Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
Editorials from the New York Times
This Week in Copenhagen
There is no chance of even an interim agreement from the global warming conference without the enthusiastic participation of China
Lifting the Silence
Military rules about soldiers in therapy should be redrawn so that every painful discussion does not open the patient’s file to the eyes of a commanding officer.
Columnists
GAIL COLLINS
Going Naked in Kabul
When did we decide that letting private contractors stand in for our military in sensitive and dangerous situations was a good plan?
Op-Ed Contributors
Obama’s Condolence Problem
The increase in suicides in the military suggests that we need to find a balance between concern for families left behind and efforts to prevent copycat suicides.
Afghanistan -- Behind the Debate
Op-Ed Contributors
A Deadline We Can Believe In?
Three experts share their opinions on President Obama’s announcement that troop withdrawals from Afghanistan will begin in 18 months.
War Pitich Belied by Taliban-Qaeda Conflict
Excerpts:
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen argued in Senate Testimony Wednesday that the 30,000-troop increase is necessary to prevent the Taliban from giving new safe havens to al Qaeda terrorists.
But that argument is flatly contradicted by the evidence of fundamental conflicts between the interests of the Taliban and those of al Qaeda that has emerged in recent years, according to counterterrorism and intelligence analysts specializing in Afghanistan.
"Put simply, the Taliban and al Qaeda have become symbiotic," said Gates, "each benefiting from the success and mythology of the other."…
Ignoring these turning points in the Taliban’s relationships with both al Qaeda and other Pakistani jihadi groups, Gates suggested that the three groups are closer than ever before. "What we have seen in the last year develop is an unholy alliance, if you will, of al Qaeda, the Taliban in Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan," he said.
Two former counterterrorism intelligence specialists who followed the Taliban closely until earlier this year told IPS this week that the facts do not support the portrayal by Gates and Mullen of the Taliban and al Qaeda as ideologically united….
It is well known among government officials working on Afghanistan and al Qaeda, however, that serious tensions between the two organizations emerged after the attack on the "Red Mosque" in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad in July 2007. Western intelligence quickly discovered the attack was an al Qaeda operation, and that it marked the beginning of an al Qaeda campaign calling for the overthrow of the Pakistani government and military. The Taliban leadership, which is based in Quetta, Pakistan, had been depending on assistance from the Pakistani military to increase its military capabilities and did not look kindly on that al Qaeda policy….
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen argued in Senate Testimony Wednesday that the 30,000-troop increase is necessary to prevent the Taliban from giving new safe havens to al Qaeda terrorists.
But that argument is flatly contradicted by the evidence of fundamental conflicts between the interests of the Taliban and those of al Qaeda that has emerged in recent years, according to counterterrorism and intelligence analysts specializing in Afghanistan.
"Put simply, the Taliban and al Qaeda have become symbiotic," said Gates, "each benefiting from the success and mythology of the other."…
Ignoring these turning points in the Taliban’s relationships with both al Qaeda and other Pakistani jihadi groups, Gates suggested that the three groups are closer than ever before. "What we have seen in the last year develop is an unholy alliance, if you will, of al Qaeda, the Taliban in Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan," he said.
Two former counterterrorism intelligence specialists who followed the Taliban closely until earlier this year told IPS this week that the facts do not support the portrayal by Gates and Mullen of the Taliban and al Qaeda as ideologically united….
It is well known among government officials working on Afghanistan and al Qaeda, however, that serious tensions between the two organizations emerged after the attack on the "Red Mosque" in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad in July 2007. Western intelligence quickly discovered the attack was an al Qaeda operation, and that it marked the beginning of an al Qaeda campaign calling for the overthrow of the Pakistani government and military. The Taliban leadership, which is based in Quetta, Pakistan, had been depending on assistance from the Pakistani military to increase its military capabilities and did not look kindly on that al Qaeda policy….
Despite widespread confusion over the two, the Tahreek-e-Taliban, the Pakistani jihadist group that has been an umbrella organization for the military campaign against the Pakistani military, is not related to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Pakistani group, which has now changed its name, is a close ally of al Qaeda, but does not see eye to eye with the Afghan Taliban…
"The Taliban is a nationalist organization, which wants to govern Afghanistan under Sharia law, not attack the United States,"…
More recently, counterterrorism analysts have noted that the gap has widened even further, as the Taliban leadership has gone public with a "nationalist" line that openly departs from al Qaeda’s global jihadist stance…
Later discussions on several jihadi Internet forums clearly recognized that a major rift had developed between al Qaeda and the Taliban. One commenter even referred to "the beginning of the end of relations" between the two….
