The US will soon double the number of its troops in Afghanistan from about thirty thousand to sixty thousand, and several other NATO countries will also up their troop levels. The move comes with little surprise and considerable bipartisan support, but with little public discussion of the aims and likely outcomes. Evocative as the move is with similar events in Iraq that are generally (though perhaps uncritically) credited with bringing stability there, it is hoped that a similar outcome will come about in Afghanistan, where the situation has deteriorated badly while US attention has been focused on Iraq and Iran.

Jan 6

US opens 104-acre embassy in Iraq

The United States opened its largest embassy ever yesterday, a fortress-like compound in the heart of the Green Zone - and the most visible sign of what US officials call a new chapter in relations between America and a more sovereign Iraq.

US Marines raised the American flag over the adobe-colored buildings, which sit on a 104-acre site and have space for 1,000 employees - more than 10 times the size of any other US Embassy in the world.

"Iraq is in a new era and so is the Iraqi-US relationship," Ambassador Ryan Crocker proclaimed.

In perhaps an unintended sign of the new relationship, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend yesterday's ceremony because he was traveling in Iran, a country the United States has accused of aiding and arming Iraqi militants.

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Dec 31

Troops, backed by helicopter gunships and tanks, moved into the Khyber Pass area near Pakistan's northwest border yesterday(AP pic)

Battle of Khyber Pass key to ending to Taliban raids

Pakistan has closed the principal route used to channel supplies to American and Nato troops in Afghanistan as it launches a military offensive to secure the area against insurgents.

Troops, backed by helicopter gunships and tanks, moved into the Khyber Pass area near Pakistan's north-west border yesterday.

More than three-quarters of all food, fuel and war material destined for American and Nato troops in landlocked Afghanistan passes along the narrow and winding 35-mile cut through the Hindu Kush mountains that has served as a strategic trade and military route since Alexander the Great's advance into India.

Iraq signs foreign troops deals

Iraq has signed deals with Britain and Australia for their troops to stay in the country after a UN mandate expires on 1 January, Iraq's government says.

It says the accords authorise UK and Australian forces to stay until July.

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This is a serious, considered suggestion concerning our Afghanistan strategy. We presently are spending billions of dollars and too many lives with poor results, including the destruction of the farmers' means of living---poppies, heroin.

Why should we not make deals with individual or groups of farmers to buy their heroin at a competitive price, then provide security for that farmer or those farmers? Haul the heroin away and destroy it. If that succeeds in one area, expand the program.

This removes money from the Taliban and also removes a dangerous drug from the market.
This will also create a group of Afghanis more sympathetic to our cause.

Across South Asia, we are seeing military escalation. But what we need are political solutions.

Pakistan's troop moves on the border with India have India and the US nervous. No one wants to see war between two nuclear powers, at least one of whom teeters on the brink of total instability. And for America, Pakistan's decision to pull troops from border areas with Afghanistan threatens to allow an even broader space for militants to operate in.

Everyone claims to want calm. Pakistan says it does not want war (even as authorities cancel all military leave). Pledging not to strike first against India, Pakistani leaders ask India to fix blame for the Mumbai attacks on "non-state actors" and not the Pakistani government, military, or the ISI. At the same time, however, Pakistan affirms it will respond to any Indian attack.

M K Bhadrakumar | Dec 20

Asia Times - The focus on the fate of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan disguises the full range of the bitterly fought geopolitical struggle in the region. The maneuverings over Afghan supply routes mask a crucial bid by the United States to expand its influence into the Russian, Chinese and Iranian backyards in Central Asia. Inevitably, this will force Moscow and Tehran to join hands; missile sales between these countries are a harbinger of things to come.

Adding fuel to the fire: US intends to open diplomatic post in Crimea

Team Agonist | Dec 18

Dec 19

Mass graves still unguarded as U.S., U.N., Afghans duck task

A week after the revelation that remains had been bulldozed from a mass grave site that held up to 2,000 bodies in Afghanistan, the location remains unprotected, the United Nations hasn't released its own investigation and the warlord who's accused of the exhumation is comfortably lodged just down the street from a Starbucks in Turkey's capital.

