It seems to be a hot issue, for reasons that aren’t completely clear. Everyone involved knows the U.S. has to come to some sort of accommodation with at least some elements of the Taliban, even if it has to begin in Qatar. …
Taliban
Better Late Than Never: The Afghan War Handbook
After a decade of war in Afghanistan, there’s a new guidebook out on just who we’re fighting. It’s The Afghan Way of War by Robert Johnson, Oxford historian. It is his subtitle – How and Why They Fight – that should be required reading for the leaders of both the U.S. and U.K., as well as the grunts on Afghan soil. …
Airport Terror: A Strange Way to Die
Two things have happened since Monday worth noting. Both involve the deaths of Air Force personnel at the hands of radical Muslims. In one case – in which nine Americans died – the killer used a handgun apparently paid for by …
Happy 10th Birthday, Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay remains the persistent headache that pretty much all Americans would like to go away. Wednesday marks its 10th birthday as home to alleged terrorists scooped up by the U.S. following the 9/11 terror …
Afghan Education: Both Sides Now
In good news on the Afghan education front, the U.S. Air Force is hailing the first undergraduate pilot training held exclusively inside Afghanistan in more than 30 years. “Members of this first Afghan air force pilot training …
Pakistan: Words v. Action
As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was flying toward Afghanistan earlier this week, he told the reporters flying with him that Pakistan is a critical element in ultimately winning the war in Afghanistan. “Ultimately,” he said, “we …
Marine Afghan Bang-Bang
You know when the public has tired of a war? When the TV networks go home and the Marine Corps has to release its own bang-bang video. That happened Wednesday morning, as the Marines spread far and wide a five-minute clip of leathernecks coming under Taliban attack in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. It’s compelling watching, as 1st …
U.S.-Pakistani Relations Continue Tailspin
So how well did President Obama’s telephoned condolences to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday go over? The call was intended to smooth relations between the two nations ruptured 10 days ago when NATO aircraft …
Update: AfPak Attack
Saturday’s strike on two Pakistani military outposts by U.S. airpower near the village of Salala isn’t the first time such an attack has been carried out in response to fire from such Pakistani forts into nearby Afghanistan.
This from Pajhwok Afghan News in June:
Afghan officials said the [NATO helicopter] attack in Mohmand
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All Forklifted Up
The best thing about the military is the way young men and women in uniform get things done. What they get done, of course, isn’t always their choice. Take the airdrop mission flown last week by the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron out of the main U.S. base in Afghanistan at Bagram: the troops air-dropped a six-ton forklift to …
Afghanistan: Bribing the Taliban May Be Paying Off
We’ve written more than once about the willingness of Afghan militants – most are so-called “$10 Taliban,” fighting simply for the paycheck — to lay down their arms if the price is right:
Vice President Joe Biden has estimated that only 5% of those fighting for the Taliban are “incorrigible, not susceptible to anything other than
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The Festering Wound: U.S. Air Strike Kills At Least 25 Pakistani Troops
There is no well-defined border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and – all too often amid the fog of war and firefights – there is no well-defined difference between the Pakistani military and anti-American insurgents crowded along that rugged frontier. That’s apparently why a U.S. air attack early Saturday killed at least 25 …
Impact of U.S. Troop Drawdown in Afghanistan Already Being Felt
Bill Ardolino over at Small Wars Journal reports the impact the already-underway U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan is having in the violent eastern part of the country. He doesn’t like what he sees:
…in truth, the Obama administration’s accelerated drawdown of US forces has undercut a needed infusion of forces from RC South to
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