Afghanistan

President Obama has officially named Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry as his choice to be the US ambassador to Afghanistan.  Eikenberry, a career military man, was the top US commander in Afghanistan until 2007.  Though some are concerned about giving such a key diplomatic spot to a military leader, I feel this is an excellent choice.  […]

After President Obama’s announcement last month that he was sending in 17,000 more US troops to fight for stability in Afghanistan, it seemed that there were few who thought it a bad idea, though some surely did, and the American people seemed to back the plan according to several polls and newspaper articles. The main […]

Today’s New York Times featured two contrasting views of how the US should fight the Afghan insurgency and prevent international terrorism from breeding in the region. Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, while asserting that defeating the Taliban threat is ‘not achievable’, argues for a steady military drawback from the conflict, […]

Iran is in the news, this of course is no surprise, but what is worth noting is that it involves US-Iranian cooperation in Afghanistan. After the fall the Taliban, which involved US-Iran partnering up in small, but significant ways, there has not been a healthy or productive relationship between the states regarding the stability and […]

The city of San Diego has many sister cities and one of them is Jalalabad, Afghanistan. As a new San Diegan, this was brought to my attention by San Diego-Jalalabad activist David Edick Jr. It appears that through this organization much good has come about with active citizens participating from both cities. Here is the […]

In an Air Force One interview session, President Obama opened the proverbial door to negotiating with the segments of the Taliban. He was vague about who the ‘Taliban’ was and how to go about it, but its definitely on his Afghan policy workbench. Though he offered few details, Obama was well aware that such a […]

The New York Times has reported that the Obama administration has widened the scope of missile attacks inside of Pakistan. The report details two specific drone attacks inside of Pakistani territory that directly targeted Baitullah Mehsud, an insurgent leader who mainly targets Pakistani forces, not the US/NATO/Afghan forces across the border, and his camps. The […]

The Guardian newspaper has the best overview of US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke’s ‘listening tour’ of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Holbrooke spent most of his time in Pakistan and met with government leaders, military leaders, opposition members, and some elements of civil society. He visited Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, the insurgent targeted and vital transportation hub, Khyber […]

Just weeks after the Afghan Election Commission, United Nations, and the US government stated that they believe it best to delay the presidential elections until August, President Karzai issued a decree on Saturday ordering that all elections be held in accordance with the Constitution, that is, this April or May. The main reasons given the […]

A few items… 1. Eurasianet and the FPA’s Global Food Crisis blog have once again highlighted the plight of hunger in the Afghan state.  The Eurasianet report states that around 40,000 Afghan citizens die every year because of hunger, way overshadowing those that are killed by violent conflict, though the two are connected in many […]

Pakistani intelligence officials briefed the US military yesterday and though they agreed that American drone attacks were degrading Al Qaeda’s leaders and more importantly their ability to foment far reaching violence, that the radical group, partnered with the Taliban, was increasingly destabilizing the Pakistani state.  As much as the US desires a stable (and free?) […]

*Update: Here is my review of Adeeb Khalid’s ‘Islam after Communism’ on the CA site. Josh Hammer of FPA’s ‘Terrorism‘ blog, wrote a fierce criticism of the Pakistani governments move to grant the Swat region autonomy. Hammer rightly fears that this may lead to other such claims of autonomy in the tribal areas of Afghanistan/Pakistan […]