Jeff Huber’s recent piece describes the “tragic flaw” of the Obama presidency in his recent Antiwar.com piece: Candidate Obama stuck his nose in the wringer when he deflected criticism of his vote against the surge in Iraq by saying it took vital assets away from the effort in Afghanistan, the “war of necessity.” That may [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’
The Tragic Flaw of the Obama Presidency
Posted: October 26, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, al-Qaida, Iraq, Jeff Huber, Obama, Pakistan
1
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 [...]
Taking Our Eyes Off the Blog
Posted: August 18, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Alliance for Justice, anti-war movement, Iraq, Netroots Nation, Van Jones
My wife and I went back to D.C. in January for the inauguration of Barack Obama. We’d lived and worked and volunteered in Washington during the absolute worst years for the progressive movement–the Tom Delay Congress–and danced in the halls in the Cannon House Office Building the night we retook Congress. Our journey to pacifism [...]
WAPO: Afghanistan War to Eclipse Costs of Iraq War
Posted: August 10, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Rethink Afghanistan
The Washington Post today published a report warning that the deepening U.S. involvement in Afghanistan will be far more costly than the Iraq War. As the Obama administration expands U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, military experts are warning that the United States is taking on security and political commitments that will last at least a decade [...]
A rare opportunity just emerged to kill the supplemental appropriations bill funding operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here’s a quick summary of the politics around the legislation. Here’s a shorter version: items attached to the legislation provoked blocs of Republicans and Democrats into opposition. The White House lobbies hard for this legislation, but if you [...]
Peace and Justice Movement Pulled a Rumsfeld–It’s Time to Recover
Posted: May 30, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, anti-war movement, Iraq, MoveOn, NDAA, peace movement, Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld earned considerable scorn from across the ideological spectrum for his attitude toward post-war planning. One episode in particular illustrated his Defense Department’s attitude toward post-invasion planning: In a piece from October 2004 entitled “Pre-war planning was non-existent,” Knight Ridder reported on a meeting held at a US Air Force base just days before [...]
“Obviously, we meant only 10-year, trillion-dollar wars waged by Republicans were bad for America.”
Posted: May 28, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, General George Casey, Iraq, Obama
Large sections of both the Democratic Party and the peace and justice community continue to show considerable reluctance to protest the policies of the Obama administration, regardless of the blatant similarities between his policies (and the policies’ drawbacks) and those of President Bush. During the Bush administration, Democrats (myself included) made a fair amount of [...]
A Deal with the Devil
Posted: April 28, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Domination System, Iraq, nonviolence, Tom Engelhardt, Walter Wink
Matthew 16: 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For what will it profit [...]
“We are about to find out.”
Posted: April 25, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Iraq, JFK, Obama, Pakistan
James Blight has a fantastic article up at The Chronicle of Higher Education. An excerpt: But proclivities and stated objectives aside, does Barack Obama have the right stuff necessary to avoid disastrous wars like those in Vietnam under LBJ and in Iraq under George W. Bush? While voters going to the polls on November 4 [...]
Drop Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, Part 2: Effect of Counterinsurgency Deployment on Troops Undermines Counterinsurgency Premises
Posted: March 24, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, COIN, counterinsurgency, Iraq, psychology
In my previous post in this series, I explained that the basic assumption of counterinsurgency is that combat troops can live with a local population, protect them, and obtain a measure of communal respect such that the population will form relationships with our troops versus our opponents. To do this, the doctrine requires that our [...]
