100 posts
Afghanistan: what’s gone right, what’s gone wrong
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When the Taliban was ousted in 2001, there were seeds of hope across the country. The people of Afghanistan, weary from their dark past, embarked on a bright venture of nation and state building. They hoped for prosperity, freedom, and peace. The pre...
BREAKING: Massive Attack on NATO's Kabul HQ By Waves of Taliban Suicide Bombers
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According to Danish news reports (the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is Danish), including Berlingske Tidende, NATO's headquarters in Kabul are under a major attack, with the Taliban issuing a statement that suicide bombers are inv...
Humanitarianism in Pakistan and Afghanistan
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January 2011 edition of the Humanitarian Policy Group (ODI) magazine Humanitarian Exchange is focused on humanitarian action in Pakistan and Afghanistan: http://www.odihpn.org/documents%5Chumanitarianexchange049.pdf...
Let addicts die
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A magnificently un-pc posting from Richard North about the heroin supply crisis caused in part by succesful operations in Afghanistan.Then, the same paper has Peter Preston telling us that "It's braver to quit Afghanistan now," arguing that if the da...
Remembrance, Afghanistan and rethinking defence
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Several of us in the London office have just observed the two minutes of silence that is traditional in Britain at 1100 on every November 11th, in memory of the country’s war dead. Just a couple ofRead more…...
The Illusion of Realism
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Recently Time published a special issue on Afghanistan that highlighted the human cost of the Taliban. Its front cover displayed a picture of a woman who’d had her nose and ears cut off by the Taliban for running from domestic violence. The...
More Than Dutch Courage in Afghanistan
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As the old C-130 Hercules transport plane took off from Tarin Kowt airfield in Uruzgan, I glimpsed a last view of the province that back in 2001 had witnessed the first Pashtun rebellion against the Taliban. This rugged airstrip was an unlikely place...
Two Sets of Dominoes
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My colleague Niels Annen has given us the benefit of his own extensive experience in Afghanistan to offer a very useful perspective on the Dutch withdrawal. Niels’ concerns about whether the withdrawal signals the unraveling of the coalition in...
Now Pentagon angry with Wikileaks
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Pentagon orders Wikileaks to delete classified documents from Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza In a briefing at the Defense Department, Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell ordered Wikileaks to remove classified documents and return them to the U.S. governme...
“Afghanistan is not Sweden”???
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I’ve been following with slight misapprehension the nervous reactions of some US bloggers and commentators on the Wikileaks scandal that involved the publication of thousands of US military confidential documents on the Internet. One particular pos...
Clap harder, dammit!
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So, the West (defined today as the US and it's vassal military states - called...
Thousands of Classified Reports on the Afghanistan War Leaked
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An extensive series of previously classified reports on the Afghanistan war effort titled the Afghan War Diary (AWD) has been made public by the website WikiLeaks. The NYT, Guardian and Der Spiegel were leaked the reports several weeks ago....
Wikileaks läcker hemliga Afghanistan-dokument
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Sajten Wikileaks har i samarbete med New York Times, The Guardian & Der Spiegel släppt ett stort antal hemliga amerikanska dokument, en krigsdagbok från Afghanistan. Krigsdagboken berättar en dyster historia om hundratals civila offer och et...
antropologi.info asks “The return of colonial anthropology?/ anthro roundup
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The return of colonial anthropology? from antropologi.info – anthropology in the news blog by Lorenz “A dysfunctional ethnic and tribal brawl has been the norm in Afghanistan for centuries. Afghanistan is a mess. ” Who said that? A frustrat...
Morning Brief (21-7)
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Afghanistan donor conference in Kabul. The New York Times writes: The most concrete commitment was a promise to increase to 50 percent the proportion of international development funds to be disbursed through Afghanistan’s own budgeting process, a...
Karzai Reaffirms 2014 Goal For Afghan-Led Security
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President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday reaffirmed his commitment for Afghan police and soldiers to take charge of security nationwide by 2014 and urged his international backers to distribute more of their development aid through the government. R...
What is good for the Goose
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Q. What has Afghanistan got that the UK doesn't?A) The ability to set its own trade rules.Our Foriegn Minister Cathy Ashton is in the land of the empowered Burka wearer, Afghanistan where she is attending some conference.The conference, entitled, Kab...
