Category: Afghanistan
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Monday, May 08, 2017
Afghanistan Is America's New Vietnam Unwinnable War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND KAMRAN BOKHARI : There is a paradox when it comes to views about Afghanistan. No one would disagree that after 15 years, the Afghan state built by the West remains ineffective. Yet, no one is willing to accept that if present trends continue, the clear outcome will be regime collapse.
The Afghan government is unable to thwart a growing jihadist insurgency dominated by the Taliban. Nor is it able to prevent the Islamic State (IS) from expanding its footprint in the country. Worse is that increased factional infighting is gutting the Afghan political system from the inside.
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Monday, January 09, 2017
Will Obama's 'Good War' in Afghanistan Continue? / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week, as the mainstream media continued to obsess over the CIA's evidence-free claim that the Russians hacked the presidential election, President Obama quietly sent 300 US Marines back into Afghanistan's Helmand Province. This is the first time in three years that the US military has been sent into that conflict zone, and it represents a final failure of Obama's Afghanistan policy. The outgoing president promised that by the end of his second term, the US military would only be present in small numbers and only on embassy duty. But more than 8,000 US troops will remain in Afghanistan as he leaves office.
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Monday, July 11, 2016
Fool's Errand: NATO Pledges Four More Years of War in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The longest war in US history just got even longer. As NATO wrapped up its 2016 Warsaw Summit, the organization agreed to continue funding Afghan security forces through the year 2020. Of course with all that funding comes US and NATO troops, and thousands of contractors, trainers, and more.
President Obama said last week that the US must keep 3,000 more troops than planned in Afghanistan. The real reason is obvious: the mission has failed and Washington cannot bear to admit it. But Obama didn't put it that way. He said:
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Saturday, April 05, 2014
Another Fake Afghan Election / Politics / Afghanistan
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: Afghanistan’s national election held this week is a sham. A group of candidates, handpicked by the US, will pretend to compete in an election whose outcome has already been determined – by Washington.
The candidates include US groomed politicians, and drug-dealing warlords from the Tajik and Uzbek north. Chief among them, Rashid Dostam, a major war criminal and principal CIA ally who ordered the massacre of over 2,000 Taliban prisoners.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The Real Reason the US Invaded Afghanistan, Afghan War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: LewRockwell
Russ Baker writes: When the United States decided to invade Afghanistan to grab Osama bin Laden – and failed, but stayed on like an unwanted guest – could it have known that the Afghans were sitting on some of the world’s greatest reserves of mineral wealth?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Afghanistan, the Long War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
The war in Afghanistan has been under way for more than 10 years. It has not been the only war fought during this time; for seven of those years another, larger war was waged in Iraq, and smaller conflicts were under way in a number of other countries as well. But the Afghanistan War is still the longest large-scale, multi-divisional war fought in American history. An American soldier's killing of 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, on March 11 represents only a moment in this long war, but it is an important moment.
Monday, March 12, 2012
America's Afghanistan Legacy / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Stephen_Lendman
In his book titled, "Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire," John Pilger discussed Afghanistan, saying:
"Through all the humanitarian crises in living memory, no country has been abused and suffered more, and none has been helped less than Afghanistan."
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Saturday, February 04, 2012
Afghanistan, Graveyard of Empires, Most Recently American / Politics / Afghanistan
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: Far-called our navies melt away – On dune and headland sinks the fire – Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! ~ Rudyard Kipling 1897 "Recessional"
The poet laureate of imperialism might write the same stanzas today about the successor of the British Empire, the American imperium, which, having reached its high water mark in the bleak mountains of Afghanistan, appears set to begin receding.
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Friday, October 14, 2011
Afghanistan - Newly Discovered Mineralogical Treasure House (Again) / Commodities / Afghanistan
By: OilPrice_Com
As the U.S.-led Afghan campaign lurches into its second decade, the country's vast untapped mineralogical resources are again emerging in the Western media, seemingly underpinning the benefits of International Security Assistance Force troops "staying the course" and defeating the insurgency, after which these resources can be tapped, both providing the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a source beyond drugs for reconstruction and Western companies who develop the reserves a handsome profit.
