President Obama told reporters on May 12, 2010, that “we’re beginning to reverse the momentum of the insurgency” in Afghanistan. According to his administration’s own report given to Congress last week, that’s not true. The insurgency is growing in size and capabilities. Simply put, the president’s continued troop increases aren’t working. It’s time to change [...]
Posts Tagged ‘COIN’
President Obama, Bringing the Truthiness on Afghanistan
Posted: May 14, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, COIN, counterinsurgency, Defense Department, Flournoy, insurgency, Obama, Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability, Rethink Afghanistan, war in Afghanistan
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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 [...]
An Interview with Matthew Hoh
Posted: November 21, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, al-Qaida, COIN, counterinsurgency, Karl Eikenberry, Matthew Hoh, Rethink Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, Taliban
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. If Matthew Hoh could tell you one thing to help you understand the U.S.’s predicament in Afghanistan, he’d tell you: The presence of our ground combat troops [...]
Lost in the Afghan Labyrinth
Posted: October 28, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Abdul Rashid Dostum, Abu Muqwama, Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Kharzai, Andrew Exum, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, COIN, counterinsurgency, Dexter Filkins, Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq, Hamid Karzai, Helene Cooper, James Risen, John Kerry, labyrinth, Mark Mazzetti, Michael Flynn, Mohammed Qasim Fahim, Muhammed Karim Khalili, Rethink Afghanistan, Steve Hynd
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. My previous post intentionally left out mentions of Senator John Kerry’s defense of Ahmed Wali Karzai–the drug-dealing, election stealing, possibly Taliban-connected brother of the Afghan president–in an [...]
Senator John Kerry Finds A War With Which He Can Flirt
Posted: October 27, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Abdullah, Afghanistan, Andrew Wilder, Ann Jones, COIN, counterinsurgency, John Kerry, Karzai, Matthew Hoh, McChrystal, Paul Pillar
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. Senator John Kerry came back from Afghanistan calling President Hamid Karzai a “patriot” and supportive of a plan “closer to McChrystal than to Biden,” meaning he loves [...]
President Obama’s Lonely Walk to the Situation Room
Posted: October 25, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Cesar Chavez, christian realism, Christianity, COIN, counterinsurgency, Gandhi, Jesus, Lilly, Niebuhr, nonviolence, Obama, Rethink Afghanistan, serenity prayer, Sermon on the Mount
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. “It is a blasphemy to say non-violence can be practiced only by individuals and never by nations which are composed of individuals.” –M.K. [...]
The Winner of the Afghan Election: Electoral Fraud
Posted: October 21, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Abdullah, Afghanistan, COIN, counterinsurgency, Karzai, McChrystal, Nagl, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, U.S. Army, U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. All hail the birth of Afghan democracy! The willingness of Americans to allow our political leaders to spend $1 million per troop, per [...]
Politics in Afghanistan: Karzai Folds #afghan09
Posted: October 20, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Abdullah, Afghan election, Afghanistan, COIN, counterinsurgency, Karzai, Rethink Afghanistan, STRATFOR
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. According to the New York Times and CNN, Senator John Kerry and U.S. Ambassador Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry have prevailed upon Afghan President [...]
White House Starts to Get It, Takes Up the “COIN + Illegitimacy ≠ Love” Message
Posted: October 19, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Abdullah, Afghanistan, COIN, counterinsurgency, Karzai, Obama, Rethink Afghanistan
Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. The Obama White House is starting to get hip to the internally contradictory suggestions from the John Nagls of the world. From USA TODAY: [...]
