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From the category archives:

Afghanistan

Inside Story – Kabul’s new strategy for peace

by News Source 10.04.2011

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Secret US and Afghanistan talks could see troops stay for decades

by News Source 06.15.2011

The Guardian reports:
American and Afghan officials are locked in increasingly acrimonious secret talks about a long-term security agreement which is likely to see US troops, spies and air power based in the troubled country for decades.
Though not publicised, negotiations have been under way for more than a month to secure a strategic partnership agreement which [...]

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An interview with Nir Rosen

by News Source 01.07.2011

Nir Rosen, independent journalist and author of Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America’s Wars in the Muslim World, interviewed on Press TV.

(H/t Pulse.)

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How the Afghan counterinsurgency threatens Pakistan

by News Source 12.17.2010

Anatol Lieven writes:
By now, almost all the likely outcomes of US strategy in Afghanistan are bad ones. They range from unending civil war, with government forces barely managing to hold their own against the Taliban, to de facto partition of the country. There is a chance that the Taliban would accept a settlement involving a [...]

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$52bn of American aid and still Afghans are dying of starvation

by News Source 12.13.2010

Patrick Cockburn reports:
The most extraordinary failure of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan is that the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars has had so little impact on the misery in which 30 million Afghans live. As President Barack Obama prepares this week to present a review of America’s strategy in Afghanistan which is likely [...]

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Desperate Afghan wives choose self-immolation

by News Source 11.10.2010

The New York Times reports:
“Why did you burn yourself?” asks the doctor. “If I threw myself from a building, I’d break an arm or a leg, but I wanted to die,” Halima answers. “That’s why I set myself on fire. I thought I would die instantly.”
As an answer it is more how than why, but [...]

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CIA making secret payments to members of Karzai administration

by News Source 08.28.2010

The Washington Post reports:
The CIA is making secret payments to multiple members of President Hamid Karzai’s administration, in part to maintain sources of information in a government in which the Afghan leader is often seen as having a limited grasp of developments, according to current and former U.S. officials.
The payments are long-standing in many cases [...]

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How Pakistan shut down Afghan-Taliban peace talks

by Paul Woodward 08.25.2010

In the New York Times, Dexter Filkins reports:
When American and Pakistani agents captured Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s operational commander, in the chaotic port city of Karachi last January, both countries hailed the arrest as a breakthrough in their often difficult partnership in fighting terrorism.
But the arrest of Mr. Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader after [...]

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The latest threat to Afghanistan’s existence

by Paul Woodward 06.15.2010

Ask a foreigner what Afghans most need and he’s most likely to say: to escape from poverty. Ask an Afghan and he’s more likely to say: to escape from foreign interference.
The latest news from Afghanistan is no cause for celebration. The New York Times reports:
The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral [...]

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Karzai’s troublesome independence

by Paul Woodward 04.05.2010

After Benjamin Netanyahu was recently insulted by President Obama during his March visit to Washington (Obama declined to offer him dinner), Israeli commentators struggled to make an appropriate comparison and for some reason thought this was treatment that the head of a small African state might expect — the rather transparent implication being that Netanyahu [...]

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The opium wars in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

At TomDispatch, Alfred W. McCoy writes:
To understand the Afghan War, one basic point must be grasped: in poor nations with weak state services, agriculture is the foundation for all politics, binding villagers to the government or warlords or rebels. The ultimate aim of counterinsurgency strategy is always to establish the state’s authority. When the economy [...]

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Karzai refuses to be an American puppet

by Paul Woodward 03.30.2010

The New York Times reports:
This month, with President Hamid Karzai looking ahead to a visit to the White House, he received a terse note from aides to President Obama: Your invitation has been revoked.
The reason, according to American officials, was Mr. Karzai’s announcement that he was emasculating an independent panel that had discovered widespread fraud [...]

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Insurgent faction presents Afghan peace plan

by Paul Woodward 03.24.2010

The New York Times reports:
Representatives of a major insurgent faction have presented a formal 15-point peace plan to the Afghan government, the first concrete proposal to end hostilities since President Hamid Karzai said he would make reconciliation a priority after his re-election last year.
The delegation represents fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, 60, one of the [...]

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Was the arrest of the Taliban’s second-in-command a strategic blunder?

by Paul Woodward 02.17.2010

Updated below
The capture of the Taliban’s second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has been hailed as a huge blow to the Taliban but it may turn out to deliver an even bigger blow to President Obama’s hopes for an early withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
Hajji Agha Lalai, former head of the Afghan government-led [...]

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Taliban launch bold attack in central Kabul

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Taliban launch bold attack in central Kabul
By Dexter Filkins, New York Times, January 18, 2010
A team of militants launched a spectacular assault at the heart of the Afghan government Monday, with two men detonating suicide bombs and the rest fighting to the death only 50 yards from the gates of the presidential palace.
The attacks, the [...]

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Deadly explosion arouses new Afghan Anger at U.S.

by Paul Woodward 01.07.2010

Deadly explosion arouses new Afghan Anger at U.S.
By Alissa J Rubin, New York Times, January 7, 2010
The events provided another example of how fragile relations between Afghans and Americans have become, and how ready Afghans angered over civilian casualties are to blame American forces in virtually any circumstance.
While the first reaction to the explosion was [...]

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Many Karzai Afghan cabinet choices are rejected

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2010

Many Karzai Afghan cabinet choices are rejected
By Alissa J Rubin, New York Times, January 3, 2010
In a clear signal to President Hamid Karzai that he cannot count on Parliament for support, lawmakers resoundingly rejected most of his nominees for cabinet posts and expressed discontent with the candidates’ competence.
Of Mr. Karzai’s 24 cabinet nominees, 17 were [...]

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Afghans turn to Taleban justice as insurgents set up shadow government

by Paul Woodward 12.30.2009

Afghans turn to Taleban justice as insurgents set up shadow government
By Jerome Starkey, The Times, December 30, 2009
Then Habiba’s elderly husband was badly beaten in a village brawl there was only one place, she said, that she could turn to for help and justice.
Barefoot and weeping, the farmer’s wife, 50, trekked for four hours through [...]

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To beat al Qaeda, look to the east

by Paul Woodward 12.13.2009

To beat al Qaeda, look to the east
By Scott Atran, New York Times, December 13, 2009
Al Qaeda’s main focus is harming the United States and Europe, but there hasn’t been a successful attack in these places directly commanded by Osama bin Laden and company since 9/11. The American invasion of Afghanistan devastated Al Qaeda’s core [...]

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Hundreds of women lead protest in Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 12.10.2009

Hundreds of women lead protest in Afghanistan
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2009
Several hundred women, many holding aloft pictures of relatives killed by drug lords or Taliban militants, held a loud but nonviolent street protest today, demanding that President Hamid Karzai purge from his government anyone connected to corruption, war crimes or the [...]

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