I was baffled by the cavalier attitude displayed yesterday by Richard Holbrooke about violence in Afghanistan. Sounding positively Dick-Cheney-ish, Dick Holbrooke waved away concerns about the potential of widespread violence to damage the legitimacy of the upcoming elections. Here he is during an NPR interview, emphasis mine: Q: Wouldn’t the people, though, who can’t vote [...]
Archive for July 28, 2009
Holbrooke Gets All Flippant and Cute
Posted: July 28, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Blackwater, casualties, Cheney, elections, Holbrooke
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The Underbelly of the “Civilian Surge”: Blackwater Surge
Posted: July 28, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Blackwater, civilian surge, Department of State, Xe
Much has been made of the so-called “civilian surge” that’s supposed to accompany the military escalation in Afghanistan, but it comes with an ugly caveat: a civilian surge means an escalation in the presence of private military contractors like Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, acting as guards and bodyguards. Nancy Youssef’s McClatchy article last week [...]
