 - Tomgram: Anand Gopal, Who Rules Afghanistan?
 Oct 9, 12:42pm  (1 review) alternative-news, afghanistan, war http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174986/a...- Surging in Afghanistan
When, decades from now, historians compile the record of this Afghan war, they will date the Afghan version of the surge -- the now trendy injection of large numbers of troops to resuscitate a flagging war effort -- to sometime in early 2007. Then, a growing insurgency was causing visible problems for U.S. and NATO forces in certain pockets in the southern parts of the country, long a Taliban stronghold. In response, military planners dramatically beefed up the international presence, raising the number of troops over the following 18 months by 20,000, a 45% jump.
During this period, however, the violence also jumped -- by 50%. This shouldn't be surprising. More troops meant more targets for Taliban fighters and suicide bombers. In response, the international forces retaliated with massive aerial bombing campaigns and large-scale house raids. The number of civilians killed in the process skyrocketed. In the fifteen months of this surge, more civilians have been killed than in the previous four years combined.
During the same period, the country descended into a state of utter dereliction -- no jobs, very little reconstruction, and ever less security. In turn, the rising civilian death toll and the decaying economy proved a profitable recipe for the Taliban, who recruited significant numbers of new fighters. They also won the sympathy of Afghans who saw them as the lesser of two evils. Once confined to the deep Afghan south, today the insurgents operate openly right at the doorstep of Kabul, the capital.
This last surge, little noted by the media, failed miserably, but Washington is now planning another one, even as Afghanistan slips away. More boots on the ground, though, will do little to address the real causes of this country's unfolding tragedy. ">
- New Evidence Shows Bush Had No Plan to Catch bin Laden After 9/11 | War...
- Oct 9, 6:51am
 (1 review) alternative-news, iraq, afghanistan, dick-cheney, al-qaeda http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/102020... - Mere weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration was too busy planning to invade Iraq to follow through on its mission in Afghanistan.
- Amazon.com: After the Taliban: Nation-Building in Afghanistan: Amb. James...
- Sep 28, 8:23pm (1 review) politics, books, afghanistan, war, taliban http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597970...
- After the Taliban: Nation-Building in Afghanistan
- Bloggingheads.tv - diavlogs
- Sep 28, 8:19pm (2 reviews) alternative-news, terrorism, afghanistan http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14748
- UN Plaza: Afghanistan After the Taliban
Ambassador Dobbins's book "After the Taliban" (01:26)
Iran helped the US in the wake of the Taliban overthrow... (04:15)
...so why did Bush put Iran in the Axis of Evil? (03:49)
Why Karzai was the right man to lead Afghanistan (03:00)
How today's Afghanistan descended again into civil war (02:43)
Will opium production doom Afghanistan? (01:28)
- Corporate Media Focuses on DNC as the World Burns | PEEK | AlterNet
- Aug 27, 6:33am (1 review) alternative-news, russia, afghanistan, foreign-policy, pakistan http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/96535...
- Katie Couric puts on her serious face and talks to bloggers, who then post about her talking to bloggers, and the universe explodes on itself.
Meanwhile apparently this is the Hillary Clinton convention and the Democratic Party is at war, although none of us know it.
And oh by the way: Pakistan's government has collapsed (which is probably as it should be after Musharraf was dumped), Iraq's Prime Minister reaffirms the need for a hard timeline for all US troops to leave Iraq, the Prime Minister has also cut oil deals with China and Russia, the Russians have recognized independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and in the wake of yet another airstrike killing dozens of civilians in Afghanistan ...
Frustrated by the mounting toll of civilian deaths from U.S. and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan, the government of President Hamid Karzai called Tuesday for a full-scale review of foreign-led military operations in the country.
Our foreign policy is literally blowing up in our faces on multiple fronts, but the media is dead-set on whether or not someone with a sign somewhere is a PUMA or not.
- Bush Is Pouring Gas on Afghanistans Bonfire | ForeignPolicy | AlterNet
- Aug 27, 5:41am (1 review) politics, afghanistan, bush, chris-hedges http://www.alternet.org/audits/96497/
- Mounting NATO bombing raids and widespread detentions of Afghans are rapidly turning the country into the mirror image of Iraq.
- The Long War: How Many Iraqs and Afghanistans Lie Ahead? | War on Iraq...
- Aug 14, 4:43am (1 review) politics, iraq, afghanistan, bush, war http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/94983/
- The Pentagonization of the United States shows no sign of slowing down.
- Afghan children raped with 'impunity,' U.N. official says - CNN.com
- Aug 8, 8:12am (1 review) counterculture, news, afghanistan, war, rape http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08...
- The young Afghan girl sits in the center of the room, weeping. Using her hand and her blue scarf to hide her face, she recounts how she was brutally raped by five gunmen.
The girl's tragic case is one of many in war-torn Afghanistan, activists say.
The 12-year-old girl's family members say they'll take their own lives unless justice is served.
"We will all commit suicide; this is not living," cries the mother of the girl, whose gang-rape occurred in Northern Afghanistan.
- Foreign Policy In Focus | Afghanistan: Not a Good War
- Aug 5, 7:02am (1 review) politics, afghanistan, war http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5423
- Every war has a story line. World War I was "the war to end all wars." World War II was "the war to defeat fascism."
Iraq was sold as a war to halt weapons of mass destruction; then to overthrow Saddam Hussein, then to build democracy. In the end it was a fabrication built on a falsehood and anchored in a fraud.
But Afghanistan is the "good war," aimed at "those who attacked us," in the words of columnist Frank Rich. It is "the war of necessity," asserts the New York Times, to roll back the "power of Al Qaeda and the Taliban."
- AFP: Afghanistan blames Pakistan for spike in attacks
- Jul 15, 9:03am (2 reviews) india, afghanistan, international-politics, war, pakistan http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1-P...
- hat tip to sharkat:
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday directly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of being behind a recent series of attacks by extremist Islamic militants that have killed scores of people.
|
