks With Karzai

AP | RAHIM FAIEZ | Posted 11.26.2009 | World

Read More: Taliban Eid Message, Taliban, Afghanistan, Eid, Afghan Taliban, Mullah Omar, World News

KABUL — A helicopter belonging to an international military contractor has gone missing in Afghanistan, officials said Thursday. The helicopter...

Read Whole Story

What Pakistan Needs Are Some Parties. Political Parties, That Is.

Brian Vogt | Posted 11.24.2009 | World

Read More: Asif Ali Zardari, Taliban, Fata, Political Party, Pakistan, World News
Brian Vogt

While President Obama approaches a decision on America's war strategy in Afghanistan, across the border in Pakistan an equally important battle rages ...

Read Post