This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan
More private contractors than soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, the first time in history that corporate casualties have outweighed military losses on America’s battlefields. More than 250 civilians working under U.S. contracts died in the war zones between January and June 2010, according to a ProPublica analysis of the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Labor, which tracks contractor deaths. In the same period, 235 soldiers died, according (...) read
date of on-line publication : 27 September 2010
Giving Up On Victory, Not War
> The United States, Israel, and the Failure of the Western Way of War
Nearly 20 years ago, a querulous Madeleine Albright demanded to know: “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” Today, an altogether different question deserves our attention: What’s the point of constantly using our superb military if doing so doesn’t actually work? Washington’s refusal to pose that question provides a measure of the corruption and dishonesty permeating our politics. Read (...) read
date of on-line publication : 20 August 2010
The Great Myth: Counterinsurgency
As success in Afghanistan becomes more uncertain, Conn Hallinan argues that the problem is not Afghanistan, but the entire concept of counterinsurgency. Read more read
date of on-line publication : 20 August 2010
Obama’s “Remainees”. Will Not One But Two Guantanamos Define the American Future?
On his first day in office, President Barack Obama promised that he would close the Bush-era prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “as soon as practicable” and “no later than one year from the date of this order.” By now, it’s painfully obvious that the rejoicing, like the president’s can-do optimism, was wildly premature. To the dismay of many, that year milestone passed, barely noticed, months ago. As yet there is no sign that the notorious eight-year-old detention facility is close to a shut down. (...) read
date of on-line publication : 25 May 2010
Afghanistan as a Drug War
Since Afghanistan now grows the opium poppies that provide more than 90% of the world’s opium, the raw material for the production of heroin, it’s not surprising that drug-trade news and war news intersect from time to time. More surprising is how seldom poppy growing and the drug trade are portrayed as anything but ancillary to our Afghan War. Fortunately, TomDispatch regular Alfred McCoy has been focused on the drug trade — and the American role in fostering it — in Southeast, Central, and (...) read
date of on-line publication : 31 March 2010
The Year of the Drone: study shows one third of victims are civilians
New America Foundation study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan from 2004 to February 2010 have killed between 830 and 1,210 individuals, of whom around 550 to 850 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about two-thirds of the total on average. Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 percent. Data here and analysis (...) read
date of on-line publication : 12 March 2010
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Kissinger’s fantasy is Obama’s reality
The road to stability runs through Kashmir. With its latest surge, America has taken a terrible diversion. Meeting George Bush at the White House to discuss Afghanistan, the Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid once marvelled at how a "US president could live in such an unreal world, where the entire military and intelligence establishments were so gullible, the media so complacent, Congress so unquestioning – all of them involved in feeding half-truths to the American public". The masters of (...) read
date of on-line publication : 17 December 2009
South Asia: Women’s Peace Offensive
Within the South Asian region, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan have for decades been torn by internal and external conflicts that have cried out for, but have not quite found, a lasting resolution. Aware of the repercussions of remaining silent on a host of issues, including peace and security, that affect them as much as men, women today are increasingly raising their voice in a bid to be heard in the corridors of power and at the policymaking levels. Read (...) read
date of on-line publication : 5 November 2009
Afghanistan: chaos central
> Chris Sands
A correspondent looks back at the deterioration across the country over the past three years: the resurgence of both the Taliban and the old corrupt elites, the failure of the occupation forces, and the worsening conditions of life for everybody else. As the summer of 2005 faded, everyone in Kabul had forgotten there was a war on. American soldiers bought carpets in Chicken Street bazaar; mercenaries downed vodka in restaurants before wandering upstairs to sleep with Chinese prostitutes. (...) read
date of on-line publication : 12 February 2009
AFGHANISTAN: Terrified Civilians Flee NATO Bombings
Muhammad ran towards his home, where dozens of villagers were shouting his name as they surrounded his house. "The house was split in half by the bomb," he recalls. "The walls were collapsed and crumbled. Blood was pouring from my nephew (seven-years-old) like it was water. He had shrapnel in his brain and stomach. I then saw my sister’s headscarf peaking out from underneath the rubble and so we raced desperately to save her. When we pulled her out from the wreckage I saw her body — she was (...) read
date of on-line publication : 26 March 2008
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