Afghanistan

The U.S. Isn’t Leaving Afghanistan

by Sheldon Richman November 20, 2013

UPDATED If a draft agreement between the Obama administration and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is finalized, U.S. troops will remain in that country indefinitely — instead of being withdrawn at the end of 2014, as the administration has said. This is a confession of failure. America’s longest war is nowhere near its end. The draft agreement (PDF) dated July 25, ...

TGIF: The Lie Factory

by Sheldon Richman June 7, 2013

In his latest major address on foreign policy, President Obama said this: So after I took office … we pursued a new strategy in Afghanistan, and increased our training of Afghan forces.… In Afghanistan, we will complete our transition to Afghan responsibility for that country’s security. Our troops will come home. Our combat mission will come to an end. ...

Deeper in the Afghan Quagmire

by Sheldon Richman September 14, 2012

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has designated the Haqqani network a terrorist organization. What is the Haqqani network? Wikipedia says that it is an insurgent group using asymmetric warfare to fight against US-led NATO forces and the government of Afghanistan. Originating in Afghanistan during the mid-1970s, it was nurtured by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistan’s Inter-Services ...

The Obama Administration “Brainwashes” the Public on Afghanistan

by Sheldon Richman May 20, 2012

In 1967 Gov. George W. Romney of Michigan, a potential contender for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, abandoned his earlier support for the war in Vietnam, which he had previously called “morally right and necessary.” Asked why he had changed his position, Romney said, “When I came back from Vietnam , I’d just had the greatest brainwashing ...

Out of Afghanistan Now!

by Sheldon Richman March 2, 2012

Memo from the people of Afghanistan to the United States: Get out! Now! The mass demonstrations in Afghanistan, punctuated by anti-American violence, carry a clear message: After more than a decade, the U.S. empire should pack up and leave. It’s long past time. The news media, in its typically shallow fashion, attribute the current popular outrage to the ...

Obama Administration Brainwashes Public on Afghanistan

by Sheldon Richman February 21, 2012

In 1967, Michigan Governor George W. Romney, a potential contender for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, abandoned his earlier support for the war in Vietnam, which he had called “morally right and necessary.” Asked why he changed his position, Romney said, “When I came back from Viet Nam , I’d just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody ...

The Myth of Withdrawal from Afghanistan

by Sheldon Richman September 21, 2011

Despite Barack Obama's trumpeted force draw-down in Afghanistan, by the end of next summer more than twice as many U.S. troops will be fighting in that country's civil war as there were when he became president in 2009. His soothing words notwithstanding, a force of about 70,000 will remain there at least until the end of 2014. We can ...