From Great Game to Grand Bargain – Ending Chaos in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Barnett R. Rubin and Ahmed Rashid Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2008 The Great Game is no fun anymore. The term “Great Game” was used by nineteenth-century British … Continue reading →

by Charles Ferndale The News, Sunday, September 27, 2009 The American commander of the Western forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, says he needs more troops or the war there will be lost within 12 months. He says also that … Continue reading →

Pakistan’s military operations against the Taliban in Swat, begun in May under public pressure from the United States, has been hailed by Washington as a showcase effort of the army’s newfound resolve to defeat the militants. The American ambassador, Anne … Continue reading →

That is a growing sentiment in America. As Barack Obama appears likely to increase America’s already greatly enlarged troop commitment to the Afghan war, the war itself is becoming increasingly disliked.The conflict used to be called America’s “forgotten war”. No … Continue reading →

in solidarity with all those who protested the greedy 20 in pittsburgh.

this is a horrible, senseless, doomed war – let’s get out of afghanistan NOW! A powerful member of President Hamid Karzai’s Cabinet threatened to quit after a suicide car bomb attack targeted him Sunday, killing five people, in the latest … Continue reading →

Tehreek-e-Taliban group had claimed responsibility for the bombing. The group has threatened to unleash bigger attacks on government targets to avenge the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, their leader, in a US drone attack. Full article.

WTF! what country is this?

J’ai dû amputer une partie de mon identité, j’ai dû effacer ce prénom arabe de mes conversations. Dire Mustapha, c’est prendre le risque de voir votre interlocuteur refuser de vous parler. Je me dis parfois que je suis parano, que … Continue reading →

Earlier this year Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films were featured in The Nation, as part of a grass roots movement to educate the public and develop resistance to the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They produced a documentary called … Continue reading →

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi put her medical career on hold to visit with family members in Iraq, and returned from a three-month stay in Basrah and Baghdad. Dr. Wasfi described her experience in Iraq and discussed the life of Iraqis under … Continue reading →

katha pollitt on nicholas kristof and sheryl wudunn’s book, half the sky: “If women’s equality is the great cause of our time – and I hope it is – we’ll get further by acknowledging it as a challenge no country … Continue reading →

The cold fact is that there were no Iraqis or Afghans on the planes that were hijacked on Sept. 11, yet hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans are dead because of the U.S. invasion. Millions more live as refugees. … Continue reading →

The raid comes after it was revealed that the Interior Ministry had issued licences of highly sophisticated assault rifles to Inter Risk. US Ambassador Anne Patterson had held meetings with the Prime Minister and the Interior Minister for approval of … Continue reading →

Pulling his shirt up, Hasan reveals torture marks that remain visible after four years. His front teeth are missing due to heavy beating and he informs that his left hand remains numb. ‘They kept asking me, what do you know … Continue reading →

I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol … Continue reading →

US troops broke down doors and tied up visitors and hospital staff. Impeding operations at medical facilities in Afghanistan directly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the obstruction of medical operations during wartime. … Continue reading →

a pakistani student, sarmad khurram, refused to accept an award from american ambassador ann patterson as a protest against u.s. air strikes inside pakistan which result in large numbers of civilian deaths. this was back in 2008. now if only … Continue reading →

“It’s Constitution Day in the US today, marking the 222nd anniversary of the day that the members of the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787. And yet I almost missed it, so low was it on the US media’s … Continue reading →

It’s now apparent that the biggest sham in American politics is Barack Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo and, more generally, to dismantle the Bush/Cheney approach to detaining accused Terrorists. In August, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. … Continue reading →

Ten infantrymen in his brigade have been arrested and accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter since 2006. Others have committed or attempted suicide. What is happening to the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team is true of literally … Continue reading →

In many ways Afghanistan is worse than Vietnam. So, it is increasingly hard to fathom why a seemingly intelligent American administration seems determined to hitch itself to this disaster in the making. Full article.

Amy Goodman: “Peace activists have launched a new petition calling for a near-term withdrawal of US and NATO troops. The petition is called “Take Action to End the War in Afghanistan.” PLS SIGN THE PETITION.

Afghanistan – A Petition to Take Action Against the War – video, produced by CODEPINK, featuring the words of Democratic Congress member Barbara Lee, the only lawmaker in either chamber of Congress to vote against the resolution authorizing the use … Continue reading →

Al-Zeidi said: “At the time that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on television that he could not sleep without being reassured on my fate, I was being tortured in the worst ways, beaten with electric cables and iron bars.” He … Continue reading →

They were polite, George said, and asked why he studied Arabic, why he’d been in the Middle East, whether anyone had ever asked him to join a terrorist group, whether he was “Islamic,” whether he’d joined any Islamic or Communist … Continue reading →

barsamian is one of the few people in the WORLD who can talk about pakistan and afghanistan intelligently. a must see.

brilliant interview with norman solomon, who just came back from afghanistan and talks clearly and calmly about the reality of the war. pls educate yourself, pls watch. Interview with Norman Solomon, Institute for Public Accuracy, Exec. Dir.

At first light last Friday, in the Chardarah district of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, the villagers gathered around the twisted wreckage of two fuel tankers that had been hit by a Nato airstrike. They picked their way through a … Continue reading →

Brian Lenzo and Ream Kidane recently returned from Gaza, where they went with the Viva Palestina convoy. Join them for a presentation and slide show at the Museum for Kids Art (90 Webster Ave, Rochester, NY) this evening (Sept 9, … Continue reading →

Here may be the single strangest fact of our American world: that at least three administrations — Ronald Reagan’s, George W. Bush’s, and now Barack Obama’s — drew the U.S. “defense” perimeter at the Hindu Kush; that is, in the … Continue reading →

Echoing now is a speech from Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967. If we replace the word “Vietnam” with “Afghanistan,” the gist of his message is with us in the autumn of 2009: “Somehow this madness must cease. … Continue reading →

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft may face personal liability for the decisions that led to the detention of an American citizen as a material witness after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal appeals court panel ruled on Friday. In the … Continue reading →

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan – A U.S. jet dropped 500-pound bombs on two tanker trucks hijacked by the Taliban before dawn Friday, triggering a huge explosion that Afghan officials said killed more than 70 people, including insurgents and some civilians who had … Continue reading →

The same Blackwater is now getting ready to replicate its Iraqi tactics in Pakistan and some of its operatives are already believed to be in action in Peshawar and its environs. The word has gone out that the Americans are … Continue reading →