Tony Karon's new Time Magazine defiantly denounces President Obama's call for a troop escalation. Its title, Five Flawed Assumptions of Obama's Afghan Surge, says it all, and the piece itself summarizes concisely points that this site and many others have been arguing for months: Expanding the ground war against the Taliban will in no way...
It was common knowledge to everyone on the ground in Afghanistan except for Senator John Kerry that Ahmed Wali Karzai, President Karzai's brother, heads a massive, lucrative opium trafficking operation. Kerry said he had asked U.S intelligence agencies "for the smoking gun", and had not gotten "the hard and fast" evidence. A few days ago...
America may be tasked with providing more troops for Afghanistan. But what does that mean for the women in that country and their shocking plight?
A few weeks from the Afghan presidential run-off, few people in the west know much about President Hamid Karzai's opponent, Abdullah Abdullah. Since President Karzai is clearly an unworkable partner if we want to succeed in Afghanistan (at any level), it's worth evaluating his rival. I was pleasantly surprised at what I discovered.
As Afghanistan continues to simmer under the threats and attacks of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda, America finds itself in a quagmire. Unable to win on the ground, it flounders helplessly. But what do Afghanis in New York think about putting more American boots on the ground?