Insurgents allegedly attacked a girls’ school Tuesday for the third time in a week in Afghanistan, sending about 160 students and four teachers to a local hospital in the north of the country. It’s hard to fathom how a …
Development
$1,800
An $80 Million Sitting Duck
The U.S. has abandoned its just-finished consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif after spending $80 million outfitting the former hotel as a symbol of U.S. resoluteness. This is the kind of fiasco that tends to …
Two of the Time 100…
…announced Wednesday morning are familiar to Battleland readers: Time has former defense secretary Robert Gates writing about his ex-colleague, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And retired Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells us about military mental-health mobilizer Barbara van Dahlen, …
Afghan Mission: Implausible
Bored sitting around your desk? Want some action for a change? Well, the Agency for International Development has just the gig for you: AID is seeking a “senior press liaison” for its Afghanistan outpost to “ensure the production of clear, powerful news advisories and releases.” You’ll be expected to “tell the USAID story …
The Downside of “Cultural Sensitivity”
When will we say enough is enough? As I watch the atrocities mount in Syria, and our President apologize to the citizens of Afghanistan for an honest error, it highlighted not only the differences in culture between Middle …
Post-War Profiteering
Hard to figure out what is worse: this week’s 6th Annual Iraq Aviation & Defense summit – you can seek contracts by cozying up to purported top Iraq military officials for $2,895 for the two-day event at a swank hotel (lodging not included) – or that the Pentagon is letting it happen just down the street.
The lucre being tossed …
Winter in Afghanistan
Those of us enjoying a rather balmy winter in the U.S. should know that Afghanistan – a wretchedly poor country to begin with – is suffering through a brutal winter:
The mud-walled hut in which four-month-old Khair …
More From Afghanistan…
If Battleland‘s earlier post Monday about that Army Human Terrain Team report didn’t give you an up-close look at the challenges facing the U.S. military in Afghanistan, check out this summary of how International Women’s Day was noted in the Afghan town of Meymaneh (also spelled Maymana, or Maimana) last year.
It sums up, in four …
Snapshots From Afghanistan…
You can listen to generals testifying before Congress all you want – and chat with troops in, or just back, from Afghanistan – but nothing gives you a sense of how things are going as does listening to the folks the U.S. is …
Kind of Like Washing a Rental Car
The Army Corps of Engineers has just finished building new terminals at Afghanistan’s Shindand air base for $18 million. “This facility will play an important role as the coalition begins to move equipment and personnel out of …
Jail Time
(U.S.) Blood For (Chinese) Oil
The U.S. has spent a decade, $500 billion and 1,863 lives trying to square away Afghanistan. Yet China – which has done nothing in the past 10 years to bring stability to that troubled land – has just become the first foreign …