Afghanistan
Afghanistan and polling
Steve Coll is always a must-read on Afpak and he sounds a cautionary note on Afghanistan and polling. (See my post from this morning.) Citing a new Oxfam poll, Coll observes that its findings, “like all polling in very poor developing societies, should be received as suggestive, not scientific.” Still, the Oxfam numbers indicate that Afghans regard the Taliban as
Afghanistan and Obama’s base
There’s a notion gaining ground that President Obama, by opting for a troop increase in Afghanistan, is somehow faltering on campaign promises and thus “betraying his base.” What nonsense. Obama never said he’d withdraw troops from Afghanistan. If anything, he said the opposite. This CNN report is from July 21, 2008, before he had even secured the Democratic nomination: “The
A note to Dennis Kucinich
Fresh from his sanctimonious vote against health care reform in congress, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio appeared on “Hardball” tonight to rail against President Obama’s impending announcement on troops to Afghanistan. I’m not taking a position in advance of Obama’s address next Tuesday. But I do want to object to Kucinich’s statement (I paraphrase) that “we owe a debt to Afghan
Which Muslims?
On the planet where rightists and tea-partiers live, “Muslims” are engaged in an undifferentiated jihad against the West; all are guilty until proven innocent. On the planet where some lefties and liberals live, “Muslims” in the West are terribly offended by the U.S. and NATO making war against “Muslims,” which leads to tragedies like the massacre at Fort Hood. On
Rohde cont’d.
From part three of David Rohde’s harrowing account, “Held By the Taliban”: It was a universe filled with contradictions. My captors assailed the West for killing civilians, but they celebrated suicide attacks orchestrated by the Taliban that killed scores of Muslim bystanders. Thank you, someone’s finally saying it, and who better than Rohde. Once again: According to the Human Rights
Held by the Taliban
David Rohde’s extended account of his hellish seven-month-plus captivity in Afghanistan and Taliban-held Pakistan is running this week in the NYT. Part one is here. It’s about as gripping a narrative as you can possibly imagine, and a testament to the man’s extraordinary bravery and sacrifice. Rohde took a risk in interviewing a Taliban commander because he felt duty-bound as
Obama’s Nobel
What do I think? It doesn’t matter what I think. As a fairly militant supporter of President Obama, I’m biased. Has he racked up a term’s worth of accomplishments? No. Has he changed the tone of world diplomacy radically for the better? Yes. So I’m happy this news annoys rightists who’ve been painting Obama as Hitler-Stalin-Satan. I’m also happy it
Afghanistan: the ongoing tally
It’s literally the last sentence of this AP dispatch on a bomb explosion in Kabul, but as the Afghan war debate heats up, I find it absolutely essential to repeat this fact again and again: [A United Nations report said] 1,013 civilians were killed in the first half of 2009, 59 percent in insurgent attacks and 30.5 percent by foreign