Afghanistan continues to find its way onto American news cycles and like most news, it’s of the bad and bloody variety. The US military is on the verge of releasing its latest strategic review of the conflict and how the US expects to go forward, with the hottest topic (more troops?) being avoided. The Taliban […]
Three important issues to cover, let’s go! Ghani Gets a US Soapbox – Presidential hopeful Ashraf Ghani wrote a ‘why I should be President of Afghanistan and not Karzai’ piece in the Wall Street Journal this weekend and he comes out swinging. Ghani argues that Karzai ‘turned’, not ‘helped’ or ‘let’, but ‘turned’ Afghanistan into […]
It’s hard to believe, but the people of Afghanistan will go to the polls in just over three weeks to choose their next president. Though the incumbent Hamid Karzai is the clear favorite, but his return to the state’s head office is not assured as challengers Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani have gone on the […]
Excuse me World, how are you feeling about the NATO presence in Afghanistan? What are your thoughts about a possible return to rule by the Taliban? While WorldPublicOpinion.org asked the world, well almost 65% of it (actually just a few thousand scattered people), to share their thoughts on such questions in a recent survey last […]
It took a matter of hours for President Hamid Karzai’s administration to deny the rumor that his government was to take on former U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as a CEO or ‘unelected prime minister’ of the central Asian state. The New York Times reported yesterday, based on unnamed American and Afghan officials, that Karzia would […]
Two items of note: Weak Opposition to Karzai, So Far… The Afghan Election Commission started excepting nominations for presidential and provincial offices for the upcoming August elections and one thing seems clear, incumbent President Hamid Karzai appears to have a strong chance at retaining his position. No other major candidate has so far put in […]
In what is to part of a series of conversations, some of which began back in February, the Obama administration will host the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in a trilateral summit this coming May 6 and 7. During the official summit, President Karzai and President Zardari will each meet individually with Obama and then […]
Afghanistan is once again in the news for many reasons. First off, Elina at FPA’s Central Asia blog has reported that not only has the US officially secured a transit route through Uzbekistan, but also that Kyrgyzstan is actually still considering allowing the US to stay at the Manas Air Base. Hmmm. Secondly, Sec of […]
Just weeks after the Afghan Election Commission, United Nations, and the US government stated that they believe it best to delay the presidential elections until August, President Karzai issued a decree on Saturday ordering that all elections be held in accordance with the Constitution, that is, this April or May. The main reasons given the […]