Source: The Guardian by Jon Boone (in Kabul) December 7, 2009 The already dire plight of women in Afghanistan risks deteriorating further as the US and its allies take steps to turn around the war against the Taliban, according to a report by Human Rights Watch today. Eight years after the Taliban were ousted from power, rapists are often [...]

Source: The Progressive by Matthew Rothschild December 2, 2009 If you closed your eyes during much of the President’s speech on Afghanistan Tuesday night and just listened to the words, you easily could have concluded that George W. Bush was still in the Oval Office. Or, at the very least, that Obama had stolen his speechwriters. Because, like Bush, Obama [...]

Source: TomDispatch by Tom Engelhardt December 3, 2009 Let others deal with the details of President Obama’s Afghan speech, with the on-ramps and off-ramps, those 30,000 U.S. troops going in and just where they will be deployed, the benchmarks for what’s called “good governance” in Afghanistan, the corruption of the Karzai regime, the viability of counterinsurgency warfare, the [...]

Source: GRITtv December 3, 2009 Barack Obama announced last night that the US would be sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. (No word on how many private contractors would be accompanying them.) He did not explicitly use the Afghan women as justification, but many politicians have, claiming that we cannot leave the women to their fate.

Obama lanzó su plan “Final de Juego” Fuente: The Independent Traducción: Celita Doyhambéhère, Página/12 Con la velocidad ahora en el centro de la estrategia de Obama, la Casa Blanca parece haber calculado que sólo prometiendo una rápida escalada y una rápida retirada de Afganistán se puede sostener el apoyo político en casa. por David Usborne 2 de diciembre, 2009 El presidente [...]

Source: Creators Syndicate by Jim Hightower December 2, 2009 Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to war we go! Pound the drums loudly, stand with your country proudly! Wait, wait, wait — hold it right there. Cut the music, slow the rush, and let’s all ponder what Barack Obama, Roberts Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Co. are getting us into … and [...]

Source: CounterPunch Retaliation was a Trap by Zoltan Grossman December 2, 2009 In just a few months, Afghanistan will surpass Vietnam as the longest single war fought by the United States in its history. In his West Point speech on November 30, President Obama denied that “Afghanistan is another Vietnam”–and in some senses he is correct. Vietnam in 1975 [...]

Source: Reuters by Sayed Salahuddin December 2, 2009 KABUL – Thirty thousand more U.S. troops for Afghanistan? Esmatullah only shrugged. “Even if they bring the whole of America, they won’t be able to stabilise Afghanistan,” said the young construction worker out on a Kabul street corner on Wednesday morning. “Only Afghans understand our traditions, geography and way of life.” U.S. [...]

Source: New York Times by David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt December 1, 2009 WASHINGTON — President Obama focused his speech on Afghanistan. He left much unsaid about Pakistan, where the main terrorists he is targeting are located, but where he can send no troops. Mr. Obama could not be very specific about his Pakistan strategy, his advisers conceded [...]

Source: The Guardian If Barack Obama heralds an escalation of the war, he will betray his own message of hope and deepen my people’s pain by Malalai Joya November 30, 2009 After months of waiting, President Obama is about to announce the new US strategy for Afghanistan. His speech may be long awaited, but few are expecting any surprise: [...]