Marc Valdez Weblog (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
We're always preparing for the last war, and making false analogies , and otherwise getting everything bass-ackwards. So it has always been, and so it will always be! Juan Cole writes from an informed Iraqi-centric point-of-view: President Barack Obama’s just-announced plan for Afghanistan seems modeled less on Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam strategy than on George W. Bush’s...
Snuffysmith's Blog (Free subscription) | 12/02/2009
Top Ten things that Could Derail Obama's Afghanistan Plan 1. Obama's plan depends heavily on training 100,000 new soldiers and 100,000 new policemen over the next three years. It has taken 8 years to train the first 100,000 soldiers fairly well, and the same period for the Europeans to train a similar number of police badly. Can the pace really be more than doubled and quality results still obtained?...
Psyche, Science, and Society (Free subscription) | 12/01/2009
On this fateful day, Juan Cole informs us that there simply is no “Afghan government” for the US to “partner” with. There is nothing but a bunch of thieves (15 current and former cabinet ministers under investigation for fraud, how many others not yet being investigated'): Obama Partnering with Afghan Gov’t But is there any there there? By [...]
Marc Ambinder (Free subscription) | yesterday
... martyred in drone attacks." If his story is true (and it may very well be false, although Juan Cole calls it "plausible"), it would suggest that the drone program does exactly what Obama has said he wants to do in this war: deny al-Qaeda a safe haven. This wouldn't necessarily outweigh the many problems of the drone program, especially if, as critics insist, it creates...
Indybay newswire (Free subscription) | yesterday
From a Friday, December 4, 2009 entry on Informed Comment a blog run by Juan Cole
Indybay newswire (Free subscription) | yesterday
From a Friday, December 4, 2009 entry on Informed Comment a blog run by Juan Cole
Indybay newswire (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
From a Thursday, December 3, 2009 entry on Informed Comment a blog run by Juan Cole
And, yes, I DO take it personally (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
juan cole ... The last time a foreign military staged a 'surge,' i.e. the Soviets in the early 1980s, it produced so much violence that 3 million Afghans were forced to flee to northern Pakistan. Islamabad is wary lest that patter be repeated. which would explain why pakistan has more than a few concerns about obama's proposed escalation in afghanistan... i know quite a few afghans who...
rochesterturning.com (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
Now that the big speech is over might want to review Middle and far east expert Professor Juan Cole’s take. Specifically, how the new escalation can come off the rails. Read the whole thing but here are some highlights of the ten concerns he has. Pay attention to #5 1. Obama’s plan depends heavily on training 100,000 [...] Related posts: Afghanistan, more troops, why? Sirota...
Larvatus Prodeo (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
Well, as widely reported, Obama has finally announced a new policy for the Afghanistan conflict. In short, 30,000 more troops are to be deployed there in the short term. After eighteen months, it’s planned that troops will “begin to come home”, though exactly what that means is open to question. Juan Cole [...]
Letter from Here (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
... lasted only as long as it took for opposing tribal groups to get organized and overthrow it.) Juan Cole's excellent, knowledgeable analysis in today's Salon is especially good on the different ethnic loyalties and the role they play, and how the situation in Afghanistan is completely different from the one in Iraq, which is why the surge in Iraq makes such a poor model for the one...
Indybay newswire (Free subscription) | 12/02/2009
From a Wednesday, December 2, 2009 entry on Informed Comment a blog run by Juan Cole
SocraticGadfly (Free subscription) | 12/02/2009
Juan Cole makes a good case President Obama is misreading any analogies with Iraq and the surge there, and that most such analogies only exist in the minds of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment anyway. Dan Froomkin has much more on this , including, in essence, a flip-flip mentality by Obama. Or, self-petard-hoisting, perhaps we should say. Zbigniew Brzezinski has some concerns...
Carson's Post (Free subscription) | 12/01/2009
Here is the Afghan government Obama is supporting, according to Juan Cole, acknowledged expert. Does the government function? Can it deliver services? As might be expected, governmental capacity is low, but here are some specifics. Months after the controversial presidential election that many Afghans consider stolen, there is no cabinet, and parliament is threatening to go on recess...
Indybay newswire (Free subscription) | 12/01/2009
From a Tuesday, December 1, 2009 entry on Informed Comment a blog run by Juan Cole
