Until quite recently, it seemed that Turkey had a clearly defined role in the Middle East, from the standpoint of U.S. policy. They were the "good Muslims," who were part of NATO, who contributed troops to U.S. wars, and who had good relations with Israel. In the past few weeks, therefore, some Americans may have…
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, Peace Action, NETWORK, Just Foreign Policy and Voters for Peace (update: and other groups, see updated list of signers at end) are sending the following letter to President Obama, urging him to say yes to the Afghan government’s request that the US support peace talks. An ad with the…
Who knew Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter would emerge as one of the most vocal opponents in the Senate of the President’s military escalation in Afghanistan? But so it is. In an op-ed this week in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Specter not only challenges the “surge”; he also challenges fundamental premises of the war. Specter writes: I’m…
“Accepting Peace Prize, Obama Evokes ‘Just War,’” notes the headline in the New York Times, referring to President Obama’s speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. President Obama did indeed invoke the concept of a “just war.” But tellingly, he did not try to argue that the U.S. war in Afghanistan meets the criteria to be…
Is it just me, or is the pontification of Western leaders about corruption in Afghanistan growing rather tiresome? There is something very Captain Renault about it. We’re shocked, shocked that the Afghans have sullied our morally immaculate occupation of their country with their dirty corruption. How ungrateful can they be? But perhaps we should consider…
All hands on deck, Obama Nation. The ship of state is turning. The New York Times reports: President Obama’s national security team is moving to reframe its war strategy by emphasizing the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan while arguing that the Taliban in Afghanistan do not pose a direct threat to the United States,…
With the passage of the war supplemental by the Senate, President Obama and Congress are “doubling down” on war in Afghanistan. Are we – and the Afghan people – doomed to endure many more years of war? There is no reason that we need be, according to yesterday’s New York Times, which reports that talks…
Americans elected President Obama in part based on his promise to put diplomacy and international cooperation, rather than the use and threat of military force, at the center of his foreign policy. With respect to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while there have been some encouraging signals, in terms of actually implemented policies the folks who voted…
A progressive Congressional staffer once told me: “The first rule of Congress is – if you have the opportunity to vote both ways on the same issue, do it.” In “narrowing” the goals for the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, President Obama appears to have obeyed the first rule of Congress. In his speech on Afghanistan,…
President Obama is expected to “announce” his “new” Afghanistan strategy Friday — the traditional Washington day for burying things. But there aren’t likely to be many surprises. The administration has been dribbling details out to the news media, and what has been foreshadowed includes: more troops, more civilians, narrower goals; a renewed concession, perhaps, that…