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Afghanistan News

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Robert Gates Wants to Keep His Pentagon Gig, so He's Pandering to Obama's Bad Ideas for Afghanistan

By Ray McGovern
Consortium News
Nov. 24, 2008

Suspected missile strike kills 8 or more in Pakistan
MUNIR AHMAD
Associated Press
Nov. 7, 2008

US air raid kills Afghan civilians
Al Jazeera
Nov 5, 2008

Air strikes kill dozens of wedding guests
JESSICA LEEDER AND ALEX STRICK VAN LINSCHOTEN
Globe and Mail
Nov. 4, 2008

The Case Against the Continued Occupation and Escalation of the War in Afghanistan
Friday 24 October 2008
Camillo "Mac" Bica, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

U.S. air strike kills nine Afghan soldiers
AMIR SHAH
The Associated Press
Oct. 22, 2008

Afghanistan's emerging antiwar movement
Afghan NGOs are teaching human rights and Islamic law along with calls to end the war with a national peace jirga.
By Anand Gopal
The Christian Science Monitor
October 20, 2008

Afghanistan occupation: criminal, immoral and now a bloody farce
Oct. 17, 2008
Stop the War Coalition, UK

Civilians dead in Afghan air raid
Oct. 17, 2008
Al Jazeera

Coalition forces on the wrong track in Afghanistan
Oct. 17, 2008
Real News Network (video)

Afghan mayor turns Taliban leader
Oct. 17, 2008
Al Jazeera

Violence in Afghanistan worse than ever, top UN official says
Oct 15, 2008
Louis Charbonneau
Toronto Star

Why The Afghan War Is Unwinnable
Oct. 14, 2008
Gwynne Dyer

On Anniversary Of Bombing Afghanistan, We Need A Surge In Diplomacy
Kelly Campbell
Oct. 7, 2008
Huffington Post

'We're not going to win,' British commander says of bid to quash Taliban
GRAEME SMITH AND DOUG SAUNDERS
Globe and Mail
Oct. 6, 2008

Time to quit Afghanistan
Canada's $22-billion little war must give way to a negotiated peace settlement
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Oct. 5, 2008

Karzai's kin linked to heroin trafficking
James Risen
New York Times
Oct. 5, 2008

UK Ambassador: Afghan Occupation a “Failure”
Democracy Now!
October 2, 2008

Afghan president calls for peace talks
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
CBC News

U.S. general says more troops needed in Afghanistan
Wed. Oct. 1 2008
The Associated Press

Robert Fisk's World: Why does the US think it can win in Afghanistan?
The Taliban are better trained, and – sad to say – increasingly tolerated by the local civilian population
Saturday, 20 September 2008
The Independent

Afghan killed after Canadian troops fire on vehicle
Fri. Sep. 19 2008
CTV.ca

Caught in the crossfire
Civilian deaths in Afghanistan reach a new high
Sep 17th 2008
From Economist.com

Afghan war costs $22B, so far: study
David Pugliese, with files from Mike Blanchfield and, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Thursday, September 18, 2008

Harper says Yes to release of Afghan war cost report
September 17, 2008
Canadian Press

Afghan civilians killed in attacks up 40 per cent: UN
September 16, 2008
Jason Straziuso
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Top U.S. General in Afghanistan Calls for Major Increase in Troops
SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
Associated Press/Wall Street Journal

At All Costs, We Must Avoid a 'Surge' in Afghanistan
By Joseph Stiglitz
september 13, 2008
Alternet

Pull out troops, politician urges

Canada is supporting a corrupt administration, says suspended parliamentarian Malalai Joya

Nov 05, 2007 04:30 AM
Isabel Teotonio
Staff reporter
Toronto Star

Canada must pull its troops out of Afghanistan and no longer support a government full of "warlords, drug lords and criminals" if it wants to aid in rebuilding the stricken nation and avoid another 9/11, says a controversial Afghan politician.

Full Article

Afghanistan is lost, says Lord Ashdown

By Tom Coghlan
Last Updated: 3:33am BST 25/10/2007

Telegraph.co.uk

Nato has "lost in Afghanistan" and its failure to bring stability there could provoke a regional sectarian war "on a grand scale", according to Lord Ashdown.

The former United Nations High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina delivered his dire prediction after being proposed as a new "super envoy" role in Afghanistan.

Lord Ashdown said: "We have lost, I think, and success is now unlikely."

Full Article

Afghan poll not as clear as it seems

Oct 21, 2007 04:30 AM
Thomas Walkom
Toronto Star / www.thestar.com

Do ordinary Afghans want Canada to stay in Kandahar until the Taliban is defeated?