None of the key players in Afghanistan — the U.S. military, NATO, the United Nations or the Afghan government — has taken responsibility for safeguarding the site at Dasht-e Leili in northern Afghanistan. Each says that someone else should take the first step.

US military 'to defy' Iraqi pact

United States military leaders and Pentagon officials have made it clear through public statements and deliberately leaked stories in recent weeks that they plan to violate a central provision of the US-Iraq withdrawal agreement requiring the complete pullout of all US combat troops from Iraqi cities by mid-2009 by reclassifying combat troops as support troops.

The scheme to engage in chicanery in labeling US troops represents both open defiance of an agreement which the US military has never accepted and a way of blocking president-elect Barack Obama's proposed plan for withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of his taking office.

By redesignating tens of thousands of combat troops as support troops, those officials apparently hope to make it difficult, if not impossible, for Obama to insist on getting all combat troops of the country by mid-2010.

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Team Agonist | Dec 7

Dec 14

NATO looks to north Afghan neighbours for supplies

NATO is in talks with Afghanistan's northern neighbours to allow the shipment of more supplies to troops, the force's commander said on Sunday, after Taliban attacks destroyed hundreds of trucks coming from Pakistan.

NATO has been looking for alternatives to the main supply route through Pakistan where Taliban militants have torched some 300 trucks laden with supplies, including military vehicles, in five attacks in the last week alone.

Bush says Iraq task 'difficult but necessary'

US President George W. Bush said during a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday that the American intervention in Iraq had been difficult but "necessary."

"The work hasn't been easy but it's been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope and world peace," Bush said at a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani.

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Dec 12 | Roger N McDermott | London

Asia Times - On December 9, in an interview with Vremya Novostei in Moscow, ambassador Robert Simmons, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secretary general's special advisor on Central Asia and the South Caucasus, confirmed that NATO is currently discussing possible transit routes to Afghanistan with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Ukraine (the latter two representing a much longer overland supply route).

NATO needs to activate additional supply routes into Afghanistan since its route through Pakistan has been attacked by militants. "Aside from the Pakistani route, emphasis is made on the route we agreed on with the Russian delegation in Bucharest. In fact, we are now working on analogous agreements with the governments of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Ukraine. It will allow for freight traffic to the international contingent in Afghanistan via Russia and these countries," Simmons explained

Team Agonist

Iraqis sit next to a fire at a dump near Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad. About 150 people, mainly displaced from other parts of Iraq, live at the dump and make a living by selling recyclables. War's fallout will linger for a long time.(Alaa Al-Marjani/AP)

Dec 4

Afghanistan: Plan to enlist local militias threatens to backfire

They came in the night and shot Saeed Alam in his bed. His three-year-old son was crying at his feet and his mother had leapt on top of him to try to block the bullets. Both of them were hurled out of the way and an American soldier opened fire.

America's plans to enlist Afghan militias in the war against the Taliban are running into difficulties while still in their infancy. In eastern Paktia province, the white-bearded Afghan village elders who are crucial to the "Afghan awakening", are threatening to unite against the Americans unless such night raids by US special forces are halted.

Saeed Alam was shot four times in the chest in the raid last Saturday. His son landed in a fire pit, used for cooking. His mother died of shock the next day. The American soldiers left, taking 10 other Afghans with them. "We are not Taliban. We do not support al-Qa'ida but if these searches continue we will definitely join the anti-government elements," said Mr Janan, a senior member of the Gardeserai shura, or council.

** Iraq presidency council approves U.S. security pact

Amid war scars, Iraqis facing a lost generation

At age 14, Ahmad Razaq has worked more jobs than he can count. He has painted houses, cleaned office buildings, and supervised a janitorial crew. Lately he spends his days washing cars for a few dollars a week outside a dingy hotel in Baghdad.

