Senior military officials decided to launch the current U.S.-British military campaign to seize Marjah in large part to influence domestic U.S. opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported Monday. The Post report, by Greg Jaffe and Craig Whitlock,...
Marjah Madness
As journalist Gareth Porter said in a recent interview with Real News, Gen. Stanley McChrystal's offensive in Marjah, Afghanistan, is "more of an effort to shape public opinion in the United States than to shape the politics of the future of Afghanistan."...
Fixing What’s Wrong in Washington… in Afghanistan
Explain something to me. In recent months, unless you were insensate, you couldn't help running across someone talking, writing, speaking, or pontificating about how busted government is in the United States. State governments are increasingly broke and getting...
On Marja, More Bananastan Bull Feathers
Bin Laden: Dead and Loving It
The tallest Arab ever wanted dead or alive by a president of the United States is still at large. Either that or he's dead. Again. We've been hearing from intelligence sources and the media that bin Laden is dead for a long time. How dead can one evildoer get? In July...
Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life
When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation. A month ago, President Obama pledged...
Talking Our Way Out of Afghanistan
Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on Anti-US Terror
Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots...
Diplomacy in Afghanistan? Not Until US Identifies Why It’s There
Richard Holbrooke's comments on reconciliation with the Taliban in Afghanistan, made during the recent Munich Security Conference, echoed earlier remarks by UN officials and American military commanders in Kabul that suggest that diplomacy might be coming alive on the...
Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators’ Plan
KABUL - If peace talks do ultimately begin between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leadership, they may well follow a "road map" to a political settlement drawn up by a group of ex-Taliban officials who have been serving as intermediaries between the two...


