The Pentagon wants you to ignore some inconvenient facts about the failure of the escalation strategy in Afghanistan. The latest Petraeus/Gates media tour is under way in preparation for the general’s testimony to Congress next week, and they’re trotting out the same, tired spin they’ve been using since McChrystal was replaced in disgrace last year. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘civilian deaths’
Pentagon Assertions of “Progress” In Afghanistan Are a Bad Joke
Posted: March 9, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, COIN, counterinsurgency, escalation, Gates, insurgents, Obama, Pentagon, Petraeus, propaganda, Rethink Afghanistan, Robert Gates, spin, Taliban, targeted killings, troop increase
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ISAF Press Shop Can’t Keep Their Spin Straght, Part 2
Posted: November 9, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, civilian deaths, civilian killings, civilians, COIN, counterinsurgency, insurgents, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, Taliban
Last week I posted about the silly contradictions in the various spin pieces coming from General Petraeus’ press shop in Afghanistan. At the time, ISAF was claiming that a) Kandahar and Helmand were “security bubbles” and b) ISAF was obviously winning because they were confining most of the violence in Afghanistan to…Kandahar and Helmand. This [...]
Plagiarism and Afghanistan
Posted: May 4, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Brave New Foundation, civilian deaths, COIN, counterinsurgency, Defense Department, failure, Kandahar, Marjah, McChrystal, Michael Flynn, Michael McMahon, Pentagon, Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, Rethink Afghanistan, Russ Carnahan, war in Afghanistan
Last week, the military published an ironically titled “Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan” that wrapped blunt admissions of strategic collapse in typical Pentagon happy talk. Short version: Violence is up 87 percent (p. 39), the insurgency has population sympathy/support in 92 of 121 key regions, and local support for International Security [...]
Pretentious Brutality
Posted: April 16, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, COIN, counterinsurgency, McChrystal, special operations forces, Spencer Ackerman, UNAMA, war in Afghanistan
I usually don’t do this, but I have to take my friend Spencer Ackerman out for a ride. (In my defense, brother, just keep in mind that I’m taking you out for a ride for a blog post in which you took your friend out for a ride. Just sayin’.) And, I want to say [...]
Special Ops Killing Civilians in Afghanistan: A Pattern of Brutality, Denial, Outrage and Violence
Posted: April 12, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, civilian killings, Gardez, night raids, Paktia, Paktiya, Rethink Afghanistan, special forces, special operations, special operations forces, special ops
Here’s my latest video created for Rethink Afghanistan. You can find the accompanying blog post here.
U.S. and Allied Forces: We Killed Those Pregnant Afghan Women After All
Posted: April 5, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, Gardez, ISAF, Jerome Starkey, McChrystal, NATO, propaganda, Rear Adm. Greg Smith, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, Rethink Afghanistan
Brave New Foundation’s Rethink Afghanistan project has been following the story about a night raid in Gardez by U.S. and Afghan forces (see the video above), and today those forces made a major admission about their responsibility for civilian deaths. In a press release issued on Easter (gee, I wonder if they hoped people would [...]
U.S., Allies Responsible for Most Marjah Civilian Casualties
Posted: March 9, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, Helmand, insurgents, Marja, Marjah, Marjeh, NATO, Operation Moshtarak, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, Robert Gates, Taliban
According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, U.S. and Allied forces have killed and injured more civilians than have the insurgents during Operation Moshtarak. Incredibly, the Pentagon continues to insist that this operation "protects the people." AIHRC’s Feb. 23 press release reports [h/t Josh Mull, our new Afghanistan blog fellow]: "AIHRC is concerned at [...]
President Obama Rejects the Narrow, Dogmatic Views of the Jedi
Posted: February 28, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, Episode III, Gandhi, Jedi, King, Nobel, nonviolence, Obama, Revenge of the Sith, Sith, Star Wars, war, war in Afghanistan
“Precision Guided Munitions” Kill Children, Other Civilians in Marjah, Afghanistan
Posted: February 15, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, Marjah, Rethink Afghanistan, smart bombs, Society of Christian Ethics
A few days ago a commenter on my blog took issue with my post, “Fallujah, New Orleans and Marjah“. Part of our disagreement focused on whether the Marines could precisely target their munitions. The commenter said in part: What do you know about Marine Corps military operations? What do you know about the accuracy of [...]