He has never set foot inside a classroom. He has only heard about school from friends. He can't read or write, and he figures he never will.

"I want to go to school, but I think it's too late for me now," he said, standing outside his family's dilapidated shack in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood. "Besides, you need money to go to school."

This is the way many Iraqi children live, working for meager wages or staying at home instead of going to school. Although Iraq's Education Ministry disputes their statistics, the United Nations and aid organizations estimate that a fifth of school-aged children here don't attend. Girls and children who live in rural areas are particularly affected.

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Alan McLeod | November 23

Gen X at 40 - [Alan here. I received a post updating my undergrad pal Trevor's progress from Debbie and him this evening and figured I would post it as a whole new entry rather than adding to the string of the now 439 comments, best wishes, photos and fond memories from family and friends in response to the post I wrote when I heard the terrible news. So here you go...]

An update on Trevor’s progress is long overdue with much to write about.

On July 23rd, 2007, after over a year in Vancouver General Hospital, we joyfully left BC for the hope of rehabilitation at the Halvar Johnson Centre for Brain Injury in Ponoka, Alberta. We were advised by the doctors at VGH to put Trevor in a long-term care facility and “let him get on with his life”. I didn’t have to wonder too long what life would be like in a public long term care facility. I wasn’t about to let that happen. We flew out of BC via military flight early on a rainy “wet” coast morning. We were met at the airport by an honor guard from Trevor’s unit in Vancouver, the Seaforth Highlanders. Not surprisingly, this is Trevor’s first memory after the injury. He doesn’t remember any of his time at VGH, which is a blessing in spite of some of the wonderful people we came to know during our time there. I have many pictures and have filled him in on various events and people at that time. I also kept a daily journal for him to read which he has been going through of late. He is endeared by so many of the stories of the true spirit of friendship and generosity. Thank you to everyone who visited Trevor, sent cards, gifts and even prayers for him. He tells me he plans to respond to every one “in the fullness of time”.

Let's review the list of people who have supported, implicitly or explicitly, the idea of talking to the Taliban:

British military commander Brig Mark Carleton-Smith, who recently returned to the UK after completing a six-month tour in southern Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command.

General John Craddock, Supreme Operational Commander of NATO.

Nov 18

A U.S. judge has declared Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman accused of trying to kill a U.S. soldier and FBI agents, mentally unfit for the trial. Remember our treatment of her? After being shot a judge had to ORDER medical care.

U.S. officials doubt reports that Iran has softened stance on Iraqi security pact

Iran softened its resistance Monday to a pact that calls for withdrawing American forces from Iraq by the end of 2011, a shift that could make it easier for Iraq’s ruling Shiite Muslim government to secure parliamentary approval. U.S. officials, however, said they doubted that Tehran had altered its stance.

Reports from Iran’s state news agency called an Iraqi Cabinet vote that advanced the security compact a "victory for the ruling party and its Kurdish partners," referring to the Shiite lawmakers who supported the agreement.

China rejects sending troops to Afghanistan

China said Tuesday it would not send any troops to Afghanistan _ rejecting recent speculation that Beijing might support the international coalition there.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told New York's Council on Foreign Relations on Friday that China could send troops because there was a global consensus that Afghanistan is the "the front line" in the battle against terrorism.

However, in a statement seen Tuesday on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Web site, spokesman Qin Gang said there had been no change to Beijing's approach to Afghanistan _ or to its policy of sending forces abroad only under United Nations Security Council mandates.

The issue of China sending troops to Afghanistan "simply doesn't exist," Qin said

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The website Icasualties.org now reports that over 1,000 coalition soldiers have died in Afghanistan. (I am having trouble locating precise figures on NATO casualties in Afghanistan and icasualty's estimate may be high. Wikipedia puts the number at 940.)