Initial reports of an Environics survey released Thursday suggest the answer is a strong yes. "Majority of Afghans want foreign troops to stay and fight" was The Globe and Mail's headline.

Analysts argued that the poll results, based on interviews conducted last month in the war-torn country, would bolster Prime Minister Stephen Harper's efforts to keep Canadian troops fighting in Kandahar past February 2009.

But when the poll is examined more carefully (it's available at http://erg.environics.net), its findings become far less definitive. Indeed, it is not clear that they provide solace to any of the politicians now debating Canada's Afghan mission.

Full Article

See also: Polling Afghanistan: Questions and Contradtctions

Upbeat Bernier contradicts UN reports

GRAEME SMITH

From Monday's Globe and Mail

October 8, 2007 at 12:22 AM EDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier contradicted all publicly available assessments of security in southern Afghanistan Sunday with a bold claim that insurgent attacks have decreased in Kandahar, leaving the province more secure for humanitarian work.

Full Article

Held hostage by Afghanistan

We negotiate with terrorists all the time, and we should again -- it may be the only way to resolve the conflict with the Taliban

Gar Pardy, is former Canadian director of consular affairs. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2003.
Citizen Special

Published: Saturday, September 08, 2007

Pakistan has, from its earliest days, copied the British policy of ensuring a weak and fractured Afghanistan on its artificial northern border. That is as close to a national policy as Pakistan has and there is no reason to believe the periodic retreat of the generals to their barracks will alter that primordial element in Pakistani politics. The Taliban is as much Pakistani as it is Afghan.

Full Article

General warns of 'deadly' new Afghan phase

By Sophie Borland
Last Updated: 10:46am BST 28/08/2007

The Telegraph

The head of the Army has warned that Britain could be facing a generation of conflict in a confidential speech that the Ministry of Defence tried to keep under wraps.

Full Article

How can this bloody failure be regarded as a good war?

The western occupation of Afghanistan has brought neither peace nor development - and it fuels the terror threat

Seumas Milne
Thursday August 23, 2007
The Guardian

Enthusiasts for the catastrophe that is the Iraq war may be hard to come by these days, but Afghanistan is another matter. The invasion and occupation that opened George Bush's war on terror are still championed by powerful voices in the occupying states as - in the words of the New York Times this week - "the good war" that can still be won. While speculation intensifies about British withdrawal from Basra, there's no such talk about a retreat from Kabul or Kandahar. On the contrary, the plan is to increase British troop numbers from the current 7,000, and ministers, commanders and officials have been hammering home the message all summer that Britain is in Afghanistan, as the foreign secretary, David Miliband, insisted, for the long haul.

Full Article

Hillier pushed flawed detainee plan
Foreign Affairs shunted aside when Canada's top soldier insisted on signing 2005 deal that left no follow-up role for Ottawa

PAUL KORING , BRIAN LAGHI and CAMPBELL CLARK
02/05/07

WASHINGTON, OTTAWA -- The Department of Foreign Affairs was pushed to the sidelines when Canada struck its detainee-transfer deal in Afghanistan, two senior government sources have told The Globe and Mail.

Full Article

Afghanistan: NATO attack kills 75

Associated Press
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 (Sangin Valley)

Carrying bundles and driving donkeys, villagers trickled back to damaged farmsteads on Tuesday after a lightning NATO attack estimated to have killed 75 suspected Taliban, including some local men.

The latest salvo in the alliance's campaign to win control of southern Afghanistan chalked up a clear military victory.

However, the outcome of the tougher battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans remains open.

Full Article

U.S. Says Raids Killed Taliban; Afghans Say Civilians Died

By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
Published: May 1, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 30 - United States Special Forces said they killed more than 130 Taliban in two recent days of heavy fighting in a valley in western Afghanistan, but hundreds of angry villagers protested in nearby Shindand on Monday, saying dozens of civilians had been killed when the Americans called in airstrikes.

Full Article

Prisons rife with torture, U.S. rights report asserts

PAUL KORING
Globe and Mail, 08/03/07

WASHINGTON -- Afghan prisons where Canada consigns detainees captured by its troops are rife with torture, abuse and corruption, according to the latest human-rights assessment by the U.S. State Department.

Full Article

Red Cross contradicts Ottawa on detainees

PAUL KORING
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

WASHINGTON — The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed Wednesday that it has no role in monitoring the Canada-Afghanistan detainee-transfer agreement, in direct contradiction to assurances Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has made to the House of Commons.

