… give or take
// The United States is at a turning point in its foreign policy history. For the first time in many decades, the US faces the choice between domestic priorities and foreign entanglements. This fork in the road was bound to arrive sooner or later, but the disastrous and foolhardy adventures begun under George Bush II [...]
// The primary reason the United States invaded Afghanistan in the first place was to fight Al Qaeda and its Islamist allies, particularly the Taliban. Ten years later, now that Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been dramatically weakened, America ostensibly has the luxury of considering significant troop reductions in the region. Needless to [...]
// The death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden is one of the most important accomplishments in recent American history. It is certainly significant in its own right as a testament to the superior military and intelligence work the US is capable of. Yet when one recalls the fact that Osama bin Laden was trained and [...]
// Eric Margolis in the Toronto Sun has written a great, concise primer for ignorant westerners on a country that most people probably didn’t even know existed until the news media became fascinated with it recently after Fort Hood and the failed Christmas bomb attack (terrorist ties in both cases). Margolis puts Yemen into perspective [...]
// From the western perspective, looking on a map, Afghanistan looks like a discrete political unit, comparable to any other sovereign country like France, Canada, Mexico or Japan. Therefore, westerners often assume that the kinds of social and political institutions present in those other countries can also be built in Afghanistan, with due regard for [...]