What Gates failed to mention is that Taliban officials are furious at Osama bin Laden’s attacks against the United States, because he had given a written pledge, referred to by Mullah Omar in a June 2001 interview with conservative journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave, not to attack any other country from his Afghan base….
go to article: 'War Pitch Belied by Taliban-Qaeda Conflict'
Afghanistan
Israel/Palestine
PM Brown Accused of 'Muzzling' Iraq Inquiry
Europe
White House: Time Running Out for Iran
- Obama’s Plan Not What It Seems, Officials Insist
- Gates Says 'No Deadlines' on Troop Withdrawal
- Troop Surge Rattles Political Landscape
- Military Will Struggle to Add Troops to Afghanistan Quickly
- US May Bypass Karzai, Cede Authority to Locals
- Karzai Willing to Talk to Taliban
- Officials Expect Rise in Violence in Afghanistan
- Roads Were Safer in Afghanistan Under Taliban, UK General Admits
Israel/Palestine
- Settlers Resist Israeli Building Freeze Order
- Settlers Defiant on Freeze as EU Accuses Israel of Annexing East Jerusalem
- Freeze Is Politically Motivated, Settlers Claim in Petition
- Hamas to Introduce Death Penalty in Gaza for Drugs
PM Brown Accused of 'Muzzling' Iraq Inquiry
Europe
- Stasi Spy Revelations Rock German State
- Swiss Leader Calls for Ban on Separate Jewish, Muslim Cemeteries
- UK Demand for Trident to Be Scrapped
- UN Prosecutor Gives Serbia Positive Report
- Putin Considering 2012 Presidential Run
- Putin Condemns Stalin Crimes in Televised Phone-In
- Russia Police Find Bomb Near Train Station
- Putin: Russia to Take Tough Action Against Terror
White House: Time Running Out for Iran
- Putin: Russia Has No Evidence Iran Trying to Build Nukes
- undefined House to Vote on New Iran Sanctions
- US, Germany Losing Patience With Iran
- At Least Four Killed as Iranian Bus Explodes in Damascus
- go to Iran Front News
- Iraqi Vice President Threatens to Veto Elections
- Law Again Iraq Election Decision Postponed Until Sunday
- US Forces in Iraq Violated Security Pact, Claims Official MinistersKept Iraq War Plan Secret, Chilcot Inquiry Told In Iraq's African Enclave,
- Color Is Plainly Seen Suicide Bomb Kills Police Chief,
- 4 Others in Iraqi Town of Tikrit Two
- Iraqi Soldiers Killed in Nineveh Attack
- Baghdad Bomb Kills 1,
- Injures 6 Thursday: 16 Iraqis Killed, 27 Wounded
- Americans Turn Sharply Against Interventionism
- Pew Poll Data: Isolationist Sentiment Surges to Four-Decade High
Afghanistan
U.S Forces Struggle : Perceptions and Reality in Afghanistan
U.S. forces struggle with Washington's perceptions and reality in Afghanistan
WARDAK PROVINCE, Afghanistan — American soldiers are fighting a war in Afghanistan. But it’s not just against the Taliban. By Dianna Cahn, Stars and Stripes, Friday, October 23, 2009
Afghanistan -- Behind the Debate
There are a number of good articles and radio interviews this week about Afghanistan. Most of this has to do with the questions around "increase the troop levels or not". All of this has to do with the continual occupation of the country by U.S. and NATO forces.
Larry Everest's article in Revolution entitled "Behind the 'Debate' Over Afghanistan: Suffering, Death, and the Needs of Empire" takes up the main arguments in the debate and points to a completely different revolutionary couse of action.
For all articles and radio interviews go to Afghanistan Front News
Larry Everest's article in Revolution entitled "Behind the 'Debate' Over Afghanistan: Suffering, Death, and the Needs of Empire" takes up the main arguments in the debate and points to a completely different revolutionary couse of action.
For all articles and radio interviews go to Afghanistan Front News
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