Posts in "Afghanistan"

Dustin Reid's picture
By Dustin Reid at 8:11PM

Alan Grayson: "We Won in Iraq & Afghanistan!"

I wish this guy was in step with the liberty movement because on issues we agree on no one makes more convincing arguments.

Elliot Engstrom's picture
By Elliot Engstrom at 8:59AM

Eagles We Were, Eagles We Will Be Again

The following article is a response to Thomas Qualtere of The Heritage Foundation’s recent article “Hawks we are, hawks we must remain,” published on the Web site of The Daily Caller.

I rarely become truly angry when reading the opinion of a fellow human being. As should be obvious from my libertarian associations, I understand that free speech is inextricably linked with freedom. However, while I would never advocate for the silencing of one whose opinion I find little to no common ground with, I can still say that Thomas Qualtere of the Heritage Foundation’s recent article concerning the future of both foreign policy and conservatism in our nation deeply saddens me, and reinforces in my mind the importance of helping my fellow Americans gain an accurate understanding of the misguided foreign policy that has led our country into a cycle of perpetual war and violence from which it often seems there is no escape.

Qualtere attempts to address the question of where the youth of today should commit themselves in terms of creating the American foreign policy of tomorrow.  “We are the 9/11 generation,” he writes.  Qualtere states that we are a generation that should understand the cost of not confronting our enemies overseas, and that the lessons of 9/11 should be our call to fight for an American foreign policy that deals with our enemies where they live, rather than lets them come to strike us at home.


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Roy Antoun's picture
By Roy Antoun at 12:21PM

A Resignation Letter of Disgust

A Captain Matthew P. Hoh of the U.S. Marine Corps resigned from his foreign service in Afghanistan last year after finally realizing that the "strategy" in Afghanistan wasn't really a strategy at all.  He criticized:

  • A President whose confidants and chief advisers comprise drug lords and war crimes villains, who mock our own rule of law and counternarcotics efforts
  • A system of provincial and district leaders constituted of local power brokers, opportunists and strongmen allied to the United States solely for, and limited by, the value of our USAID and CERP contracts and whose own political and economic interests stand nothing to gain from any positive or genuine attempts at reconciliation

You can find the full resignation letter here.

Thanks to Edward Furst for citing this piece in an essay he wrote.

Brian Beyer's picture
By Brian Beyer at 6:57PM

Senseless and Shameful

I write today both angry and sad. Yesterday, the number of dead American soldiers in Afghanistan reached 1,000. That means 1,000 less brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and children. All in the name of what? Protecting freedom? Building schools? Fighting a war tactic? These young people are dying in vain for a cause which is not what our government makes it out to be -- a worthless cause in an unwinnable conflict.

Help stop the bloodshed.

Contact your local representatives and demand immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, if anyone you know is considering joining the military, try with all your might to convince them not to. After all, it could be the last conversation you ever have with them. 

Roy Antoun's picture
By Roy Antoun at 1:32PM

On a Road to Disaster

Baloch Warriors from the 1800sThe New York Times recently reported that a “NATO airstrike on Sunday against what international troops believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing 27 civilians in the worst episode involving noncombatant deaths in six months, Afghan officials said on Monday.

NATO, an international organization which is supposed to “safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries,” found it necessary to kill innocent civilians in the name of freedom and security. Understanding that civilian casualties are always and should always be expected, targeting 27 is hardly just a "mistake."

This not only represents the failure of international organizations to promote anything for the common good, but it also shows how the strategy in Afghanistan is inherently flawed and on a road to disaster.

It’s extremely difficult to fight a land war in Afghanistan, let alone win a war on an ideology.


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Elliot Engstrom's picture
By Elliot Engstrom at 3:22PM

US Forces Launch "Largest Invasion Since the War Began"

The Wall Street Journal reports:

U.S. and Afghan troops invaded this Taliban-held town early Saturday, launching the main thrust of the largest coalition offensive since 2001, a test of whether America's surge strategy can rescue the faltering war effort.

British, Afghan and U.S. troops were poised to begin an even larger thrust to take over one of the last Taliban-controlled bastions in the volatile Helmand River Valley. The offensive in Marjah began with small teams dropping into the town around midnight to kill or capture insurgent leaders.

The invasion has been planned and announced fairly publicly for over a month, according to antiwar.com.  Both US and Taliban forces asked civilians to stay put.  However, this was certainly not the case.


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Elliot Engstrom's picture
By Elliot Engstrom at 3:49PM

Civilian deaths and conscription in Afghanistan

As has been the case since the beginning of the conflict in Afghanistan, the numbers of civilian dead or wounded continue to be staggering.  Unfortunately, the Western "solution" to increase support for the Karzai government, which is in effect nothing but one more faction competing for power, will in fact simply increase the source of the problem, as the addition of 40,000 troops to the country will merely increase the amount of night bombings and air support needed for American (excuse me...coalition) forces.

Karzai seems to have a great solution to the problem of civilian deaths -- make everyone join the military!  The Associated Press reports:

Karzai told a conference of the world's top defense officials in Munich that he wants to build and train an army and police force of 300,000 by 2012 that will be able to provide security for Afghanistan by 2015 without external help.


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Bonnie Kristian's picture
By Bonnie Kristian at 7:43AM

Western Execution of Afghan Children?

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The (UK) Times reports:

American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.

Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed.

I very much hope this report is false -- though I don't support our presence in Afghanistan at all, I also don't want this to be true of the soldiers we have there.  It brings the injustice to a new level.

Side note:  Have any of you seen reports of this in American media?  I haven't.

Dustin Reid's picture
By Dustin Reid at 11:44PM

Stewart: "getting attacked -- only way Americans learn about geography"

It's starting to get a bit absurd. I'm not sure how much longer the government is going to be able to sell the War on Terror when we must go to war with a new country every six months. First it was Afghanistan and Iraq; yesterday it was Pakistan and Iran; today we're discussing Yemen and tomorrow it's going to be...Oman? Jon Stewart points out the criteria by which Yemen qualifies to be the next country in line for American occupation.

Paul St.Jean's picture
By Paul St.Jean at 7:19AM

Stranger Danger!

I am currently working on a debate case with the resolution, "The United States government should not set a deadline to leave Afghanistan." I had a vague idea that I would try to come at it from the angle that the Afghanis wouldn't be safe from the Taliban if we left. So I started to look for cases of the Taliban targeting civilians. Do you know how many I found? A big zero.

See, the Taliban only targets invading military groups -- foreign invaders. And if you think it's because we're American and free, think again. They need no other reason to hate and fear us then that we have invaded their country, destroyed their land, and killed their children.

So what if we left?   It might take some time to settle down, but the bombings would stop and these people we claim to be protecting would be safe again. We are clearly not over there to bring stability and peace to these people. So here's a question. What are we there for?