South Asia

The Pentagon cannot account for the over $8 bn. given out to cronies in the first years of the Iraq occupation, money which came from Iraq’s oil proceeds to begin with. The reason is that in the chaotic days after the fall of the Baath government and the collapse of the old economy, Paul Bremer […]

Afghanistan

Cloughley– “Against a Rush to Judgment: Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban”

Juan Cole

In light of the Wikileaks Pentagon documents are full of allegations by US military personnel of Pakistani collaboration with the Taliban, and they have increased tensions among the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is worth taking a step back, however, and remembering that not everything in classified documents is true or well founded. It is […]

Afghanistan

Wikileaks on Hiding the War; and, American Security? Rethinking Afghanistan Pt. 6

Juan Cole

The Taliban now claim that they killed one US sailor and captured another in Logar Province as the US mounts a massive manhunt for the survivor. The Afghanistan war now has its own Pentagon papers— 90,000 documents leaked to Wikileaks and then to The Guardian and two other newspapers, which show a pattern of covering […]

Afghanistan

Women of Afghanistan: Rethink Afghanistan, Part 5

Juan Cole

Rethink Afghanistan, pt. 5, directed by Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, covers women’s issues. Recent news on this front: On Saturday it became clear that fighting on Friday between NATO and Taliban guerrillas left some 30 civilians dead, including women and children, when they were caught in the crossfire. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon asks of […]

Afghanistan

Civilian Casualties are Causing the War in the First Place: Rethinking Afghanistan, Pt. 4

Juan Cole

Part Four of Rethinking Afghanistan, directed by Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, covering the issue of civilian casualties. A new study by America’s National Bureau for Economic Research looking at the circumstances around 4,000 civilian deaths in Afghanistan found a high correlation between NATO killing of even two civilians in an area and a […]

Afghanistan

The $1 Trillion Cost of War: Rethinking Afghanistan, Pt. 3

Juan Cole

Part 3 of Rethinking Afghanistan— on the cost of the war– directed by Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, initiated by the Bush Minor administration as the “war on terror,” have now cost over $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Research Service. It is the most expensive conflict […]

Afghanistan

Pakistan: Rethinking Afghanistan, Pt. 2

Juan Cole

Rethinking Afghanistan, Pt. 2, directed by Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, treats the issue of the Taliban havens in northwest Pakistan and the use to which the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) cells may be putting them. In order to shore up Pakistani public support for the government, the US has pledged $7.5 billion in […]

Afghanistan

Rethinking Rethinking Afghanistan, Pt. 1

Juan Cole

In honor of Tuesday’s major donor’s conference in Afghanistan, Informed Comment is beginning a series of reposts of the classic six-part documentary, Rethink Afghanistan by Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films. As the war grinds on, the questions the series raised are crucial to informed public discussion, and it is worth watching it again, or […]

Afghanistan

Advice for General Petraeus on the Rules of Engagement:
It’s Neither/Nor, Not Either/Or

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt, author of the recently-published The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s (Haymarket Books, July 2010) and editor of Tomdispatch.com, writes in a guest editorial for Informed Comment: Recently, we’ve been flooded with news stories and debate about the “rules of engagement” for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Now-discredited war commander General […]