Full Article

Comment: civilian deaths are making Nato the enemy

Tim Albone in Kabul
The Times (London)
March 5, 2007

The battle to defeat the Taleban will not be won in the trenches of Helmand; it will only be won when Nato convinces ordinary Afghans that it is a force for good. At the moment this is a battle they are losing miserably.

Full Article

Harper's New Afghanistan Aid Package Is A Smokescreen
Military Aid Will Not Bring Peace to Kandahar.
February 27, 2007

Statement from the CPA

NATO air strike hits Afghan house, killing civilians, officials say

AMIR SHAH
Associated Press

Globe and Mail 05/03/07

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO air strike hit a house during a firefight between western troops and militants, killing nine Afghans who lived there, Afghan officials said Monday.
Full Article

16 Civilians Die as U.S. Troops Fire on Afghan Road

By CARLOTTA GALL
New York Times
Published: March 5, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 4 — American troops opened fire on a highway filled with civilian cars and bystanders on Sunday, American and Afghan officials said, in an incident that the Americans said left 16 civilians dead and 24 wounded after a suicide car bombing in eastern Afghanistan. One American was also wounded.
Full Article

Afghan media: U.S. troops deleted images

Sunday, March 4, 2007 · Last updated 1:33 p.m. PT

By AMIR SHAH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan journalists covering the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack and shooting in eastern Afghanistan Sunday said U.S. troops deleted their photos and video and warned them not to publish or air any images of U.S. troops or a car where three Afghans were shot to death.
Full Article

Afghan civilians caught in crossfire

RAHIM FAIEZ
Associated Press

Globe and Mail 04/03/07

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — U.S. Marine Special Forces fleeing a militant ambush opened fire on civilians on a busy highway in eastern Afghanistan, wounded Afghans said.
Full Article

Afghanistan under occupation: An assessment

Paktribune
Thursday February 15, 2007 (0814 PST)

LONDON: More than five years after the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan, promising a brighter post-Taliban future, average life expectancy across the country is now just 44 years-at least 20 years lower than in neighbouring Central Asian countries. Afghanistan now officially ranks 173rd out of 178 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index. All five countries ranked lower are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Full Article

O'Connor unsure if detainees are missing

JANE TABER
From Monday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says he does not know if three Afghan detainees who disappeared after being handed over by Canadian soldiers are really missing.
Full Article

Canada loses track of Afghan detainees Military investigators unable to locate three men allegedly abused by troops

Globa and Mail
PAUL KORING

March 2, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The three detainees at the heart of multiple probes into allegations of abuse by Canadian soldiers have disappeared while in Afghan custody, a seemingly grave breach of the Canada-Afghan pact on detainee treatment, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Full Article

NATO should talk to Taliban because military victory impossible: report

Thursday, March 1, 2007
CBC News

NATO cannot succeed in Afghanistan with its current number of troops and should enter into diplomatic negotiations with the Taliban to end the conflict there, a former Canadian ambassador to NATO says.

Full Article

Watchdog probes Canadian troops
Latest investigation set to take broad look at legality of handing over detainees

PAUL KORING
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

The Canadian Military Police Complaints Commission launched a probe yesterday into whether military policy knew -- or should have known -- they were handing Afghan detainees over to known torturers.

It's the fourth probe into Canadian treatment of Afghan detainees initiated this month, and sets in motion what could be the most wide-ranging look at the legality of Canada's controversial detainee policy in Afghanistan.

Full Article

The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan The Khyber Impasse

by Tariq Ali
Counterpunch, February 27, 2007

It is Year 6 of the UN-backed NATO occupation of Afghanistan, a joint US/EU mission. On 26 February there was an attempted assassination of Dick Cheney by Taliban suicide bombers while he was visiting the 'secure' US air base at Bagram (once an equally secure Soviet air base during an earlier conflict). Two US soldiers and a mercenary ('contractor') died in the attack, as did twenty other people working at the base. This episode alone should have concentrated the US Vice-President's mind on the scale of the Afghan debacle. In 2006 the casualty rates rose substantially and NATO troops lost forty-six soldiers in clashes with the Islamic resistance or shot-down helicopters.

Full Article

Cheney takes refuge in bomb shelter after Afghan blast

By Caren Bohan
Reuters
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; 11:05 AM

MUSCAT (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked into a bomb shelter immediately after a Taliban suicide bomber struck the main American military base he was visiting in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Up to 14 people were killed, including one U.S. and one South Korean soldier, in the Bagram air base attack which rebels said was aimed at Cheney.

