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The ‘Stan: An officer’s unvarnished view

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

armytimes.com - By Lance M. Bacon - Feb. 06 (Special Report) - An Army officer is fed up with “rosy official statements” that paint Afghanistan as a picture of progress, and he is demanding military leaders come clean about the “absence ofsuccess on virtually every level.”

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Army Colonel Challenges Pentagon’s Afghanistan Claims

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Scott Shane - Feb. 05 (Special Report) - After two deployments in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis says the Pentagon is not telling the whole truth about how the war is going.

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Obama's Expansion of Af-Pak War "Has Blown Up in His Face"

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Tariq Ali - Jan. 20 (News Analysis) - Amid ongoing U.S.-Pakistani tensions and fears of a military coup in Pakistan, we are joined by British-Pakistani political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker and novelist, Tariq Ali. Ali discusses Pakistan's internal turmoil, as well as Pakistani attitudes toward U.S. foreign policy, the GOP presidential contest, and the prospect of a military strike against Iran. "[Pakistanis] are basically suffering because Obama, arrogantly, escalated the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan and thought he could get away with it. That has now blown up in his face," Ali says. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Paul Rieckhoff: A Message to All Candidates: Our Troops Aren't Props

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Paul Rieckhoff - Jan. 10 - Our troops are many things to many people. Heroes, parents, diplomats, victims, villains, victors. But as the GOP Primary races roll through New Hampshire this...

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What's Happening in the Persian Gulf Explained

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Adam Weinstein, Hamed Aleaziz - Jan. 03 (Special Report) - The basics: Iran and the United States appear to be heading for a showdown in the Persian Gulf. Amid already-high tensions over Iran's advancing nuclear program, the US has imposed harsh new economic sanctions on the regime in Tehran and begun to move se

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The Forgotten Wages of War

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By John Tirman - Jan. 03 (Opinion) - Ignoring the civilians killed in America’s wars is both a moral and a strategic failing.

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After the Deficit Committee, A New Propaganda Push from the War Profiteers

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Robert Greenwald ,Derrick Crowe: - Nov. 29 (News Analysis) - Failure of a special congressional committee to strike a deficit-reduction deal is expected to unleash desperate lobbying by U.S. arms makers to get lawmakers to block $600 billion in automatic cuts. Unfortunately for them, War Costs' new video exposes t

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NATO Kills 24 Pakistani Troops in 2-Hour Assault on Pakistani Base, Tensions Flare in Region

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 28 (News Report) - NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two remote Pakistani military outposts on Saturday killing at least 24 Pakistani soldiers. The air strike took place along the Afghanistan border in Pakistan's tribal district of Mohmand. Pakistan has said the attack was unprovoked, but a senior Kabul-based Western official claims NATO and Afghan forces came under fire and responded in self defense. Pakistan responded Saturday by blocking vital supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, and demanded the United States vacate a base used to launch drone attacks. We speak with Glenn Greenwald, constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for Salon.com. “We may never know what happened here. ... But what is clear is that the endless war that the United States has been engaged in since 9/11 does not seem to be in sight of ending. Quite the contrary, it seems to be escalating by the week,” Greenwald says. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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The dark side of counterinsurgency - Afghanistan - Salon.com

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By David N. Philipps David N. Philipps David N. Philipps David N Philipps - Nov. 16 (News Report) - The dark side to U.S. counterinsurgency tactics were on graphic display last week when Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, of the 5thStryker Brigade, was convicted in a military court of three counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges, while deployed in Afghanistan in 2009.

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Despite Taliban threats, Afghan elders conference loya jirga opens amid high security in Kabul

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Amir Shah, Matt Lee - Nov. 15 (News Report) - Karzai urged the roughly 2000 delegates to consider both the need for international help and the need to make sure Afghans are setting the rules in their own country.

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Fact checking the South Carolina debate

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Glenn Kessler - Nov. 14 (Fact Check) - The GOP candidates met for a debate Saturday night sponsored by CBS and the National Journal, with a specific focus on foreign policy and national security. In foreign policy, there is often no right or wrong answer; the results of a policy are often ambiguous and its effectiveness is usually only determined by history. Still, there were a number of statements made by the candidates that were factually challenged, exaggerated or lacking context. Read full article ...

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Fact-check: South Carolina Debate

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson, Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley - Nov. 13 (Fact Check) - We found several exaggerations and misstatements in the latest Republican presidential candidates’ debate. Romney issued a hollow threat to take China’s currency manipulation to a world body that doesn’t actually deal with overvalued money, and he claimed federal spending consumes more of the nation’s economic output than it really does. … More >>

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Afghanistan: “The War is Unwinnable: It is a Stalemate. There is No Victory”

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Jonathan Steele - Nov. 01 (Interview) - The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, now entering its eleventh year, shows no sign of ending. On Saturday, 12 U.S. soldiers died in a suicide bombing in Kabul. It was deadliest single ground attack against NATO forces in the decade of war. To discuss Afghanistan, we speak with Jonathan Steele, a longtime correspondent for the The Guardian newspaper and author of the new book, "Ghosts of Afghanistan: The Haunted Battleground.” “The [U.S. military strategy] doesn't work because you create new resistance by being there. So resistance comes 'cause you're there. You're not there because of the resistance. The occupying force itself creates the resistance,” Steele said. “And so the crucial thing now is to recognize now is that the war is unwinnable: It is a stalemate. There is no victory." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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U.N. Report Finds Routine Abuse of Afghan Detainees

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:41:09 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 10 -

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Ten Years After U.S. Invasion, Afghan War Rages On With No End in Sight

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Reena - Oct. 07 (News Analysis) - The Taliban remains in control of major parts of the nation. Peace talks have collapsed. Civilian and troop casualties continue to mount. There have been a number of major setbacks in just the past few weeks. On Sept. 13, militants attacked the U.S. embassy and the NATO headquarters in Kabul. A week later, the Taliban claimed responsibility for assassinating former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who headed the Afghan Peace Council. Just this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Afghan President Hamid Karzai has given up on negotiating with the Taliban.

