UN Notes That Ending Torture Requires Accountability. Too Bad They Are...
Back in October of 2011, I wrote about a report prepared by the UN (pdf) in which it was found that torture is widespread in detention facilities administered by Afghanistan. The primary point of my...
View ArticleWhy Should We Believe the Fine Rhetoric in Obama’s Inauguration Address?
During Barack Obama’s second inaugural address yesterday, many on the left were actually mentioning tears of joy, especially when it came to this passage quoted by AP via Yahoo: “We must make the hard...
View ArticleDrone Fallout in Pakistan; Falling Drone in Afghanistan
Marcy has been dutifully noting the alignment of forces behind the Czar of Moral Rectitude, John Brennan, in his nomination to be Director of the CIA, as well as the disclosure over the weekend that...
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Acknowledgement of Failure in Afghanistan Spreads Throughout US Government
Mostly abandoned $7.3 million Border Police facility in Kunduz Province, Click on photo for a larger view. After staying out of the headlines while the military carried out its panty-sniffing...
View ArticleHagel Hearing: Twilight of the Neocons Makes Senate Armed Services Committee...
The disgusting bullying of former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) during his hearing yesterday on his nomination to be Secretary of Defense is demonstrated clearly in the short clip above where Senator...
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Afghanistan Kills Yet Another Military Career: Allen to Retire
After multiple missteps, General John Allen has “chosen” to “retire” rather than face a Senate confirmation to be head of NATO. Many times throughout recorded history, would-be empires have attempted...
View ArticleNATO Wants US to Buy $22 Billion SOFA in Afghanistan
Both Reuters and the New York Times carry stories this morning reporting that NATO has floated the idea of extending the 352,000 Afghan National Security Force size for a number of years beyond the...
View ArticleKarzai Expels Special Operations Forces From Afghan Province Over Program at...
Today’s story in the Washington Post covering Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s decree expelling US Special Operations forces from a province just outside Kabul illustrates how completely the upper...
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Insider Attack Kills Seventeen at Afghan Local Police Post Staffed Under New...
Detail from CIA map of Afghanistan. Click on map for a larger view. The Afghan Local Police program was a centerpiece of David Petraeus’ counterinsurgency (COIN) program in Afghanistan when he took...
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Nasr Pierces Obama’s Diplomacy Mirage
Vali Nasr now serves as Dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins. Foreign Policy has published an excerpt from Vali Nasr’s book The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign...
View ArticleKarzai Claims Final Handover of Parwan Prison Coming, Will Release “Innocents”
In a move that is guaranteed to provoke another tantrum from Lindsey Graham, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced to the Afghan parliament today that final handover of the Detention Facility in...
View ArticlePrison Handover Agreement Blows Up, Again, During Hagel’s First Visit to...
Exactly one year ago today, I posted on the agreement in principle that would hand over the Detention Facility in Parwan, located near Bagram Air Base, to full Afghan control. I noted at the time...
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Iran, Pakistan Break Ground on Gas Pipeline, Capping Horrible Week for US in...
Headline and photo from Pakistan’s Express Tribune announcing the pipeline groundbreaking ceremony. The image could be an old one, since that is Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on...
View ArticleAgreement Announced on Special Operations Forces in Wardak Province,...
NATO is claiming that there now is an agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai regarding the withdrawal of US Special Operations Forces from Maidan Wardak province in the wake of Karzai’s...
View ArticleOnce Again, US Pretends to Hand Over Control of Parwan Prison, Holds Back...
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We have headlines at multiple news outlets trumpeting that the US has ceded control of Parwan Prison (newly re-named today as the Afghan National Detention...
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Just How Special Are Afghan Special Forces?
Because I follow the issue of training Afghan forces very closely, I clicked on an article today from TOLONews on graduation of a new group of Afghan Special Forces soldiers. One tidbit in the article...
View ArticleAfghan Supply Route Problem Becomes Exit Route Problem
Back in July, Pakistan finally re-opened its highways to NATO supply trucks after the routes had been closed for several months in response to the US killing 24 Pakistani soldiers in an attack on a...
View ArticleYet Another Taliban Attack Using Afghan National Army Uniforms
At the height of the green on blue killing outbreak, one aspect that stood out was that the attackers often had access to Afghan military and police uniforms whether they were actual members of these...
View ArticleWashington Post Tries to Ram Petraeus Down Our Throats Again
No. In the name of God, Thor, Zeuss, Cthulhu and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, no. There are few people who personify the vapid, amoral fetid swamp of Washington politics and defense policy more than...
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Afghanistan Confirms Eleven Children Killed in April 6 NATO Air Strike
Partial screen-grab of the Khaama Press article confirming eleven children were killed in the April 6 NATO air strike in Kunar province. Various reports of the strike include this image as well as...
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