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Monday, November 22, 2010
What If NATO Is Defeated In Afghanistan? / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Submissions
Eric S. Margolis writes: Amazing as it sounds, NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance, may be losing the only war the 61-year old pact every fought. All its soldiers, heavy bombers, tanks, helicopter gunships, armies of mercenaries, and electronic gear are being beaten by a bunch of lightly-armed Afghan farmers and mountain tribesmen.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Hamid Karzai And Hillary Clinton Engineering The Afghan War For Democracy / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Danny_Schechter
Oh, Hamid, Oh Hillary: How your worlds converge and diverge.
The Secretary of State was shuttling between Washington where peace in the Middle East remains elusive to New York to where the poobahs and her protégés at the Council on Foreign Relations welcomed her as the second coming.
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Monday, September 06, 2010
The NGO Invastion and Occupation of Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Global_Research
Yves Engler writes: They’re called NGOs — non-governmental organizations — but the description is misleading at best, or an outright lie generated by intelligence agencies at worst.
In fact, almost all development NGOs receive a great deal of their funding from government and in return follow government policies and priorities. While this was always true, it has become easier to see with Stephen Harper’s Conservative Canadian government, which lacks the cleverness and subtlety of the Liberal Party who at least funded some “oppositional” activity to allow NGOs a veneer of independence.
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Militancy and the U.S. Drawdown in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
The drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq has served to shift attention toward Afghanistan, where the United States has been increasing its troop strength in hopes of forming conditions conducive to a political settlement. This is similar to the way it used the 2007 surge in Iraq to help reach a negotiated settlement with the Sunni insurgents that eventually set the stage for withdrawal there. As we’ve discussed elsewhere, the Taliban at this point do not feel the pressure required for them to capitulate or negotiate and therefore continue to follow their strategy of surviving and waiting for the coalition forces to depart so that they can again make a move to assume control over Afghanistan.
Monday, August 16, 2010
How can the U.S. Win the Afghan War By Killing Mainly Civilians? / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Pravda
The war in Afghanistan brings increasingly more losses, both for the soldiers of the international coalition, and for the civilian population.
In July, 45 soldiers from the international contingent, 33 of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan. In June, the loss amounted to 100 people, the worst month for 9 years of war. “We are experiencing the most difficult moment in the war,” Brigadier General Joseph Blotts, a representative of ISAF forces, said at a press conference.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
WikiLeaks Exposes Imperialist War in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Global_Research
Alex Lantier writes: On Sunday, the WikiLeaks web site posted 91,731 American military documents on the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan, covering the period from January 2004 to December 2009. The release was timed to coincide with articles on these revelations in the New York Times, the British Guardian and the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, all of which had received the documents several weeks ago.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
WikiLeaks and the Afghan War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
On Sunday, The New York Times and two other newspapers published summaries and excerpts of tens of thousands of documents leaked to a website known as WikiLeaks. The documents comprise a vast array of material concerning the war in Afghanistan. They range from tactical reports from small unit operations to broader strategic analyses of politico-military relations between the United States and Pakistan. It appears to be an extraordinary collection.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Time for UK to Quit U.S. Afghan War? / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Andrew_Butter
This Killing Season 100 Brits Will Die In USA’s Afghan War. It’s Time UK Walks Away.
Hamish from the farm up the road where my mum lives in Scotland did three tours in Helmand. Now he’s out of it for good and he won’t be going back. He talked about it once (when he had legs), that’s when he told me about the Killing Season.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The 30-Year War in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
The Afghan War is the longest war in U.S. history. It began in 1980 and continues to rage. It began under Democrats but has been fought under both Republican and Democratic administrations, making it truly a bipartisan war. The conflict is an odd obsession of U.S. foreign policy, one that never goes away and never seems to end. As the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal reminds us, the Afghan War is now in its fourth phase.
Friday, June 25, 2010
U.S. Afghanistan Strategy After McChrystal / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
The commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, Gen. Stanley McChrystal has resigned his command. His resignation is a direct result of his controversial remarks in a Rolling Stone interview broken late June 21, and not a reflection or indictment of the campaign he has led in Afghanistan. But that campaign and the strategy behind it are having significant issues of their own.
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Sunday, June 20, 2010
U.S. Warring for Resources, Vast Riches of Minerals Identified in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Submissions
David Sirota writes: Reading this week's New York Times headline -- "U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan" -- many probably wondered how this information was being presented as "news" in 2010. After all, humanity has long been aware of the country's vast natural resources.