I just watched a fascinating video from Reuters TV about a tiny town in Afghanistan named “Little America.” Located in the Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan, “Little America” was the largest development project in Afghanistan’s history. First populated by Americans during the Cold War, it was developed to counteract Soviet influence in the region. The US spent hundreds […]
As NATO is looking for logistic ways to implement the concluded strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan, which extends its participation in the region beyond pullout timeline of 2014, Kyrgyzstan regains leverage over Russia and the United States, considering it hosts military bases for both countries. However, this time Kyrgyz new authorities are facing some restrictions […]
The countdown is on. In three days, Chicago will be hosting the 2012 NATO summit from May 20th to 21st. New figures will be traveling to Chicago, among them the newly elected French President François Hollande. Prior to the beginning of the Summit, this piece will outline one of the most important threats that NATO […]
The following is a guest post from James A. Goldston, Executive Director of the Open Society Justice Initiative Strasbourg – The United States government has been trying for close to a decade to hush up what it did to Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen whose story of mistaken identity, abduction and abuse marks one of […]
Washington grumbles about the Indian relationship with Iran, but the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan leaves New Delhi little choice The striking juxtaposition this week in New Delhi is a nice illustration of how Tehran has become a complicating factor in U.S.-India relations. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in town to exhort Prime Minister […]
Why is the captured U.S. soldier not part of the strategic release program in Afghanistan? Update (May 9, 2012): Confirming earlier speculation, the parents of Bowe Bergdahl today announced that he is a focus of now-stalled negotiations between the United States and the Taliban over a proposed exchange of Guantanamo Bay prisoners. The New York […]
With the United States and NATO making plans to draw down most of their troops over the next few years, Afghanistan faces a precarious future. While the military situation has improved, insurgency continues; the government’s authority extends little beyond the capital; foreign aid accounts for 80 percent of the national budget; and the country’s principal cash […]
As election season approaches, American voters’ beliefs about foreign policy issues are increasingly clear. According to a recent Pew “Public Priorities” survey, voters’ concerns about the economy trump all other concerns, with 86 percent of Americans classifying the economy as “a ‘top priority’ for the president and Congress this year” as opposed to 68 percent […]
In the maelstrom of conflict reporting from different corners of the globe, and its analysis and resultant policy-setting by major powers, the local scorecard is often unclear. If insurgents control six out of ten villages in a district, are they winning? Many would say yes. But if we knew that this was two fewer than […]
“It’s all fucked up,” reflected Mads, a Danish soldier posted in Armadillo, a Forward Operating Base located in Afghanistan. One of his comrades had been seriously wounded by an IED. Such a statement was probably the most accurate description of the then-Vietnam war, and is as fitting for today’s in Afghanistan. The violence of the […]
You may have heard that things are going poorly in Afghanistan. Is it true, maybe, maybe not. In either case, what you likely have not heard is any of this from President Obama. The President has spoken very little of the war in Afghanistan to the American public. From positive reports of progress to horrific […]
Perception is reality, here there and in Afghanistan; and for good reason, whatever the truth. After thirty years of near constant war the Afghan people might be forgiven for not being bothered to test their reality for truth, when often enough their lives are bought for cheap blood money and whatever passes for reality is […]
Right after U.S. forces went into Afghanistan in 2001 — in those heady “Paris 1944” days of liberating Kabul and most of the country — one of my best friends put to me an urgent request. Knowing I was en route to Kabul he asked me to please bring him a “Karzai hat” upon my […]
The New York Times reported Sunday that in 2011, for the first time, deaths among civilian contractors working for American companies in Afghanistan outnumbered the deaths of U.S. military personnel in that country. The figure highlights the extent to which modern U.S. military has come to rely on the private sector in carrying out its […]
When speaking about US foreign policy during the Republican Primary debates, Mitt Romney often returns to a familiar theme: his belief that troop levels in Afghanistan should be determined through close consultation with the commanding generals on the ground. It is both a criticism of President Obama’s June 2011 decision to begin drawing down troop […]