You can’t follow U.S. print media coverage of the war in Afghanistan for any length of time without running into some variation of the following assertion: "The Taliban Will Never Negotiate, As Long As They Think They’re Winning." No serious effort is usually made to substantiate this claim, which is asserted as if it…
A major contribution of the "inside experts" Afghanistan Study Group report (read here ; send to your reps in Congress here), released last week to spur Washington debate towards de-escalating the war at the next fork in the road is that its very first recommendation is this: 1. Emphasize power-sharing and political inclusion. The U.S….
There is a tradition among some peace activists of striking a pose of annoyed indifference to the question of how to get out of an unpopular war. "There are three ways to get out," goes one waggish response. "Air, land, and sea." This is funny and emotionally satisfying, and also represents a truth for peace…
President Obama wants credit for keeping his promise to end the war in Iraq. Some credit is due: the President reaffirmed his commitment to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, as required by the agreement between the U.S. and Iraq. But only partial credit is due, because the war-ending task…
Much ink has been spilled over the President’s pledge to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July 2011. The White House insists that the date is firm. But the pace of withdrawal is yet to be determined, and the White House hasn’t said a word about when – if ever – a U.S. military…
A commonly proffered argument against negotiations to end the war in Afghanistan has been: "why should the Afghan Taliban negotiate, when they think they are winning?" For many months, this argument was offered by Administration officials to explain why they would not yet pursue serious negotiations with senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban. More recently,…
No reasonable person would have bet serious money that news editors at the New York Times would be huge fans of Oliver Stone’s new documentary about South America, “South of the Border.” A key point of the film is that mainstream US press coverage of South America in recent years has generally followed State Department…
Today is the seventh anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie in Gaza by Israeli government bulldozer, and the anniversary this year comes at an unusually bad time in US-Israel relations – by which I mean, of course, that it comes at an unusually wonderful time in US-Israel relations, one of those rare times in…
I don’t know about all you commiepinkos, but I believe we should Support Our Troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Petraeus, Admiral Mullen, and Vice-President Biden say that Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians are putting our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in danger. That’s why, to Support Our Troops, the U.S. government must effectively pressure…
On foreign policy, while the President said some good things, he missed key opportunities to say better things. In particular, he missed opportunities to promote reconciliation as an essential way of ending our wars and promoting peace. In speaking about U.S. domestic politics, the President is eloquent in his efforts to promote reconciliation, but he…