There’s a whole bunch of good stuff in the new CNAS report on Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also a few tangles of seriously confused thinking. The authors’ definition of “securing the population”, for example, is a mess. On the one hand, they define it — correctly — as “denying [the population's] passive or active support [...]
Archive for June, 2009
Triaging Afghanistan with the Wrong Metrics
Posted in Afghanistan on June 6, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Afghanistan: U.S. Bidding Farewell to Allies?
Posted in Afghanistan on June 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Josh Foust summarises an e-mail from a concerned reader in Kabul:
Indeed, the big concern he raised is whether or not the war is being ‘Americanized.’ It is certainly a growing theme, as an American takes over command in Kandahar and RC-South is flooded with U.S. troops (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, for example, has filed multiple reports to [...]
Afghanistan: Exum and Cohen at War Over Bodies
Posted in Afghanistan on June 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Abu Muqawama and Michael Cohen have themselves a right old spat over the dangers and virtues of counterinsurgency. Frankly, I think the mano-a-mano is ridiculous — Cohen has already made an ass of himself by claiming the war in Afghanistan isn’t necessarily a COIN fight — , but while I generally side with Exum, I [...]
Iraq According to Shadid
Posted in Iraq on June 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you intend to read just one newspaper piece about Iraq this year, it’s here. Eloquent, knowledgeable, intelligent and witty, Anthony Shadid is a brilliant correspondent and without equal as a writer. Unlike many of his award-winning colleagues, who excel in reporting but bury it in bland prose, Shadid has a keen eye for visual [...]
Afghanistan: Senate Grills ‘The Pope’; Turki Has an Idea
Posted in Afghanistan on June 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
So Stanley McChrystal has a history. Does that mean the Senate shouldn’t confirm him as the next ISAF commander? Let me put it this way: beggars can’t be choosers. With McKiernan already sacked and the war effort faltering, there’s no alternative. And besides, in an eight-year conflict, something bad has happened on everyone’s watch, including [...]
Afghanistan: Body Counts Aren’t Back — They Never Left
Posted in Afghanistan, Iraq on June 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Body counts — enumerating the enemy dead — have made a spectacular comeback in Afghanistan, Michael M. Phillips reports in The Wall Street Journal:
In recent months, the U.S. command in Afghanistan has begun publicizing every single enemy fighter killed in combat, the most detailed body counts the military has released since the practice fell into [...]
Iraq Death Toll Hits Record Low, Whatever That Means
Posted in Iraq on June 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“The number of Iraqi civilians killed fell sharply in May to its lowest since the 2003 invasion”, Reuters reports.
An interesting comparison — I wasn’t aware we knew how many Iraqi civilians died during the invasion.
