Afghan Election Commission Fires 3300 Staffers, But Runoff Will Proceed in...
Reuters brings us the shocking news that the election commission in Afghanistan has just fired over 3000 staffers even though the runoff election for President is only about three weeks from now on...
View ArticleDid Obama’s Handling of Karzai When Visiting Kabul Put Bilateral Security...
Demonstrating once again that electoral politics trumps all other considerations for his administration, Barack Obama mostly went along with the military’s recommendation (successful US political...
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Graphing the Afghanistan Surge Out of Existence
On Wednesday, Jason Leopold tweeted this image that had been released by the White House: What surge? Marcy quickly responded, “Funny how you can graph surge out of existence.” So how did the White...
View ArticleWill Successful Bergdahl Negotiations Get US-Taliban Peace Negotiations Going...
This weekend’s swap of Bowe Bergdahl for five Afghan Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo has triggered responses on a large number of fronts. For now, I will leave it to others to sort through whether...
View ArticleDunford Declares Taliban’s Political Space “Significantly Reduced” on Day of...
I often note how the US military, throughout its nearly 13 year quagmire in Afghanistan, continues to spout “we’re winning” messages when it is clear that the entire effort has been an utter failure...
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Thousands of Abdullah Supporters Rally in Kabul While Ghani Predicts Million...
Khaama Press photo of June 27 Kabul protest in favor of Abdullah Abdullah. Last week, Abdullah Abdullah angrily withdrew his support of the runoff election process when he released audiotapes purported...
View ArticleHow is Abdullah Obtaining So Many Tapes of Phone Calls?
It is looking more and more likely that Abdullah Abdullah will continue his boycott of the vote-counting process in Afghanistan. As I noted Friday, thousands of his supporters took to the streets to...
View ArticleAbdullah Supporters Reject Preliminary Results, Urge Parallel Government
A few numbers will serve to highlight both the rage of Abdullah Abdullah’s supporters and the extent of the fraud which they believe to have been perpetrated on behalf of Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan’s...
View ArticleLatest Catch-22 For US Military: Training Iraqi Troops Too Dangerous Due to...
The abject failure of US efforts to train troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has been one of my most frequent topics. Even though the US mission in Iraq has officially ended and the mission in Afghanistan...
View ArticleKabul Suicide Attack Kills Foreign Guards in Buffer Between Afghans and...
On the surface, today’s suicide attack in Kabul looks like many others, but some details disclosed in the New York Times story on the attack illustrate the lengths to which the US has been forced to go...
View ArticleWith Afghan Runoff Audit Hopelessly Mired, Clock Running Out on US Hopes for BSA
I’m wishing that I had started a spreadsheet a couple of years ago to track the various deadlines the US has issued for having a signed Bilateral Security Agreement in hand. Such an agreement would...
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SIGAR Finds That ANSF Weapons SCIP Away from OVERLORD
I have been harping lately on the US approach to international crises being to first ask “Which group should we arm?” and how this strategy has come back countless times to bite us in the ass, as seen...
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Suicide Bomb Kills Karzai’s Cousin: First Victim of Abdullah-Ghani Battle?
Hashmat chilling with his lion. The cousin of the Afghan President, Hashmat Karzai was a colorful character. He kept a pet lion at his home. NDTV tells us that the photo of him and the lion at left was...
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Breaking: Green on Blue Attack at Afghan Officer Training School, High...
The Khaama Press account of the shooting cites a terrorist as responsible in the headline, but then says it was an ANA soldier in the opening paragraph. After there had been a lull in Green on Blue...
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Will Greene’s Death Become Symbolic Image for End of US Training Effort in...
Greene Major General Harold J. Greene’s death Tuesday in Afghanistan is noted in the press primarily for him being the highest ranking officer killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. It has been pointed out in...
View ArticleWhy US Wants BSA With Criminal Immunity: Amnesty Reports US War Crimes in...
Barack Obama faces a huge amount of pressure during the current meltdown of Iraq because he withdrew all US military forces from the country. As I have pointed out in countless posts, the single...
View ArticleAs Expected, Kerry’s Power Sharing Agreement in Afghanistan Falling Apart
Well, that didn’t take long. On Friday, John Kerry made a second pass at getting Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani to make nice. This time he even produced a signed document (probably) to go along...
View ArticleAfghanistan Bars Rosenberg From Leaving Over Times Report on Coup Plan
With the latest deadline for Afghanistan to resolve its election crisis and put into place a government that can sign a Bilateral Security Agreement now only two weeks from tomorrow (when the NATO...
View ArticleFor John Kerry’s State Department, Constitutions Matter Only on One Side of...
John Kerry has made not one, but two trips to Afghanistan to pursue his extra-constitutional “power sharing” agreement between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah that creates the completely new...
View ArticleWith Clock Still Ticking, Afghanistan No Closer to Resolving Election Crisis
Reuters reminds us this morning that under one previous set of plans, today was to have been inauguration day for Afghanistan’s new president. Karzai is now insisting that the candidates must work out...
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