#NATO

Here are some Afghan-related issues to Check Out! Check out this intriguing story of the Last Jew in Afghanistan, which features a five minute video interview of you got it, the last Jew in Afghanistan. The short documentary by Oliver Englehart, profiles Zablon Simantov, a Jewish resident of Kabul, explains why he remains despite his […]

Afghanistan is once again in the news for many reasons.  First off, Elina at FPA’s Central Asia blog has reported that not only has the US officially secured a transit route through Uzbekistan, but also that Kyrgyzstan is actually still considering allowing the US to stay at the Manas Air Base.  Hmmm. Secondly, Sec of […]

While the Euros were skimping on troops, I found these two worthwhile videos about Afghanistan. The first features Fariba Nawa, an award-winning Afghan-American journalist, attempting to provide her audience with an Afghani view of the US/NATO presence in their country. In her short talk, Nawa argues that what most Afghans fear is that the US […]

With a ‘hello‘ between US Envoy Richard Holbrooke and an Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister garnering the most media attention, the International Conference on Afghanistan was underway at The Hague in Netherlands.  This major conference features a geopolitical who’s who of actors influenced by the conflict, including representatives from Pakistan, Iran (wow, I didn’t know they […]

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, […]