September 22, 2008
"What we cannot escape," one Pentagon policy planner told us, "is a confrontation with Pakistan.  Pakistan holds the key to success for us in Afghanistan."
Afghanistan: How Does This End?, Swoop, Sept 20, 2008

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If one wants to make sense of the big bombing that hit the Marriott hotel in Islamabad yesterday, one has to ( Read more... )

Monday, September 22, 2008
Index on Afghanistan and Pakistan - Murder & Security, Aug/Sept. ’08

by Sarah Meyer
Index Research

“We cannot kill our way to victory. Admiral Michael Mullen

1. Preface


( Read more... )

Monday 22 September 2008 (22 Ramadan 1429)

The most remote place on earth is now the most dangerous
Jonathan Power I jonatpower@aol.com

HOW far is downhill? Well, that’s like asking how long is a piece of string. But whatever the answer, the American/NATO military effort in Afghanistan, triggered by 9/11, seems to have all the marks of a quick ( Read more... )

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:39:23 GMT

( Read more... )

The New York Times

September 15, 2008

Afghanistan Is in Its Worst Shape Since 2001, European Diplomat Says
By ALISON SMALE

GENEVA - One of the most experienced Western envoys in Afghanistan said Sunday that conditions there had become the worst since 2001. He urged a concerted American and foreign response, even before a new American administration ( Read more... )

Independent.co.uk
Patrick Cockburn

Covert operations only succeed when they have strong local allies who want outside support

Monday, 15 September 2008

"Covert action is frequently a substitute for policy," was an aphorism first coined by the former director of the CIA Richard Helms. Its truth is exemplified by the decision of ( Read more... )

10 hours ago

PAGHMAN, Afghanistan (AFP) - A remote-controlled bomb blew up the vehicle of a provincial governor Saturday killing him and three other men near Kabul, officials said, in an attack claimed by Taliban rebels.

Mohammad Jan Abdullah Wardak, governor of Logar province and a former cabinet minister, was assassinated near his home in the ( Read more... )

Conn Hallinan | September 10, 2008

Editor: John Feffer
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

If most Americans think Iran and Georgia are the two most volatile flashpoints in the world, one can hardly blame them. The possibility that the Bush administration might strike at Tehran's nuclear facilities has been hinted about for the past two years, and ( Read more... )

The Value of One, the Value of None
An Anatomy of Collateral Damage in the Bush Era
By Tom Engelhardt
In a little noted passage in her bestselling book, The Dark Side, Jane Mayer offers us a vision, just post-9/11, of the value of one. In October 2001, shaken by a nerve-gas false alarm at the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney, reports Mayer ( Read more... )

John Pilger

Published 11 September 2008

Last month, “our” aircraft slaughtered nearly 100 Afghan civilians, two-thirds of them children aged three months to 16 years, while they slept

Try to laugh, please. The news is now officially parody and a game for all the family to play.

First ( Read more... )