Pentagon

( Tomdispatch.com)- Disagreements over how to assess the American exodus from Afghanistan have kept the pundits busy these last weeks, even though there wasn’t much to say that hadn’t been said before. For some of them, however, that was irrelevant. Having overseen or promoted the failed Afghan War themselves, all the while brandishing various “metrics” […]

Afghanistan

What does the US Withdrawal from Afghanistan mean for Israel?

Middle East Monitor

By Adnan Abu Amer | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Israelis are concerned about the shameful American withdrawal from Afghanistan and think that their government now needs to reassert its ability to protect its own interests in the region and beyond. The general feeling is that the withdrawal will now give Israel’s enemies more […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan and 9/11: Finished or Unfinished Business? MIT Starr Forum with B. Posen, Juan Cole, V. Felbab-Brown, C. Saivetz (Video)

Juan Cole

MIT Center for International Studies: “Starr Forum: US, Afghanistan, 9/11: Finished or Unfinished Business?” Chair: Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science, MIT. He studies US grand strategy and national security policy. His most recent book is Restraint: A New Foundation for US Grand Strategy. Panelists: Juan Cole, Richard P Mitchell Collegiate Professor of […]

Afghanistan

Post-Afghanistan, Nation (Un)Building Comes Home

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – They weren’t kidding when they called Afghanistan the “graveyard of empires.” Indeed, that cemetery has just taken another imperial body. And it wasn’t pretty, was it? Not that anyone should be surprised. Even after 20 years of preparation, a burial never is. In fact, the shock and awe(fulness) in Kabul and Washington […]

Afghanistan

Will the End of the Afghanistan War provoke Reconsideration of American Militarism?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By David Bacon | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Many in the U.S. media continue to credit the good intentions of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, while belaboring its failure over 20 years to achieve any of them. But to say that the United States wanted a progressive, liberal democratic, and secular government […]

Afghanistan

Calculating the costs of the Afghanistan War in lives, dollars and years

The Conversation

By Neta C. Crawford | – The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to destroy al-Qaida, remove the Taliban from power and remake the nation. On Aug. 30, 2021, the U.S. completed a pullout of troops from Afghanistan, providing an uncertain punctuation mark to two decades of conflict. For the past 11 years I have […]

Afghanistan

So Long, Afghanistan War: Top 6 Things we Won’t miss about our Longest Military Engagement

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tom Bowman and Audie Cornish at NPR report that all U.S. troops are out of Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war. I teach that war every year, so I’ll still be living with it the rest of my career. But for most Americans, its end should be something to celebrate. Here […]

Bush

Top 4 Times US Troops were Bombed under Republican Presidents and No one Resigned or was Impeached

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The silly season has descended permanently on Washington, D.C., so that minor congressmen are calling for the resignation or even impeachment of President Joe Biden over the ISIL-K bombing at Abbey Gate in the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 26. Chris Cilizza called out the Nikki Haleys, […]

National Security State

Despite Departure from Afghanistan, America still Has an Archipelago of 750 Military Bases around the World

Tomdispatch

By Patterson Deppen | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was the spring of 2003 during the American-led invasion of Iraq. I was in second grade, living on a U.S. military base in Germany, attending one of the Pentagon’s many schools for families of servicemen stationed abroad. One Friday morning, my class was on the […]