With all the contradictory advice he’s getting on Afghanistan, Barack Obama’s head must be spinning by now — just like another well-meaning Democrat’s head was spinning 45 years ago, as he faced another inherited war with an inherited Secretary of Defense. For now, I’m willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt and wait [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Afghanistan: The Case for Listening to Pakistan
Posted in Afghanistan on January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Afghanistan: ‘Graveyard of Analogies’
Posted in Afghanistan on January 30, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Still smarting from my brutal yet inconclusive mano-a-mano over Afghanistan with a tenacious but ill-informed German isolationist, I was lazily browsing through this week’s crop of dismal Afghan analysis when I came across this. Aptly titled “Graveyard of analogies”, it’s a new article by the eminently wise Pakistani journalist-scholar Ahmed Rashid, and it basically says [...]
Torture: The Missing Memos
Posted in Human rights on January 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I consider myself reasonably well versed in the intricacies of the Bush administration’s detention and interrogation policies, but I long ago lost count of the numerous memos — by John Yoo, Jay Bybee and others — that the OLC spewed out to justify detainee mistreatment and other lawlessness. So I’m happy to report that Pro [...]
Crisis Group on Iraqi Elections
Posted in Iraq, Iraq: Elections on January 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Haven’t read it yet, but here’s something you’ll want to sink your teeth into: a new International Crisis Group report on Iraq’s upcoming provincial elections. More later.
Who Is Advising Obama on Afghanistan?
Posted in Afghanistan on January 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Whatever his problems, judging by this excellent social network analysis, President Barack Obama can’t complain he isn’t getting pertinent information on Afghanistan. Not only has he managed to surround himself with exceptionally clever people, but many of those he apparently listens to actually have first-hand experience of the Afghan battlefields. Add to this the fact [...]
Should Finland Take Guantanamo Detainees?
Posted in Human rights on January 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As Obama moves to shut down Guantánamo — even if he is, in the immortal words of Peter Feaver, just “kicking the can as far down the road as he possibly can without being penalized for delay of game” — we all suddenly find ourselves trying to figure out whether we can somehow pitch in. [...]
Afghanistan: Why Europe Must Stay
Posted in Afghanistan on January 22, 2009 | 22 Comments »
According to a recent opinion poll by the Financial Times, clear majorities of people in the UK, France, Italy and Germany believe their countries shouldn’t send any more troops to fight in Afghanistan. And the governments, ever mindful of their fickle electorates, agree. “We have made the necessary effort,” French Defence Minister Herve Morin said [...]
Bush-Cheney Records: Public or Not?
Posted in U.S. on January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m reading Obama’s Executive Order on presidential records and wondering whether this means that the previous administration’s records — including Cheney’s — can be made public even if Bush claims executive privilege: Sec. 4. Claim of Executive Privilege by Former President. (a) Upon receipt of a claim of executive privilege by a living former President, [...]
‘Everybody Knows Something, No One Tells Us Anything’
Posted in Afghanistan on January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In Dexter Filkins’s latest dispatch from Afghanistan, an American foot patrol enters a village near Kandahar to find three men sitting on a blanket, listening to music on a radio: ‘So, seen any Taliban lately?’ Lieutenant Holloway asked the men. ‘We haven’t seen the Taliban in eight months,’ a man named Niamatullah said, looking up. [...]
Death in Sri Lanka: ‘And Then They Came for Me’
Posted in Sri Lanka on January 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I followed the conflict in Sri Lanka from the start all through the 80s and early 90s and was more aghast at what was happening on the island every time I went back, which was once or twice a year. The slow unraveling of the country’s democracy and its descent into the lower depths of [...]
