One of the gems buried in Michael Hastings’ now ubiquitous Rolling Stone article is a senior adviser to General McChrystal thanking his lucky stars for public ignorance of the state of the war: Even those closest to McChrystal know that the rising anti-war sentiment at home doesn’t begin to reflect how deeply fucked up things [...]
Archive for June, 2010
Love the Afghanistan War in Public at Your Peril
Posted: June 27, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, COIN, Congress, counterinsurgency, Newsweek, polling, Rethink Afghanistan
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The Future of Afghanistan
Posted: June 24, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Bamiyan, love, nonviolence, Our Journey To Smile
Here’s a hint: it’s not Karzai and friends, and it’s not the violence of U.S. counterinsurgency strategies. The coalition asks, “Why not COIN?” We the people must ask, “Why not love?” Ashamed of yourselves yet, COINdinistas?
Before the COINdinistas Start Spinning the UN Report…
Posted: June 19, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, civilian casualties, COIN, COINdinistas, counterinsurgency, insurgent, ISAF, NATO, Rethink Afghanistan, Taliban
You’re going to hear a lot of crowing about the reduction in NATO-caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan during the last few months compared to the same time last year. (Read the full report here in PDF format.) This reduction took place in the context of a massive spike in overall violence and a continually degrading [...]
General Petraeus, Concern Troll
Posted: June 18, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Brave New Foundation, ISAF, Jim Jones, Levin, NATO, Obama, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, Robert Gates, Taliban, war in Afghanistan
Watch "Don’t Let General Petraeus Move the Goalposts on Afghanistan" in HD on Facebook. Concern troll. In an argument (usually a political debate), a concern troll is someone who is on one side of the discussion, but pretends to be a supporter of the other side with “concerns”. The idea behind this is that your [...]
Why Did Dr. King Take on Anti-War Activism?
Posted: June 13, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Christianity, Gospel, Martin Luther King, nonviolence, peace, war
“…because I am determined to take the Gospel seriously.” –Martin Luther King, Jr., A Time to Break the Silence on Vietnam. Happy Sunday.
Secretary Gates, Backpedaling
Posted: June 9, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, COIN, counterinsurgency, Daniel Ellsberg, Defense Department, Department of Defense, Helmand, Kandahar, McChrystal, Obama, Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, Rethink Afghanistan, Robert Gates
Defense Secretary Gates wants to extricate himself and the president from the impending P.R. disaster shaping up around the flailing Kandahar operation set for this Summer Fall. “I think it’s important to remember that Kandahar is not Afghanistan,” Gates said in comments that appeared to play down a U.S.-led operation for control of the area, [...]
What Is Wrong with This Picture?
Posted: June 2, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Christianity, Jesus, nonviolence, peace, photo, tank