Full Article

Afghan relief efforts neglect Kandahar hospital, paramedic says.

Richard Foot
CanWest News Service

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Edward McCormick had heard the official claims about Canada's bold mission to reconstruct the war-torn province of Kandahar and bring help to its people.

Then last month, the Vancouver paramedic went to see for himself, travelling to Afghanistan with the Senlis Council, an international think-tank, to investigate the state of the civilian hospital in Kandahar city that serves a population of three million people.

Full Article

Canadian troops kill unarmed Afghan civilian

Last Updated: Saturday, February 17, 2007
CBC News

Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan killed an unarmed man Saturday as he walked toward their convoy chanting and wearing what appeared to be explosives around his torso, a military spokesman said.

Full Article

Senators nail problem, flub solution

Feb 13, 2007 04:30 AM
Thomas Walkom
Toronto Star

There is a bizarre disjunction in the Senate defence committee's useful - and remarkably frank - analysis of Canada's military role in Afghanistan. It's as if the 11 senators on the committee, having successfully outlined the near insurmountable problems associated with the Afghan war, couldn't bring themselves to accept the logical conclusion of their own analysis.

Full Article

Military probes abuse allegations in Afghanistan

Last Updated: Tuesday, February 6, 2007 | 8:28 AM ET
CBC News

Military officials are investigating allegations Afghan prisoners were abused while in the custody of Canadian soldiers, according to documents.

Full Article

We've lost sight of the mission's purpose

Driving out terrorists and rebuilding the country were the reasons Canada first went to war in Afghanistan, but things have changed and Canada is now committed to a fight it doesn't really understand, says James Travers
Feb 03, 2007 04:30 AM

Full Article

US military: Afghan leaders steal half of all aid

By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph
Daily Telegraph 28/01/2007

Corrupt police and tribal leaders are stealing vast quantities of reconstruction aid that is intended to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from the Taliban, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Full Article

AFGHANISTAN'S HIGHWAY TO HELL
Softly, softly in the Taliban's den

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Jan 27, 2007
Asia Times Online

KABUL - In five years, US military might, from daisy-cutter bombs to high-tech weaponry, could not smoke out the Taliban, who retreated to the mountains of Afghanistan after being forced from power in 2001.

They emerged last year of their own volition after being welcomed back into the community by various tribal groups, many of which are ready to join in a mass uprising planned for the spring.

Full Article

U.S. warns of bloody Taliban spring fightback

Fri 26 Jan 2007 12:14:06 GMT

KABUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The United States, stepping up its commitment to Afghanistan and pushing European allies to follow suit, on Friday warned the country faced a bloody and dangerous spring offensive from an emboldened and strengthened Taliban.

Full Article

NATO says suspected Taliban killed by air strike in southern Afghanistan
Canadian Press

Published: Friday, January 26, 2007

Full Article

US Plans Big Spending Boost for Afghanistan

Agence France-Presse
Thursday 25 January 2007

The United States is planning a sharp increase in spending on security and reconstruction in Afghanistan to counter an anticipated offensive by Taliban forces this spring, the Washington Post has reported.

Full Article

Canada in Afghanistan

by Nikolai Lanine
January 13, 2007
Globe & Mail

Victoria, BC -- I thought I had escaped my past, but Afghanistan caught up with me in Canada. Looking at the flag-draped casket of my wife’s first cousin, Andrew Eykelenboom, a Canadian medic killed in Afghanistan on August 11th, I was overwhelmed with feelings of grief and a surreal displacement of time and space.

Full Article

Media blind to Afghan civilian deaths

December 29, 2006
Dave Markland
Seven Oaks

In early September, Canadian military personnel stationed in Afghanistan's Kandahar province spearheaded NATO's Operation Medusa, aimed at Taliban strongholds in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts of that province. Accustomed to seeing the Canadian Forces' role as that of peace-keepers, many observers were stunned by reports that the Medusa offensive had resulted in hundreds of enemy combatants killed along with five fatalities suffered by Canadian soldiers. Meanwhile, there was a largely unreported civilian exodus as some 80,000 people fled their homes while “at least 50 civilians were killed over several weeks of bombing” (New York Times, Nov 27, A12).

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2006: year of bloodshed in Afghanistan
The year 2006 witnessed the killing of over 3900 people

The Hindustan Times, December 26, 2006

While the world prepares to say goodbye to the year 2006, waiting eagerly to welcome the new year 2007, the people of Afghanistan, the Karzai government and the US and NATO fighters would like to forget their worst year since the ouster of Taliban five years ago.

