A wireless war of words has broken out in Afghanistan between the Taliban and the U.S.-Afghan alliance fighting them:
Bits of information – not just bullets and bombs – are in the thick of the fighting in Afghanistan. U.S. forces feared they were losing the information war to the Taliban and now are fighting back with Twitter –
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Some 90% of the money in and around Afghanistan is coming from the United States and its allies. Yet this tidal wave of cash is distorting the Afghan economy, breeding corruption, and creating a dependency that may be tough to break. Stephen Biddle, an Afghanistan expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Brian Katulis, a …
First, Iraq makes it clear it doesn’t want U.S. troops hanging around. Then, over the weekend, Afghan President Hamid Karzai says:
If fighting starts between Pakistan and the U.S., we are beside Pakistan. If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan need Afghanistan’s help, Afghanistan will be there with you.
Sure, he was …
Moammar Gaddafi’s death makes for an interesting punctuation mark in the ever-evolving U.S. approach to war. The key choice: should it be an exclamation point (“We got him! And not a single American died!) or a question mark (“Did we just get lucky? Is this a template for how the U.S. should wage future wars?”).
We shouldn’t …
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You’d think with all the fancy armaments we’ve dispatched to Afghanistan over the last decade that we would have won by now. The latest to burst on the scene is the Switchblade — don’t you just love the names they come up with? — drone. It’s made by AeroVironment Inc. of …
Relations between Washington and Islamabad may be at an all-time low. Was the daring SEAL raid into Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden nearly six months ago a one-off event? Or, if the U.S. is serious about Afghanistan, does it have to begin routinely attacking the Haqqani network and other trouble-makers inside their Pakistan …
The Pentagon has released photos of the CH-47 crash site in Afghanistan where 30 U.S. troops — including 17 SEALs — perished two months ago when an RPG brought their chopper down. CNN’s Security Clearance blog has posted them here.
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Marines are tough, but they know what isn’t. That’s why they’re now getting two layers of protection to shield their southern zones from improvised explosive devices (h/t TPM.)
Soldiers, like all of us, want recognition. Sure, the mission comes first, and then your buddies, and maybe, eventually, you. But such recognition is hard-earned, and outsiders tinker with it at their peril.
That’s why two recent events are worth noting. One involves — of all things — jewelry worn by Marines to honor those lost …
Or is it about time? That all depends, of course, on what you think the U.S. mission in Afghanistan — now a decade old — actually is. We have booted the Taliban from power, and recently killed Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks from inside Afghanistan in a sanctuary the Taliban provided. Now President Obama has …
Sometimes a military investigation sets off fireworks. Sometimes it confirms what we already knew. That’s the bottom line in the Pentagon probe into the downing of that CH-47 helicopter in Afghanistan on August 6 that killed 38 military personnel, including 30 Americans and 17 SEALs:
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David Wood, a one-time Timester, now covers the military for the Huffington Post. He has just launched an ambitious effort into how the nation is tending to the wars’ worst-wounded. It’s well worth your while to check out the video above, and the opening piece of …
