Over a decade occupying the place, hundreds of billions spent and this is the result (via the Washington Post): After signing a 10-year lease and spending more than $80 million on a site envisioned as the United States’ diplomatic hub in northern Afghanistan, American officials say they have abandoned their plans, deeming the location for…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
Taliban Poetry adds a sonnet or two to tonight’s reading group
Surely the only way to understand Afghanistan is to listen to all voices: A British publisher has defended its decision to release a collection of poems penned by members of the Taliban. The book comprises more than 200 works which centre on insurgents’ experiences during the decade-long conflict and document “the thrill of battle”. A…
Are only multinationals with bad records able to continually secure contracts?
The global onslaught of vulture capitalists continues space: Giant US military-industrial company Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) is in the running to win a slice of a controversial …£1.5 billion (US$2.43 billion) contract to transform the West Midlands and Surrey police forces in Britain, The (London) Times reported.… Hailed as the largest police privatization scheme…
What Obama’s deal with Afghanistan really allows
Away from the slop offered by mainstream propagandists, Washington’s occupation of Afghanistan will continue for years to come, as Gareth Porter explains: The optics surrounding the Barack Obama administration’s “Enduring Strategic Partnership” agreement with Afghanistan and the Memorandums of Understanding accompanying it emphasise transition to Afghan responsibility and an end to U.S. war. But the…
Charming US TV propaganda endorses Obama plans in Afghanistan
Putting aside the empty and utterly delusional words by Obama in Afghanistan – the country remains mired in conflict and US actions are merely worsening that reality – the introduction by the US ABC TV channel could have been written by the White House itself: video platform video management video solutions video player
Nobody said US war-making was smart; paying insurgents off who then attack us
No commentary required (and similar things are clearly happening in Afghanistan, I heard it discussed routinely during my recent visit there). Eli Lake reports for The Daily Beast: During the war in Iraq, battalion commanders were allocated packets of $100 bills and authorized to use them for anything from repairing a schoolhouse to paying off…
Scahill on Obama’s war on Muslim civilians
The relentless US-led drone war against “terrorists” in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond rarely examines who is actually being killed. President Obama has massively expanded the global program. This weekend saw a Drone Summit held… in Washington DC that highlighted this still largely secret war. A keynote speaker was the leading investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill…
Shadow of Bin Laden continues to haunt
The life and times of Osama Bin Laden post 9/11 remains shrouded in mystery. During my recent visit to Pakistan, I spent time with Shaukat Qadir, a retired Pakistani Army Brigadier, who personally investigated the story behind Bin Laden’s killing last year. This lead story in the Guardian by Jason Bourke adds more details to…
Role of Taliban central in Afghanistan (whether the West likes it or not)
Intriguing interview in The Daily Beast that highlights the internal struggles within a movement that has beaten the US and its allies in Afghanistan: Not so long ago,… Agha Jan Motasim… was one of the most important men in the Afghan Taliban. That was before he was sacked as head of the ruling Quetta Shura’s political committee—and…
What Afghanistan truly needs
My friend Benjamin Gilmour, film-maker and writer, is in Afghanistan. Here are some of his reflections (which match much of what I heard during my recent visit): How can we bring development to Afghanistan if we don’t have security? It is still the question put to us by backers of our longest war, and we…