That, and Derrick Crowe's recent post at Brave New Films on why "We Cannot Afford to Escalate in Afghanistan," have me thinking about all the reasons why we cannot afford to escalate this war.

The Archipelago of Fear





After reading the article and viewing the photographs, I’m no longer surprised that bombings take place because they're fostered by the miserable living conditions of the Afghanistan people who live there—45% of whom are unemployed. Surrounded by luxury and high walls, doesn’t encourage populations to be law-abiding. Quite, the contrary, the visibility of wealth must anger the ordinary people of Kabel making them feel jealous, as well as dispirited by the enormity of the waste of so-called "reconstruction."

James Brazier | Nov 6 | Diplomatic Courier

There has been no Western outcry against Saudi Arabia's mediation between the Taliban and the Afghan government. On the contrary, the Mecca talks were accompanied by senior British and U.S. officials indicating that such discussions were an evitable part of ending the war in Afghanistan. Only one country has denounced the meeting as an unacceptable capitulation to terrorism and extremism: Iran. This position reflects the untold story of Iran's tussle with Saudi Arabia for regional influence.

I'm nearly finished with Rick Perlstein's Nixonland, and there are many lessons in it that today's Democrats should take to heart. One of the biggest is that attempting to out-hawk Republicans may have occasional electoral payoffs in the short term, but in the long term it brings serious consequences. That's yet another reason why I oppose escalation in Afghanistan - and disagree with Obama on that issue more than any other by far.

As Perlstein convincingly shows, Johnson's landslide 1964 victory and sweeping legislation package thereafter seemed to cement an American consensus. But beginning with the Watts riots in 1965, law-and-order right-wingers like Ronald Reagan benefited more and more from a backlash against the Great Society.

Nov 2 | Team Agonist

Barzani says U.S. can have bases in northern Iraq

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani has said the U.S. military could have bases in northern Iraq if Washington and Baghdad fail to sign the controversial security deal, a local newspaper reported Sunday.

Barzani says U.S. can have bases in northern Iraq

"All the attempts are going right now to sign the pact, but if the pact is not signed and if U.S. asked to keep their troops in Kurdistan, I think the parliament, the people and government of Kurdistan will welcome this warmly," he said at the Centre of Strategy and International Study in Washington, AFP reported.

Juan Cole reports: Kurdish MP Mahmud Osman is pledging that there will be no US bases in Iraqi Kurdistan without a national consensus on that issue.

Hutton to face fresh questions from MPs over army equipment

John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Defence, is to face questions in Parliament after a senior SAS commander resigned in a row over the standard of equipment used to protect troops in Afghanistan.

Major Sebastian Morley was said to have warned the Ministry of Defence that forces were suffering from "chronic underinvestment" in a blistering resignation letter, which also accused the Government of "gross negligence" also: MoD 'can be sued' over SAS deaths

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Team Agonist

Oct 26

US aircraft attack Syria border'

US helicopter-borne troops have carried out a raid inside Syria along the Iraqi border, killing eight people including a woman, Syrian authorities say.

The official Syrian news agency Sana said the raid took place in the Abu Kamal border area, in eastern Syria.

It said that American soldiers on four helicopters had stormed a building under construction on Sunday night.

The US says it is investigating. It has previously accused Syria of allowing foreign militants into Iraq.

"Four American helicopters violated Syrian airspace around 16:45 local time (1345 GMT) on Sunday," state television and Sana news agency said.

It said that "American soldiers" who had emerged from helicopters "attacked a civilian building under construction and fired at workmen inside, causing eight deaths". check comments for updates

** U.S. considers sending special ops to Afghanistan
** 2 US soldiers killed in suicide attack
** U.S. helicopter shot down in Afghanistan - one deaths

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Ann Scott Tyson | Washington D.C. | October 26

WaPo - The U.S. military, bracing for the first wartime presidential transition in 40 years, is preparing for potential crises during the vulnerable handover period, including possible attacks by al-Qaeda and destabilizing developments in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to senior military officials.