Memo from Liam Fox to the Taliban
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Dear Colleagues, The new, more realistic, UK administration understands that your traditional values are appropriate for Afghanistan and that so-called “liberal” and “democratic” values – particularly with regard to the...
McChrystal’s Replacement Marks the End of the ‘Big Macs’ in Afghanistan
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In a spectacular move President Obama fired General Stanley McChrystal after the Rolling Stone magazine broke a story reporting his staff’s and his own disrespectful remarks about the president and his national security team. The incident is not on...
Why we are in Afghanistan
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While we're being told that our governments are broke and must reduce payments to pensioners,...
The snark heard round the world
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It’s a strange turn of events when some snarky personal attacks made in Rolling Stone magazine can have an explosive worldwide effect that will change the course of history. But that is what has unfolded this week as Barack Obama has been forced to...
Morning Brief (25-6)
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Obama’s Afghan strategy not working, says the Economist: Since November, when Mr Obama promised 30,000 more of his country’s soldiers to the campaign, little has gone right. General McChrystal’s plan was for a “surge” that would seize t...
The Runaway Commander: Opportunities & Risks Inherent in McChrystal’s Dismissal
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President Barack Obama Wednesday fired his own chosen field commander for Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, and replaced him with McChrystal’s boss in the military chain of command, General David Petraeus. Obama was right to fire McChrysta...
Fool's Errand
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So McChrystal is out, Petraeus in. What difference does it make? There was some discussion...
US, France and Germany: Divisions and Lack of Professionalism Everywhere
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We all need more team spirit. Obama's Afghanistan team is in disarray. Their egos seem to be as bloated as the ego's in the French soccer team. While President Obama is angry with McChrystal's frank comments and perhaps insubordination, President Sa...
Is NATO to Blame for Russia's Afghan Heroin Problem?
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It had to be one of the weirdest displays the Russian president had ever seen. Laid out on a table were a mound of walnuts, a chess set, an old tire and an anatomically correct dummy — all stuffed with little baggies of imitation heroin. Tit...
Refugee week and our shameful treatment of Afghan kids
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Some things simply make you ashamed to be British: “The Government’s decision to fast-track the deportation of child and adolescent Afghans from Britain to Afghanistan is an outrage against public decency and elementary human rights. R...
Tories will leave Afghan girls to their fate
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In an pronouncement that will surely bring joy to the hearts of the Stop The War Coalition and other Taliban supporters, trad-right Tory Liam Fox has made it clear that the new Lib Dem-Tory government doesn’t give a toss about Afghan women a...
Afghanistan; our man Karzai
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It is now widely accepted that the surge is only a means to an end: the end to establish a stable society in Afghanistan. This is a mammoth task requiring honest, fair leadership. The hopes of America and the West are pinned on President Hamid Ka...
Afghanistan in Sixteen Characters
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“By May 1928 the basic principles of guerilla warfare…had already been evolved; that is, the sixteen-character formula: The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.”...
Denmark Shows How to Get Support for Afghanistan
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While the Dutch government broke up over the war in Afghanistan, the Danish establishment seems to be very unified and serves as "an unlikely example of how to maintain public support for the war" writes the Wall Street Journal (HT: Atlanti...
Taliban using Human Shields
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Both NATO and Afghan commanders have made statements that the Taliban are using civilians as human shields in Marjah (see this Guardian report ). The Afghan government and ISAF, meanwhile, are firmly focused on protecting the civilian populatio...
Is there any EU citizen in favour of us killing civilians in Afghanistan?
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The news is that the Netherlands are like to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan after the government collapsed over this issue. I always had the question: Why are we down there? It is true: I don't want to be killed by a terrorist - nobody want...
Morning Brief (17-2)
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Progress in AfPak. The biggest allied offensive in Afghanistan since 2001, Operation Mushtarak, which is going on in Marja, Helmand, “has so far proven to be a moderately successful affair”, the Economist says. And Pakistan’s captur...
