Kyrgyzstan has entered a phase of uncertainty with a new opposition-led government in place following two days of street clashes between police and anti-government protestors. Some opposition leaders have called for the closure of a U.S. airbase in the country that is...
Afghan Official Says US Raiders Hid Killings
The head of the Afghan Ministry of Interior investigation said publicly for the first time his investigators had accepted the testimony of family members of the victims of the Feb. 12 raid by U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) that the U.S. troops had dug bullets...
US War-Fighting Numbers to Knock Your Socks Off
In my 1950s childhood, Ripley's Believe It or Not was part of everyday life, a syndicated comics page feature where you could stumble upon such mind-boggling facts as: "If all the Chinese in the world were to march four abreast past a given point, they would never...
As Iraq Threatens to Come Apart, US Problems in Afghanistan Mount
Washington once again finds itself dangerously entangled with the hostile policies, nationalistic interests and supporters, and personal ambitions of a foreign figure whom it counted on to serve American interests. This time it is in Afghanistan, the latest in what,...
Richard Holbrooke: Bulldozer Stuck in the Mud
Strobe Talbott once called Richard Holbrooke the "diplomatic equivalent of a hydrogen bomb." Oh, the many ways we could interpret that today. When Talbott, Bill Clinton's deputy secretary of state and a friend of Holbrooke, made that comment to the New York...
Legality of Drone Strikes Still in Question
While welcoming an initial effort by the administration of President Barack Obama to offer a legal justification for drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists overseas, human rights groups say critical questions remain unanswered. In an address to an international...
The Taking of Afghan Prisoners 22, 23, and 24
So an unexpected benefit of the proroguing of Parliament in January 2010 was the refreshing absence of Laurie Hawn. The more I don't hear from Laurie Hawn, the happier I am, you know? The air seems cleaner somehow… But for me, this whole Afghan prisoner thing goes...
Pacified Populations
If the U.S. public looked long and hard into a mirror reflecting the civilian atrocities that have occurred in Afghanistan over the past 10 months, we would see ourselves as people who have collaborated with and paid for war crimes committed against innocent civilians...
Afghanistan as a Drug War
A front-page New York Times article by Rod Nordland on the aftermath of a recent U.S. Marine offensive in Helmand province, opium poppy-growing capital of the planet, began this way: "The effort to win over Afghans on former Taliban turf in Marjah has put...
Study: Two-Thirds of Boys in Afghan Jails Are Brutalized
Nearly two of every three male juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now incarcerated in the country's juvenile justice system. The study, carried out by U.S. defense attorney...