"I think the enemy could well take advantage" of the transfer of power in Washington, said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, who launched preparations for the transition months ago, and who will brief the president-elect, the defense secretary nominee and other incoming officials on crisis management and how to run the military.

Officials are working "to make sure we are postured the right way around the world militarily, that our intelligence is focused on this issue, and in day-to-day operations the military is making sure it does not happen," Mullen said in an interview. "If it does happen, we need to be in a position to respond before and after the inauguration."

What if:

1. the US and NATO killed and/or verified the deaths of Osama bin Laden and/or Mullah Omar;

2. in the wake of Mullah Omar's death, NATO identified "good" and "bad" elements of the Taliban and negotiated with the former to grant self-rule to all of Afghanistan except Kabul;

3. foreign troops pulled out of everywhere except Kabul, where we would draw down troops over a longer period of time, say five years;

and 4. we launched major diplomatic initiatives with the aim of promoting regional stability and stability within Afghanistan, ie by holding a regional summit, holding bilateral talks with Iran, reducing pressure on elected and military leadership in Pakistan to conform to an American agenda, and limiting aid in the region to non-military projects?

Anand Gopal | Porak, Afghanistan | October 15

CSM - After a gang of thieves had continually terrorized an Afghan neighborhood near here months ago, locals decided they'd had enough. "We complained several times to the government and even showed them where the thieves lived," says Ahmad, who goes by one name.

But the bandits continued to operate freely. So the villagers turned to the Taliban.

The militants' parallel government here in Logar Province – less than 40 miles from Kabul, the capital – tried and convicted the men, tarred their faces, paraded them around, and threatened to chop off their hands if they were caught stealing in the future. The thieves never bothered the locals again.

Asif Shahzad | Islamabad | Oct 12

AP - Pakistan accused the U.S. and Afghanistan on Saturday of not doing enough to stop Islamist militants from crossing into its territory.

The charge followed months of complaints by U.S. and Afghan leaders that Pakistan has been lax in its efforts to stop al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents from using its territory as a base from which to plan attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry chief, Rehman Malik, addressing a seminar in Lahore, said his country had arrested scores of Afghan militants on its side of the border and that insurgents were using rocket launchers and missiles against its troops.

"You are seeing missiles daily. Where from they are coming? They are coming from across the border," said Malik.

"Please improve your side a bit," Malik said, in an apparent reference to U.S.-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Pak Daily Times: President Asif Ali Zardari adopted a clear stance against terrorism when he met recently with US President George W Bush, telling him ‘you do more’, when told Pakistan should do more in the war on terror

By Hannes Artens

It is despicable. The reaction of Western representatives to the ever deteriorating strategic situation in Afghanistan over the last two weeks has been nothing but despicable. In a stunning turn by 180° leading military and diplomats advocated peace talks with the Taliban and have come short of embracing Saudi-sponsored negotiations between the Karzai government and leading Taliban in Mecca. CNN reported:

In a groundbreaking meeting, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently hosted talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban militant group, according to a source familiar with the talks.

The historic four-day meeting took place during the last week of September in the Saudi city of Mecca, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The current round of talks is anticipated to be a first step in a long process. According to the source close to the talks, it has taken two years of behind-the-scenes meetings to get to this point.

The talks took place between September 24 and 27 and involved 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of former mujahadeen commander and U.S. foe Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and three others.

Unlike many here, I am a strong Obama supporter. I think his performance in last night's debate ranks as one of his best - especially because I think he is in general a weak debater. But I agree with D-Day that both candidates are out of touch on Afghanistan - perhaps deliberately so:

Both candidates remain out to lunch on Afghanistan and were totally non-responsive on the plain fact that our presence there has become toxic. McCain thinks we can do a "surge" there, which turns "surge" into less a tactic than a pretty word, and Obama is slightly better but still needs to recognize that Afghanistan in 2008 is not Afghanistan in 2002.