The present U.S. policy in Afghanistan of using air strikes to target local Taliban leaders was rejected by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan in early 2004 as certain to turn the broader population against the U.S. presence. Lt. Gen. David Barno, the three-star...
When is a child not a child? Apparently, when he is Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old Canadian who was shot in the back after a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002. Omar has been in U.S. custody ever since, first at a prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, and for the...
PORTLAND, Ore. - Veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, along with Iraqis, Afghans, Vietnam veterans, and family members of U.S. military personnel, converged in this West Coast city over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed...
I have suggested in previous columns that the al-Qaeda model of 4GW may be failing for inherent reasons, i.e., for reasons it cannot fix. "Tom Ricks's Inbox" in the Oct. 19 Washington Post offers some confirmation of that assessment. Ricks writes:...
Updated at 7:35 p.m .EDT, Oct. 21, 2008Yet another mass grave was discovered today. Like the others this week, the victims were buried for months, if not years. Overall, at least 27 Iraqis were killed or found dead, and another 56 were wounded in the latest reports....
Whoever wins the presidency in two weeks will have to put his own stamp on the United States' foreign and security policies. Though constrained by an economy that can no longer afford guns and butter, the U.S. president can pretty much call the shots on foreign...
On Sept. 23, the neoconservative chiefs of the Washington Post's editorial page mourned, in a tone much like what one hears on the death of a close friend, that "a military strike by the United States or Israel [on Iran is not] likely in the coming months."...
Militarily, the most helpful – or least harmful – thing the West can do is to withdraw all troops from the entire Middle East, and from South Asia to boot. That's the bottom line I got from a conversation with celebrated British foreign correspondent Robert...
The former head of Britain's intelligence agency, MI5, says the U.S. response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks – specifically the invasion of Iraq – and the launching of a worldwide "war on terrorism" was "a huge overreaction." Those words would've gotten her...
Updated at 11:55 p.m. EDT, Oct. 20, 2008At least 28 Iraqis were killed and another 16 were wounded in the latest attacks. Also, a U.S. Marine was killed in a non-combat incident at a base in Anbar. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iraq have apparently agreed on a security pact...
