Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. You can learn more about the dangers posed to U.S. national security by the war in Afghanistan by watching Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six): Security, or by visiting http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. A new CNN poll shows another large drop in public support for [...]
Archive for September, 2009
Another Poll: Support for War in Afghanistan Continues to Crater
Posted: September 15, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, CNN, poll, Rethink Afghanistan
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Constitutional Death Spiral in Afghanistan
Posted: September 13, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan, Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Karzai, Rethink Afghanistan
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. You can learn more about the dangers posed to U.S. national security by the war in Afghanistan by watching Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six): Security, or by visiting http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. The U.S. is pinwheeling its arms on the edge of a very [...]
President Obama’s Escalation Drives Spread of Insurgency
Posted: September 10, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, DFID, ICOS, Rethink Afghanistan
November 2008: ICOS releases a map showing Taliban presence in Afghanistan, with a “permanent” presence found in 72 percent of the country: January 2009: Carnegie Institute for International Peace’s Giles Dorronsoro: The mere presence of foreign soldiers fighting a war in Afghanistan is probably the single most important factor in the resurgence of the Taliban. [...]
Vested Interests
Posted: September 9, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Andrew Exum, Brookings, Bruce Riedel, counterinsurgency, El Salvador, Eric Martin, Rethink Afghanistan
Bruce Riedel at Brookings says we have a vested interest in shoring up Karzai’s legitimacy. That’s not surprising, given that Riedel certainly has such a vested interest. From The New York Times: “Even if we get a second round of voting, the odds are still high that Karzai will win,” said Bruce Riedel, a senior [...]
Raid on Hospital Violates International Agreements, Endangering Aid Workers, Patients and Troops
Posted: September 7, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: 10th Mountain Division, Afghanistan, SCA, Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, Wardak
Apparently U.S. forces in Afghanistan hadn’t had enough outrage from the Afghanistan public after blowing up two fuel tanks surrounded by civilians, because the soldiers operating as part of ISAF went and raided a hospital, violating both the Geneva Conventions and agreements governing interactions between the military and humanitarian organizations. KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. troops [...]
NATO Strike Kills 90, Including Up to 40 Civilians
Posted: September 4, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, Rethink Afghanistan
From Reuters: KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) – NATO forces in Afghanistan were investigating on Friday whether civilians were among scores of people burned to death when they carried out an air strike against two hijacked fuel tankers. …Kunduz province Governor Mohammad Omar said as many as 90 people were feared killed, burned alive in a giant [...]
Where This Is Going
Posted: September 3, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan, counterinsurgency, Hamid Karzai, Rethink Afghanistan
The poisonous tree of counterinsurgency continues to bear fruit in Afghanistan. Reports indicate that tensions are rising over the fraudulent election. The potential for violence is very real. President Karzai’s main opponent in the election, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, has ruled out participation in a unity government and flatly stated he will not accept an election [...]
Wally and Billy Panic
Posted: September 2, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Bill Kristol, George Will, Project for a New American Century, Rethink Afghanistan, Wall Street Journal
The conversion of George Will et. al. on Afghanistan has the usual suspects in full panic mode. The Wall Street Journal and Bill Kristol stand out in particular. But even in their full “what will we do without a war fought by someone else’s kids?!” mode, they manage to pull it together to tell us [...]
