General David Petraeus is set to testify before Congress today, and he’s expected to again try to put a positive spin on a war effort that’s utterly failing to meet the goals set by its backers. While intelligence assessments show that tactical moves on the ground in Afghanistan have failed to fundamentally weaken the growing [...]
Posts Tagged ‘insurgency’
Petraeus, McCain Continue Afghanistan War Spin, But No One Buys It (Nor Should They)
Posted: March 15, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, civilian casualties, Congress, counterinsurgency, insurgency, McCain, Petraeus, propaganda, Rethink Afghanistan, spin, Taliban
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Afghanistan War Not Worth the Burning of Children and Treasure
Posted: March 4, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: #RethinkAfghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, civilian casualties, cost of war, defense spending, fraud, fuel theft, insurgency, insurgents, Meetup, Obama, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, Taliban, tankers, war in Afghanistan, war profiteering
Fresh from the reported killing of more than 60 civilians, U.S. forces in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, killed nine boys gathering firewood in Afghanistan. General Petraeus says he’s sorry. “We are deeply sorry for this tragedy and apologize to the members of the Afghan government, the people of Afghanistan and, most importantly, the surviving family members [...]
Afghanistan Rights Monitor SLAMS Washington Spin About “Progress” in Afghanistan
Posted: July 13, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan Rights Monitor, ARM, Brave New Foundation, insurgency, insurgents, International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Obama, Rethink Afghanistan, Taliban
The Afghanistan Rights Monitor’s (ARM) mid-year report on Civilian Casualties of Conflict (.pdf) blasts the happy-talk coming out of the Obama Administration about the deteriorating security situation and its effect on civilians: Despite the high-profile spin in Washington and Kabul about progress made in Afghanistan, the Afghan people have only witnessed and suffered an intensifying [...]
Hope
Posted: July 10, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Austin, Brave New Foundation, Central market, COIN, counterinsurgency, insurgency, Meetup, Rethink Afghanistan, Taliban, Vietnam
This evening, I spent a couple of hours at Central Market in downtown Austin, Texas, with 7 other people in one of the first Meetups to Rethink the Afghanistan War. I’ve been involved in a serious way in the struggle to end the war for a little more than two years. This was the most [...]
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
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 [...]
Kandahar Bursts Gen. McChrystal’s Counterinsurgency Bubble
Posted: April 14, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Brave New Foundation, counterinsurgency, insurgency, Kandahar, Karzai, Major General Nick Carter, McChrystal, military, Rethink Afghanistan, Taliban, war in Afghanistan, war on terror, war on terrorism
Cross-posted from Rethink Afghanistan. In case you hadn’t heard, the next stop in General McChrystal’s counterinsurgency plan is Kandahar, the ideological heart of the Taliban. Using the spadework done in advance of the Marjah operation as a template, McChrystal says the plan is to: "…do the political groundwork, so that when it’s time to do [...]
John Nagl and Richard Fontaine, Hand-Waving
Posted: October 12, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, COIN, counterinsurgency, ethnic cleansing, insurgency, Iraq, John Nagl, Rethink Afghanistan, Richard Fontaine
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. Supporters of a deep investment of American blood and treasure in a long, costly and difficult counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign in Afghanistan have the [...]
Bring Back the Bad Ol’ Days
Posted: September 17, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, counterinsurgency, Dexter Filkins, insurgency, LG Group, Taliban, The Forever War
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. “People loved [the Taliban]–a lot of people did, anyway, at least at [...]
