Tag Archives : troop surge in Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama is expected to hand down soon his decision on the war in Afghanistan. The decision at this point is no longer whether to send more troops to Afghanistan or not, but how many tens of thousands of additional US soldiers should be sent to the wartorn country to fight a long-drawn war. U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal wants to put [...]

It is said that there are ‘two poles in Washington: the counterinsurgency experts, or COIN-istas, who believe Afghanistan’s deteriorating security can only be reversed by adding tens of thousands of troops – perhaps as many as 80,000; and those who believe US interests in Afghanistan are few, and the best way to keep it on a low simmer is [...]

The Obama administration faces some big risks in the impending escalation of the war in Afghanistan: soldiers are asked to ‘clear huge areas of insurgent fighters who look exactly like the civilian population, and establish “control” of places that have never been controlled by a central government at any point in their history,’ and [...]

Because Joe Biden thinks he always has a gentleman’s agreement upon every backslapping event with his president, he is confident that his president listens to his every advice regarding the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One of his self-admittedly salient recommendations is not to increase number of troops in Afghanistan. This time, he just [...]

Eight years of US military action in Afghanistan with an expense tab of a quarter of a trillion dollars, and Afghanistan is in worse condition, with less stable bordering countries, death filling the air, and a ranking of 181 out of 182 countries for human development indices. ‘Life expectancy has fallen to 43 years since the U.S. invasion. Forty [...]

As one observer noted, ‘The Taliban-led insurgency is increasingly an insurrection against the behavior of the Karzai government—not against the religion or civilization of its international partners.’ The basic concept behind an insurgency, after all, is revolt against current political administration. As Thomas L. Friedman stated, “When you [...]

The Vietnam War showed the world ‘the futility of Western powers using force in somebody else’s country.’ The US learned some hard lessons from the failure. Today, ‘Vietnam haunts Barack Obama as he decides what to do in Afghanistan’ which he calls the ‘war of necessity.’ The US counter-insurgency strategy, while ‘seeking to exorcise [...]

Immediately, the Taliban issued a statement on Friday condemning Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. That’s perfectly understandable. After all, they are labeled as US enemy. The group explains that Obama has ‘boosted troop numbers and continued the aggressive policies of his predecessor rather than bring peace to Afghanistan.’ “We have [...]

An American official in Afghanistan says, “We assess that the primary focus of attacks in northern provinces such as Kunduz is to create a perception that the insurgency is spreading like wildfire. But I think it’s more of an ‘information operations’ success.” Amidst Obama’s quandary of whether to approve the request of US generals for [...]