Posts Tagged ‘Petraeus’
Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea”
In a brilliant reflection on Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, Nosheen Ali exposes how the book constructs a patronising and misleading narrative of terror in which the realities of Northern Pakistan and Muslim life-worlds are distorted through simplistic tropes of ignorance, backwardness and extremism, while histories of US geopolitics and [...]
Why Afghanistan is a lost cause
San Francisco Chronicle | By Joel Brinkley | 11 July 2010 As Gen. David Petraeus assumed his new command in Afghanistan earlier this month, he took up a strategy that has already failed - though not for the reasons most people assume. Certainly, as most everyone knows, the battle plan appears hopeless. Every night in Marjah, Taliban [...]
Pravda on Petraeus’ COIN and Human Terrain Strategy
Pravda.ru | By John Stanton | 2 July 2010 General Petraeus’ Magic Bag: Human Terrain System & Covert Ops So General David Petraeus is back on the COIN campaign trail arguing that pacifying the Human Terrain (HT) is his number one priority. Petraeus’ model program for converting an indigenous human terrain that is opposed to US [...]
When the ‘Right War’ Goes Wrong
Antiwar | By William Pfaff | 30 June 2010 The increasingly dangerous Afghanistan situation is worth analysis at two levels, that of the war itself, the ultimately doomed attempt by the United States to conquer the Taliban insurrection and impose a pro-American government, and the domestic political effect of Barack Obama’s misguided decision [...]
Little change in ‘Chaosistan’
The News |By Rahimullah Yusufzai | Tuesday, June 29, 2010 "...it is amazing that nobody is aware or is willing to talk about the tactics being used by the Taliban to pin down the greatest armies of the world. So many US and Nato generals have been rendered helpless and consigned to oblivion by the superior strategies being applied by [...]
Did McChrystal Run Away from a Losing War?
Consortium News | By Ray McGovern | 24 June 2010 Obama Misses the Afghan Exit Ramp Is President Barack Obama so dense that he could not see why Gen. Stanley McChrystal might actually have wanted to be fired — and rescued from the current March of Folly in Afghanistan, a mess much of his own making? McChrystal leaves behind a long trail [...]
US/ISAF Chain of Command in Afghanistan
By Arshad Zaman | 23 June 2010 The chain of command out of Afghanistan has sometimes perplexed analysts. The confusion arises because of a latent de facto US forces chain of command, that sails under the much publicised NATO flag as an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), of which the U.S. ostensibly is just one member. The solution [...]
Obama’s Choice: Withdraw or Reinforce Failure?
Los Angeles Times | By Doyle McManus | 17 June 2010 Obama's mixed Afghanistan messages Choices are stark: Stick to the timetable and drawdown, or stick it out until the job is done. And so far, he has signaled intent to do both. The news from Afghanistan has been bad lately. The military campaign to win control of Kandahar, the [...]
Obama to Petraeus: Yes You Can!
Antiwar | By Jeff Huber | 15 June 2010 King David and His Howling Commandos As Renaissance political scientist Niccolo Machiavelli noted, the fall of Rome came about when its military elite, known as the Praetorian Guard, gained control over the emperor and the Senate. Had irony survived the Bush Jr. administration, it would relish that [...]
Petraeus Faints During Senate Grilling
New York Times | By By Thom Shanker | 15 June 2010 Petraeus Appears to Faint During Senate Testimony WASHINGTON — The commander of American forces in the Middle East. Gen. David H. Petraeus, appeared to faint briefly during an intense period of questioning Tuesday by senators concerning whether the military can fulfill President Obama’s [...]
