Three Questions About The Bergdahl Deal Answered
Three questions, all of which have easy, obvious answers. So why are we talking about this?
Three questions, all of which have easy, obvious answers. So why are we talking about this?
~by Creon Critic What exactly is the delay in formulating a comprehensive strategy to transition the Assad regime out of power in Syria? However reluctant President Obama is to get further involved in another Middle East conflict, the clear threats to US national interests are already upon us. Which is why the US and allies…
Image via Wikipedia Playing off of Mark’s post against the Oklahoma ban on sharia law, it’s important to note that most of the contemporary debate over Sharia law in the United States seems to be operating under a huge misconception over what Sharia actually is. I think a lot of its detractors, and maybe even…
From Joe Klein’s good piece on Afghanistan: “Karzai is not incompetent,” a Western diplomat told me. “He is acting according to his own priorities — his family, his tribe, his nation, in that order.” And why shouldn’t he? Why exactly should Karzai be some Afghan nationalist just because the US wants him to be? Clan/family,…
Scott recently raised some skepticism about the potential impact of the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, former operational commander of the Afghan Taliban. Today word is out that another high ranking Afghan Taliban was captured by the Pakistanis. This time it was Mullah Abdul Salam, Governor of the so-called Afghan Shadow Government in the…
Elrod at The Moderate Voice, writing in response to criticisms of Obama’s Afghanistan strategy for setting a withdrawal date, argues: (h/t Matt Duss at WonkRoom): Quite simply, the Taliban does not have the luxury of “waiting us out” for 18 months. If they survive that long then it is because we failed in our ground-level…
Spencer Ackerman points me to this Tom Ricks post on David Kilcullen’s speech re: Afghanistan. Ricks on Kilcullen’s central argument: His [Kilcullen’s] bottom line is that there are two real options in Afghanistan: Either tell the Kabul government we are pulling out, or put in enough troops to actually break the cycle of corruption, which…
Part I here, Part II here. The Obama administration has proposed a very, very narrow objective, which is counterterrorism, and a very maximalist, broad definition of how to achieve it, which extends to counterinsurgency and the defeat of the Taliban, and basically the fixing of the entire Afghan state. And the whole problem with this…
For Part I here. So I’m breaking my own rules in this second post (a little bit). I said these posts would only be buitl around the interviews in this PBS documentary, but then Peter Bergen had to go and write a really important piece in TNR that merits some comment. The central thrust of…
This weekend I finally managed to have the time to sit down and watch this excellent PBS Frontline documentary called Obama’s War. Highly recommended and hats off to the folks at Frontline for a very good piece of work on an extremely important topic. I’m going to do a number of posts all branching out…
George Packer has been digging through books on Vietnam as to what they may tell us about Afghanistan. (George is smart enough to know that actually Vietnam is probably not the best place to look but it does offer some relevant information).** His most recent post on the subject involves the new book Why Vietnam…
Freddie thinks that those (like Reihan) who are nervous about new so-called modest (or lowered) expectations should be. Br. F-reddie also raises an question of feasibility of non-lowered expectations given Afghan history. (Also check out ED’s important comment regarding the volatility of democracy in societies without rule of law, culture of transparency, less black market…