Afghan War
Video: Charlie Rose Interview with Robert Gates
May 18, 2012 by Editors
Charlie Rose interviewed Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense under both George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, on the campus of William and Mary where Mr. Gates was recently named the 24th Chancellor of that prestigious Virginian university. The interview was comprehensive and covered everything from the surge in Iraq ordered while Gates was still the Secretary of Defense to the raid that resulted in Osama bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The Resumption of Business as Usual Between Pakistan and the U.S.
May 17, 2012 by Daniel Wagner
The bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. is one of the most important and contentious in the world. Illustrating its complexity, Pakistan is expected to shortly announce that it is reopening Afghan supply lines through its border, which were closed following the NATO raid last year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Isolation and Hegemony: A New Approach for American Foreign Policy
April 23, 2012 by Alex Verschoor-Kirss
In modern foreign policy the United States faces a complicated irony: in a bid to ensure national security and maintain global primacy the U.S. spends a large quantity of blood and treasure on interventionist policies that may actually compromise national security and the future of American hegemony. The culmination of these exercises in grandiose foreign policy has been the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, at the combined cost of between three and four trillion dollars.
Taliban Attacks Weaken U.S., NATO Position
April 18, 2012 by Jim Lobe
Sunday’s well-orchestrated – if unsuccessful – attacks by Taliban forces on Kabul and three provincial capitals in eastern Afghanistan could further shake ebbing public confidence in the U.S. and its allies that their strategy for securing Afghanistan is working. Billed as the opening of the Taliban’s spring offensive, the attacks also raise new questions about the timing and pace of the planned U.S. withdrawal from the country, as well as the fate of a longer- term strategic agreement that is currently being negotiated between Kabul and Washington.
Continuities in US History
April 17, 2012 by Professor Johan Galtung
The Civil War ended 147 years ago with General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America (CSA) capitulating to General Ulysses S. Grant of the United States of America. But that was not quite the end. Grant accepted the capitulation of the Army of Northern Virginia. The others capitulated one by one––like the Army of Tennessee––April 26, Trans-Mississippi––June 2 and finally on November 6, Confederate cruiser Shenandoah surrendered.
The U.S. & The Afghan Train Wreck
April 16, 2012 by Conn M. Hallinan
The recent decision by the Taliban and one of its allies to withdraw from peace talks with Washington underlines the train wreck the U.S. is headed for in Afghanistan. Indeed, for an administration touted as sophisticated and intelligent, virtually every decision the White House has made vis-à-vis Afghanistan has been a disaster.
Why Iran will Compromise This Time
April 12, 2012 by Richard Javad Heydarian
As we inch closer to the crucial nuclear talks between Iran and the world powers, the so-called P5+1, the primordial question is whether this time will be different: Is Tehran willing to make necessary compromises – from greater nuclear transparency to more stringent restrictions on its enrichment activities – to reverse the economic siege that is bringing the country close to the edge? Is she going to use the talks as a delaying tactic or will she finally strike a mutually-acceptable deal with the West?
Lessons Hidden in Afghanistan
April 10, 2012 by Kent Eiler
What should be striking about the reported news out of Afghanistan lately is the extent to which the headlines have been about tragic, non-military events. Korans were defaced and a U.S. servicemember is suspected of murdering seventeen Afghan civilians. These acts have both had a profound, negative impact on U.S.-Afghan relations and, by extension, have put our troops and our mission in Afghanistan in greater jeopardy.
The Foreign Policy President?
April 3, 2012 by John Feffer
Elections are decided by economics. Voters respond to pocketbook issues and are swayed by the huge sums that candidates lavish on advertising. Foreign policy issues, by contrast, are what the British call “noises off,” those sounds from off-stage that you hear occasionally to punctuate the main actions, sounds like exploding bombs and the distant cries of suffering people. According to recent polling, global issues barely register at all with Americans right now.
Boomerang
April 1, 2012 by Deepak Tripathi
Toulouse, Europe’s aerospace hub in the southwest of France, has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. A twenty-three-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin, Mohamed Merah, went on a shooting spree last month, killing seven people and terrorizing a million residents for ten days before a police sniper’s bullet ended his life. Among his victims were three unarmed soldiers, a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school.
The Syrian Crisis Needs a Political Solution
March 31, 2012 by Richard Javad Heydarian
More than a year after the onset of anti-regime protests, the Syrian uprising increasingly resembles a bloody marathon with no finish line on the horizon. With more than 7,000 people killed and ongoing deadly clashes between security forces and the armed opposition, the international community —splintered along geo-strategic lines — is still struggling to craft and establish a clear “road map” for Syria.
Romney’s Foreign Policy and Russia
March 30, 2012 by John Lyman
Obama’s recently concluded trip to South Korea to liaise with world leaders to address nuclear security and the Iranian nuclear saga went according to schedule, until an “open mic” caught Obama making rather casual comments to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stating he believed he would have more flexibility to address lingering issues related to nuclear arms reduction after the November election.
Video: U.S. Commanders brief Congress on Afghanistan
March 21, 2012 by Editors
Gen. John Allen and Defense Department Policy Undersecretary James Miller testified on Tuesday in front of the House Armed Services Committee on updates on the Afghan War following the alleged tragic shooting of 16 civilians by an American soldier. Congress is seeking updates from commanders on the ground in Afghanistan on a war that is increasingly unpopular after a decade of fighting.
Polling Shows Little Support for Syrian Intervention
March 20, 2012 by Jim Lobe
Despite strenuous efforts by prominent neo-conservatives and other hawks, a war-weary U.S. public is clearly very leery of any armed intervention in what many experts believe is rapidly becoming a civil war in Syria, according to recent polls. In a survey released last week, the Pew Research Center found that only 25 percent of respondents said they believed the U.S. has a “responsibility to do something” about the year-old violence in Syria.
On Power and Delusions of Grandeur
March 18, 2012 by Deepak Tripathi
First the video of United States Marines urinating on bodies of Afghans who had been killed. Then the revelation that copies of the Quran had been burned at Bagram Air Base, which also serves as an American prison camp in Afghanistan. Nearly thirty Afghans and several NATO troops died in the violent reaction. And as I mentioned in my column of March 4, the BBC Kabul correspondent described these events, and the violent public reaction to them, as the tipping point for NATO in the Afghan War.
