For reasons beyond me, Atlantic-Community.org asked me to take part in their expert survey on EU policy towards Pakistan. I hardly qualify as an “international expert”, but in case you’re interested, here’s what I wrote them:
How does Pakistan’s instability impact EU security concerns?
I believe the extent of Pakistan’s political instability is somewhat exaggerated. The Pakistani [...]
Archive for the ‘Afghanistan’ Category
EU and Pakistan: My Two Cents
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on June 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Afghanistan: Extremists ‘Target Families of ISAF Soldiers’
Posted in Afghanistan on June 14, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Finnish ISAF soldiers heading for Northern Afghanistan can no longer be photographed or identified by name in the media because of potential extremist threats to their families, according to a Finnish commander interviewed by my hometown newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Does anyone else find this rather unlikely? Josh? Christian?
Afghanistan: Al-Qaeda ‘Involved in Insurgency Since 2002′
Posted in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda on June 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Al-Qaida was involved in the insurgency in Afghanistan from the very beginning in 2002″, Anne Stenersen argues in a new FFI conference paper that will be a nice eye-opener to anyone under the illusion that the West is fighting a monolithic enemy in Afghanistan. Also:
“When looking at biographies of militants who died in the area [...]
In Afghanistan Reviews, Fifth Time the Charm?
Posted in Afghanistan on June 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his deputy, Gen. David Rodriguez to proceed with a review of war strategy, McClatchy’s Nancy Youssef reports.
This is excellent news — it has been almost two months since the war was last reviewed.
[h/t Spencer Ackerman.]
Afghanistan: Misidentifying the Enemy
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on June 9, 2009 | 3 Comments »
In Triage, the new CNAS report on Afghanistan and Pakistan authored by Andrew Exum, Nathaniel Fick, Ahmed Humayun and David Kilcullen, the word ‘Taliban’ is used 69 times. For example:
The Taliban is pursuing a strategy of exhaustion designed to bleed away public support in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe for continued Western engagement [...]
Triaging Afghanistan with the Wrong Metrics
Posted in Afghanistan on June 6, 2009 | 5 Comments »
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
