This is the first in a series of posts to help Americans get to know some of the most powerful figures in the Afghan government for whom our troops are killing and dying. We’ll get started with Karzai’s running mate in today’s election. Meet Mohammed Qasim Fahim. After the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Meet Your Afghan Warlords, Part One: Mohammed Qasim Fahim
Posted: August 20, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Mohammed Qasim Fahim, Rethink Afghanistan
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Breaking: Another New Poll Shows Support Cratering for War in Afghanistan
Posted: August 19, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan
A new poll from ABC/WAPO shows support cratering for the war in Afghanistan, especially among liberals. Here are the most striking pieces of WAPO’s story: “Among all adults, 51 percent now say the war is not worth fighting, up six points since last month and four points above the previous high, reached in February. Less [...]
President Obama is Trapped in George Bush’s Frame
Posted: August 19, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, George W. Bush, myth of redemptive violence, Obama, Walter Wink
During his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars earlier this week, President Obama validated the basic frame of the Bush Administration. Obama said that the war in Afghanistan “is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity.” This statement accepts a frame designed to bludgeon the progressive movement to death: the [...]
Taking Our Eyes Off the Blog
Posted: August 18, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Alliance for Justice, anti-war movement, Iraq, Netroots Nation, Van Jones
My wife and I went back to D.C. in January for the inauguration of Barack Obama. We’d lived and worked and volunteered in Washington during the absolute worst years for the progressive movement–the Tom Delay Congress–and danced in the halls in the Cannon House Office Building the night we retook Congress. Our journey to pacifism [...]
Afghan Warlords, Narco-State Government Not Worth Another Drop of U.S. Blood
Posted: August 17, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Dostum, Karzai, narco-state, Rethink Afghanistan
An overnight development shows why the Kabul regime is not worth another drop of American blood, and why the elections later this week will be far from the democratic triumph presented by U.S. officials. Drug kingpin and war criminal General Abdul Rashid Dostum is back in Afghanistan, working to help re-elect President Hamid Karzai. KABUL [...]
What Does Afghanistan Have to Do with Health Reform?
Posted: August 14, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, health reform, Rethink Afghanistan
Plenty. Take a look at President Obama’s approval disapproval ratings on various issues in this June 2009 Gallup poll: Note that the two questions on federal budget–the handling of the deficit and controlling government spending–are the only two areas on which the President received negative ratings. The poll may ask people what they think about [...]
Dick Holbrooke took some time on August 12 to let us know that there is no Afghanistan strategy. The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Wednesday that while American forces have been making progress in the region it is still too early to tell what success might look like. “We’ll know it [...]
Escalation Rumors Escalate
Posted: August 12, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, McChrystal, Rethink Afghanistan, War Resisters league, war spending
It looks like reports of an escalation’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. This weekend, Obama’s National Security Advisor, Jim Jones, went on CBS’ “Face the Nation” to let us know that he never told commanders in Afghanistan that they’d have to make do with what they had. And, General McChrystal gave an interview to the [...]
Afghanistan War Helps Fuel Unsustainable Budget Deficits
Posted: August 11, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Rethink Afghanistan, war spending
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently said on ABC News’ “This Week” that U.S. deficits were unsustainable and had to be brought under control if our economy were going to fully recover. U.S. policies in Afghanistan, however, undermine this goal. As Sunday’s Washington Post points out, our deepening involvement in Afghanistan will eventually cost more than [...]
WAPO: Afghanistan War to Eclipse Costs of Iraq War
Posted: August 10, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Rethink Afghanistan
The Washington Post today published a report warning that the deepening U.S. involvement in Afghanistan will be far more costly than the Iraq War. As the Obama administration expands U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, military experts are warning that the United States is taking on security and political commitments that will last at least a decade [...]
