Watch Rethink Afghanistan’s latest video at RethinkAfghanistan.com. I spent several days last week giving guest lectures about the Afghanistan War to freshmen and seniors at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas. It’s no secret that I loathe this brutal, futile war that’s not making us safer. So, when I talk to kids about it, I [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Rethink Afghanistan’
Afghanistan, Year Ten
Posted: October 8, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, afghanistan year 10, Brave New Foundation, COIN, counterinsurgency, McChrystal, mckiernon, Pentagon, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, war in Afghanistan, white house, year 10
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Security in Afghanistan Crumbles as Counterinsurgency Fails
Posted: September 12, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, anti-war, Army, Brave New Foundation, COIN, corruption, counterinsurgency, failure, Hamid Karzai, Kabul Bank, Kabulbank, military, Obama, Pashtuns, peace, Rethink Afghanistan, strategy review, war in Afghanistan, white house
As President Obama’s strategy review for Afghanistan commences, let’s hope he’s balancing the information coming to him from his happy-talking generals with some independent news reading of his own. While General David Petraeus serenades the major news media in the United States with the siren song of “progress,” security in Afghanistan is rapidly deteriorating, and [...]
Media Failing to Ask Tough Questions on Afghanistan War…Again
Posted: August 15, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: act.ly, Afghanistan, Air Force, Army, Brave New Foundation, David Gregory, insurgents, journalism, Katie Couric, marines, media, Meet the Press, military, Navy, Obama, petition, Petraeus, propaganda, Rethink Afghanistan, Robert Greenwald, spin, Taliban, troops, violence
Sign our act.ly petition to tell the next journalists on Petraeus’ media tour to ask tough questions and expose his effort to extend the Afghanistan War. General Petraeus is on a media tour to sell the idea that the U.S. military is “making progress” in Afghanistan, a well-worn message aimed at convincing elites to extend [...]
A Response to Rafia Zakaria’s Response to My Response to TIME Magazine
Posted: August 5, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, Left, Ms. Magazine, political equality, Rafia Zakaria, Rethink Afghanistan, women, women's rights
Over on Ms. Magazine‘s blog, Rafia Zakaria takes issue with my response to TIME Magazine’s pro-war, propaganda cover art. Zakaria and I agree on the critical importance of getting women into real decision-making positions in the reconciliation and reintegration processes. However, Zakaria falls right into the bad frame pushed by TIME’s cover art, and in [...]
Busting White House Spin on WikiLeaks: No Leak Required
Posted: July 29, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, fail, Obama, Rethink Afghanistan, Rose Garden, spin, white house, WikiLeaks
President Obama managed to show just how nimble and how disingenuous an administration can be in his response to the WikiLeaks fiasco: Obama, speaking from the Rose Garden after a meeting with congressional leaders to discuss funding for the war and other issues, deplored the leak, saying he was concerned the information from the battleground [...]
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 [...]
We Bought Thoreau This Straw Pony for His Birthday
Posted: July 12, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, civilian casualties, civilian killings, COIN, counterinsurgency, Petraeus civilian deaths, ponies, Rethink Afghanistan, Spencer Ackerman
Spencer Ackerman wants you to meet him halfway between his house and the straw man: Here’s where those who base their opposition to the war its promotion of human suffering have to meet halfway as well. If the U.S. stops prosecuting its end of the war, civilian casualties will not end. What will end is [...]
