taliban Archives - Just Foreign Policy

Reset: Stephen Kinzer’s Vision of a New U.S. Relationship with Turkey and Iran

June 8, 2010

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…

Commentary

Groups to Obama: Say Yes to Peace Talks in Afghanistan

May 11, 2010

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…

Commentary

Can Arlen Specter End the War in Afghanistan?

December 11, 2009

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…

Commentary

Obama Invokes “Just War,” But Is the War in Afghanistan “Just”?

December 10, 2009

“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…

Commentary

Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan

November 13, 2009

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…

Commentary

Team Obama: Afghan Taliban Not a Threat to U.S.

October 8, 2009

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,…

NYT: Taliban Offer Afghan Peace Plan

May 22, 2009

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…

Commentary

ObamaNation Wants Taliban Talks, Not Military Escalation, in Afghanistan

April 6, 2009

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…

Commentary

Obama Narrows Afghan Goals – And Leaves Them Wide

March 27, 2009

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,…

Commentary

Afghanistan: The Four Questions

March 26, 2009

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…

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