Full Article

Afghanistan: Justice for War Criminals Essential to Peace
Karzai Must Hold Officials Accountable for Past Crimes

Human Rights Watch (New York, December 12, 2006)

President Hamid Karzai should immediately enforce a program to provide truth, reconciliation and accountability for war crimes and major human rights abuses over the past 30 years in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. The Afghan government should establish a special court to try those responsible, some of whom hold high office, as soon as possible, Human Rights Watch said.

Full Article

Warlords gang-rape a woman in Badakhshan
RAWA, November 29, 2006

A local commander and his 11 men gang-rape a 22-year-old woman in Shahre Buzurg district of the northeastern Badakhshan province on Nov.28.

The crime took place in the Shah Dasht village, by a local warlord called Mujtaba who belongs to Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan led by Burhanuddin Rabbani (now member of the parliament).

Full Article

There is never going to be a Nato victory in Afghanistan

The military option is going nowhere. The way forward is to emulate Pakistan by withdrawing troops and making deals

Jonathan Steele
Friday October 20, 2006
The Guardian

Full Article

1 NATO Soldier Killed in Afghan Battle

Monday January 15, 2007 5:16 PM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - NATO troops attacked a militant base in southern Afghanistan on Monday in an operation that left one Western soldier dead and several wounded, while gunmen in the east killed a deputy provincial council chief, officials said.

Full Article

Canadians confident despite U.S. warning of spring Taliban offensive

Murray Brewster, Canadian Press
Published: Monday, January 15, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - There are growing warnings among U.S. military ranks that Kandahar - the "holy grail" for Taliban militants - will once again be the central objective of an anticipated spring offensive.

Full Article

Starving Afghans sell girls of eight as brides
The Observer-- London -- Sunday January 7, 2007

Villagers whose crops have failed after a second devastating drought are giving their young daughters in marriage to raise money for food Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor

Full Article

Afghan MPs predict 'very big war'
Civilian deaths, corruption, occupying troops will lead to "jihad" against foreigners, say leaders.

by Chris Sands
January 5, 2007

Kabul - As a former senior Taliban commander and associate of Osama bin Laden, Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi was a shining example of the warlords who seemed to be rejecting violence and embracing Afghanistan's new democracy.

Full Article

Afghanistan: Justice for War Criminals Essential to Peace
Karzai Must Hold Officials Accountable for Past Crimes

Human Rights Watch

(New York, December 12, 2006) - President Hamid Karzai should immediately enforce a program to provide truth, reconciliation and accountability for war crimes and major human rights abuses over the past 30 years in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. The Afghan government should establish a special court to try those responsible, some of whom hold high office, as soon as possible, Human Rights Watch said.

Full Article

Too many Afghan civilians killed by NATO forces: official
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 3, 2007 | 12:36 PM ET

CBC News

A NATO official says its forces killed too many civilians in Afghanistan in 2006 but the alliance is hoping to reduce the number in 2007.

"The single thing that we have done wrong and we are striving extremely hard to improve on [in 2007] is killing innocent civilians," Brig. Richard Nugee, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said in Kabul on Wednesday.

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U.S. Gen. Craddock takes over as NATO's supreme commander

The Associated Press
Published: December 7, 2006

CASTEAU, Belgium: U.S. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, formerly head of the U.S. military command responsible for the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, took over as NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe on Thursday.

Full Article

Troops bear brunt of 'misguided' Afghan aid policies: report
Last Updated: Thursday, December 14, 2006 | 2:30 PM ET
CBC News

International agencies, including the Canadian International Development Agency, have failed to tackle the food emergency in southern Afghanistan, and NATO soldiers in the region are paying the price, a new report says.

The paper, released Thursday by the Senlis Council, an international think tank, says "misguided" policies by agencies such as CIDA and the British Department for International Development have left the local population hungry and angry towards the international community.

"The Taliban are waging a successful hearts-and-minds strategy in southern Afghanistan; the international community is not," the report says. "As a result, the [NATO] military forces on the ground are forced to fight in an increasingly hostile environment."

Full Article

Government support is flagging, NATO is split on strategy, and Taliban fighters are revitalized.

By Laura King and David Holley
Times Staff Writers
December 9 2006
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - The conflict in Afghanistan has entered a dangerous phase, and the next three to six months could prove crucial in determining whether the United States and its NATO partners can suppress a revitalized enemy or will be dragged into another drawn-out and costly fight with an Islamic insurgency, according to senior military and security officials and diplomats.

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