Q & A on Afghanistan
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I just met 100 people in Taunton as part of a Cabinet trip to the South West. Best question - "Why do Al Qaeda hate us so much?" Part of the answer was to read Bruce Riedel's book, "The Search for Al Qaeda". There was also lots on...
Boell Foundation: Civil Projects Need to Play a Greater Role in Afghanistan
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I have interviewed the Director of the Heinrich Boell Foundation's Kabul office about yesterday's London Conference. Dr. Scheller states that along side security, the international community also needs to strengthen Afghan civil society and that Iraq...
Don’t betray Afghan women in the name of “peace”!
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Peace is – generally – good, and war is – always – bad. There can be little doubt that to achieve something that can be called “peace” in Afghanistan some distasteful deals will have to be done. Just as in order to...
Getting Afghanistan right in London
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WASHINGTON — World leaders meeting in London to discuss Afghanistan’s future have dealt themselves a weak hand. The principal obstacles to success in Afghanistan have not been the adversary’s strength or any lack of support for the intern...
The EU in Afghanistan
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Today, Foreign Ministers and representatives from international organisations arrive in London ahead of the Afghanistan Conference. This is a landmark event. It will help us achieve our shared goal of a stable and secure Afghanistan that can exercise...
What next for Afghan politics?
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General McCrystal's excellent interview with the FT on Monday sets out clearly the military case for a political settlement in Afghanistan. Military effort and civilian effort need a political purpose - the construction of a political ring within whi...
Morning Brief (27-1)
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Buying off the Taliban? At tomorrow’s Afghanistan conference in London, the plan to reconcile with the Taliban will be officially unveiled. The New York Times has a report on the U.S. debate. And in a backgrounder for Foreign Policy, Alim Remtu...
Regional support for Afghanistan
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The Turkish conference on co-operation in "the heart of Asia" brings together the neighbours of Afghanistan - from Iran round to Pakistan - preparatory to the London Conference. I have just spoken. Transcript is here: Istanbul S...
Morning Brief (26-1)
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Karzai not a partner? Ahead of the London conference on Afghanistan (Thursday), the New York Times has obtained the full text of two cables the U.S. ambassador in Kabul Karl W. Eikenberry has sent in November to Washington. Quotes: “President Karza...
Morning Brief (25-1)
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Negotiating with the Taliban. The New York Times editorializes about the coalition’s policy change in Afghanistan: Killing Taliban fighters won’t be enough. If there is any hope of defeating the insurgency, Afghanistan’s government will hav...
GMF Afghanistan analysis in advance of London conference
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In a GMF video feature, Senior Fellow Dan Twining explains the importance of the Afghanistan conference on January 28, and the key topics shaping the discussion.
Time to Begin the “Afghanization” of the ISAF Mission
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WASHINGTON – On December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama announced the United States will increase its military commitment as well as civilian engagement in Afghanistan. The President’s announcement has already resulted in the allocation o...
Pakistan: preparing for the London Conference on Afghanistan
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My sixth visit to Pakistan comes at an important point, three weeks out from the London conference. I've had discussions with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in Islamabad and I will meet the President in Karachi later today.Pakistan is a key...
Morning Brief (8-1)
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More German troops for Afghanistan? Ahead of the London conference on Afghanistan (28 January), a split in the German government between foreign minister Westerwelle and defence minister Guttenberg over the engagement in Afghanistan becomes obvious.
Afghan Conference 28 January
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Over 60 countries are coming to London on 28 January to discuss the mobilisation of international effort in support of clear priorities for Afghan reconstruction and security improvement. Here is my video about the purposes of the conference. ...
Europe’s ‘Af-Pak Syndrome’
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What does Afghanistan (and by implication, Pakistan) mean for Europeans? Is the threat posed by both merely transnational in nature, or does it also contain a geopolitical dimension? And how should Europeans respond? What conceptual changes are requi...
Will Coin work in Afghanistan?
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“After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.” (Barack Obama) “They are coming already in coffins.” (Ari Rusila) US President Obama finally announced his new counter-insurgency (aka “Coin”) strategy in Afghanist...
Morning Brief (11-12)
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Obama an armed liberal? The US president has used his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize for a moral justification of war. In his reference to the “just war” theory and the need to use US military power to prevent humanitarian disasters,...