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McChrystal: US lacks knowledge to bring end to war in Afghanistan

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Oct. 07 (News) - McChrystal says the US and its allies are only 'a little better than' 50% of the way to reaching their war goals The US began the war in Afghanistan with a "frighteningly simplistic" view of the country and even 10 years later lacks knowledge that could help bring the conflict to a successful end, a former top commander said on Thursday. Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and its Nato allies are only "a little better than" 50% of the way to reaching their war goals. Of the remaining tasks to be accomplished, he said the most difficult may be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans can believe in and that can serve as a counterweight to the Taliban. McChrystal, who commanded coalition forces in 2009-10 and was forced to resign in a flap over a magazine article, said the US entered Afghanistan in October 2001 with too little knowledge of Afghan culture. "We didn't know enough and we still don't know ...

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Afghanistan and Iraq wars not worth fighting, say a third of US veterans

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Oct. 05 (News Report) - One in three US veterans of the post-9/11 military believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting, and a majority think ...Poll finds pride in military, but not for Afghanistan, Iraq wars

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10 myths about Afghanistan

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jonathan Steele - Sep. 28 (Special Report) - In 1988, the Soviet army left Afghanistan after a concerted campaign by the western-backed mujahideen. But since then, many enduring myths have grown up about the war-torn country. In his new book, Jonathan Steele sorts the fact from the fiction 1. Afghans have always beaten foreign armies, from Alexander the Great to modern times Afghan history is certainly littered with occasions when foreign invaders were humiliated. But there have also been many cases when foreign armies penetrated the country and inflicted major defeats. In 330BC, Alexander the Great marched through the area of central Asia that is now Afghanistan, meeting little opposition. More than a millennium later, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan also brushed resistance aside. Since Afghanistan emerged as a modern state, there have been three wars with Britain. The British invasion of 1839 produced initial victory for the intruders followed by stunning defeat followed by a second victory. In 1878, the British invaded again. ...

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Analysis: Pakistan's double-game: treachery or strategy?

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - Sep. 28 (News Analysis) - "Turns out they are disloyal, deceptive and a danger to the United States," fumed Republican Representative Ted Poe last week. "We pay them to hate us. Now we pay them to bomb us. Let's not pay them at all." For many in America, Islamabad has been nothing short of perfidious since joining a strategic alliance with Washington 10 years ago: selectively cooperating in the war on extremist violence and taking billions of dollars in aid to do the job, while all the time sheltering and supporting Islamist militant groups that fight NATO troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan has angrily denied the charges, but if its critics are right, what could the explanation be for such duplicity? What strategic agendas might be hidden behind this puzzling statecraft?

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U.S. Continues to Back Afghan Warlord Linked to 2006 Massacre and Torture of Prisoners

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, NERMEEN SHAIKH - Sep. 27 (Special Report) - New revelations about a U.S.-backed warlord in Afghanistan are raising questions about whether the United States has violated its own laws in its aim to defeat the Taliban. The Atlantic magazine reports the United States, under both former President George W. Bush and President Obama, has actively supported the police commander in Kandahar, General Abdul Raziq, despite knowing of his involvement not just in corruption and drug smuggling, but also in major human rights abuses including killings and torture.

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Fact Check: Social Security, Health Care and More

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Cooper, KITTY BENNETT, TRIP GABRIEL, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr., JOHN M. BRODER, RYAN MURPHY - Sep. 13 (Fact Check) - As Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was assailed by some rivals for the Republican presidential nomination at Monday night's debate for his misleading claims on Social Security, he also seemed to be debating himself at times.

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A decade later, returning to the scene of something unfathomable - latimes.com

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Steve Lopez - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - A columnist goes back to Lower Manhattan, where in 2001 he got a close-up look at the destruction of 9/11. He's reminded anew that we all have a stake in what happened that day and in the days that followed.

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The Dead, the Dollars, the Drones: 9/11 Era by the Numbers

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Lena Groeger - Sep. 09 (Opinion) - Ever since the Twin Towers fell, the United States has been at war. The costs of that decade of conflict have been unimaginably high: trillions of dollars spent, hundreds of thousands of lives lost. The numbers are almost too big to grasp

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The costs of war | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Hugh Gusterson - Sep. 08 (Opinion) - Sobering reflections of the 10 years since 9/11 at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Here's a quote: "Military responses to problems have a way of creating all sorts of new problems. The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy offers an opportunity to reflect on the costs and benefits of the wars the United States initiated against Iraq and Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks. A comprehensive new study, "Costs of War," sponsored by Brown University (and with which I have been affiliated) suggests that the costs have been wildly out of proportion to the benefits." A very thoughtful piece, regardless of your view of the wars

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U.S. Wasting Billions While Tripling No-Bid Contracts After Decade of War in Iraq, Afghanistan

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 02 (News Report) - As the war in Afghanistan approaches its 10th anniversary, a pair of new reports reveal how the Pentagon has squandered tens of billions of dollars while tripling the amount of no-bid contracts. The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting concludes that between $31 billion and $60 billion spent on projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 years has been lost to waste and fraud. In Afghanistan, the commission found the United States is indirectly funding the Taliban as money diverted from U.S.-backed projects is paid out to militants to ensure safety. Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s use of no-bid contracts has tripled since the United States was attacked on 9/11, in spite of promises to reform the controversial practice. A new investigative report from the Center for Public Integrity says no-bid spending has ballooned from $50 billion in 2003 to $140 billion in 2011.

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