I have argued over and again in this blog that the United States must stand up and take moral responsibility for its actions in Iraq, even if it means an open-ended military commitment in an increasingly hostile environment. Even so, I have to admit I find it extremely hard to disagree with Baghdad Operations Command [...]
Archive for July, 2009
Iraq: The ‘Let’s Get the Hell Out of Dodge’ Argument
Posted in Iraq on July 31, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Afghanistan: Record Number of Civilians Killed
Posted in Afghanistan on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
For those eager to use civilian casualties as a metric of progress in Afghanistan, the news isn’t good. According to UNAMA’s newly-released mid-year bulletin, Afghan civilians continue to die violently in ever increasing numbers. The gist: In the first six months of 2009, UNAMA recorded 1013 civilian deaths, compared with 818 for the same period [...]
Two Guys Go to Afghanistan…
Posted in Afghanistan on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Two bright guys go to Afghanistan. One comes back with bad news: If this is all we’ve got, we’re gonna lose. The other comes back with… blabber. I’m a great fan of Abu Muqawama, and I don’t mean to pick on Exum, but why is it that this up-and-coming hotshot COINdinista has nothing meaningful to [...]
Afghanistan: ‘Intimidated’ Civilians As a Metric?
Posted in Afghanistan on July 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In an interview with WPR’s Judah Grunstein, Andrew Exum responds to criticism that civilian casualties are a dead metric in Afghanistan: I think that the population is not being kinetically targeted in the same way it was in Iraq, but what that misses is a silent war of fear and intimidation. Let me sketch this [...]
Afghanistan: Good Things Will Come Out of This War
Posted in Afghanistan on July 28, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Since I started covering Afghanistan 20 years ago, I have rarely felt as pessimistic as I do now. I have seen friends and acquaintances perish in the neverending war, and now it seems this black hole of a country is sucking in the rest of us. Sure, it is a black hole of our own [...]
Afghanistan: Trouble in the North
Posted in Afghanistan on July 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Things haven’t been going well in Kunduz lately, and now they’re no longer looking good in Mazar-e-Sharif, either. Finnish and Swedish ISAF troops deployed in the city came under fire twice last week; they have also been hit by suicide bombers and IEDs. Incredibly, the Finnish government still insists we’re not at war. When an [...]
Breaking: Abu Muqawama Goes All Mushy on McChrystal
Posted in Afghanistan on July 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Funny how Afghanistan affects people. Josh Foust came back pessimistic as ever. For the inimitable Andrew Exum, however, the place apparently was an eye-opener of a different sort. Exum fought in Afghanistan in 2002, but since returning from his latest civilian sojourn, the normally witty and sarcastic Abu Muqawama has turned into a walking billboard [...]
Any Resemblance to Real Persons, Living or Dead in This Blog Post Is Purely Coincidental
Posted in Afghanistan on July 22, 2009 | 4 Comments »
If I were an ageing man with a reedy voice, nervous manner and a forgettable career as a deskjockey in an army proud of its combat-tested prowess, would I turn into a bloodthirsty moron? Maybe I would, and if I did, and a TV channel happened to offer me a job as a military analyst, [...]
Iraq: Time for Daddy to Take Away the Car Keys
Posted in Iraq on July 21, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I have a difficult relationship with Captain’s Journal. On the one hand, I find Herschel Smith’s politics mystifying (who the hell cares if he’s a Christian?) and his self-congratulatory glee (“we said so and we were right”) distasteful. On the other hand, he writes well, reads a lot and, oddly enough, is often right. Case [...]
Afghanistan, the Short Version
Posted in Afghanistan on July 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Stephen Walt provides by far the best summary I’ve read of events in Afghanistan since 2001: [...] About eight years ago a small group of anti-American criminals hijacked four airplanes and flew three of them into buildings in the United States. The ringleaders of the plot were in Afghanistan, and the Afghan government (at that [...]
