Osama Bin Laden is dead. Al Qaeda is no longer in Afghanistan in any significant numbers. While the Afghanistan War long ago lost a strategic rationale supported by actual outcomes on the ground (insurgent-initiated attacks continue to rise every year, despite the massive escalations of the past two years), Bin Laden’s death obliterates the last [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Rethink Afghanistan’
Don’t Let Bin Laden Have the Last Laugh. Get Our Troops and Our Tax Dollars Home.
Posted: May 4, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, counterinsurgency, Osama bin Laden, Rethink Afghanistan
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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
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 [...]
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
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. [...]
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 [...]
On Anniversary of Marjah Push, Escalation Strategy Still Failing
Posted: February 13, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Because It's Time, counterinsurgency, escalation, Gates, Marjah, McChrystal, Obama, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan
Exactly one year ago, on February 13, 2010, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan launched the first major military operations enabled by President Obama’s 30,000 troop increase. President Obama and the high priests of counterinsurgency warfare, Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, made two major assertions about the escalation, that it would [...]
2010: Worst Year for Civilian Deaths of the Afghanistan War
Posted: February 2, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan Rights Monitor, Afghanistan war, civilian casualties, IEDs, ISAF, NATO, Obama, Rethink Afghanistan, war in Afghanistan
Last year was the worst year for civilian deaths in the war so far, and irregular armed groups backed by the U.S. and by the Afghan government are preying on the population while recruiting and abusing children. Go team. I’m almost numb from continually relaying reports like this, but every time I get an email [...]
Failure, Not Progress, in Afghanistan
Posted: December 15, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Brave New Foundation, civilian casualties, counterinsurgency, December Review, Holbrooke, Obama, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, troop deaths, war in Afghanistan
On Thursday, December 16, 2010, the White House will use its December review to try to spin the disastrous Afghanistan War plan by citing “progress” in the military campaign, but the available facts paint a picture of a war that’s not making us safer and that’s not worth the cost. Let’s take a look at [...]
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 [...]
