Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

How Petraeus’s Afghan

admin •

IPS, 10 October 2012 Gareth Porter with a new piece: on how the Taleban’s IED war affected the US troops surge and made it fail finally. With some gruesome statistics about killed and maimed soldiers.

Recommended Reads Read more

U.S. Winds Down Afghanistan Aid Program

admin •

Wall Street Journal, 10 October 2012 The closure of already five of over two dozen NATO PRTs ‘is effectively turning off the money flow to Afghanistan’s provinces’, the Journal reports. Of the once millions-strong Commander’s Emergency Response Program funds for PRT commanders (the Nangarhar PRT spent $24 million on projects in the province in 2010) […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Afghanistan: outgoing ICRC head warns of humanitarian crisis

admin •

ICRC, 8 October 2012 Reto Stocker’s worrying conclusions: ‘I am filled with concern as I leave this country. Since I arrived here in 2005, local armed groups have proliferated, civilians have been caught between not just one but multiple front lines, and it has become increasingly difficult for ordinary Afghans to obtain health care. People […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Doubt Cast on Afghan Mining

admin •

Wall Street Journal, 3 October 2012 According to this report, ‘researchers working for the U.S. military have concluded [in a draft report] that it could cost more than $54 billion to build and run a railway network across Afghanistan, a price [that] could make some large-scale mining economically unviable’. ‘Because of the daunting terrain between […]

Recommended Reads Read more

In southern Afghanistan, concerns about what comes next

admin •

Washington Post, 30 September 2012 A reportage from Garmser, Helmand, where again ‘tribal leaders are the backbone of this strategically vital region near. If they refuse to support the government after NATO forces leave, U.S. officials say there’s a good chance the Taliban could make a vigorous return. But if traditional leaders present a united […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Afghan gold fever heats up


admin •

The Independent, 29 September 2012 An interesting story about a man who was called to ‘help build an Afghanistan economy on the foundations of trillions of dollars-worth of copper and gold buried beneath its war-torn surface’ by a US State Department official and ‘a Wellington College-educated former SAS commander who is now chief executive at […]

Recommended Reads Read more

27 September 2012: AAN’s Gran Hewad speaks at Peace Day celebration

AAN • admin •

On 27 September, UNAMA organized a conference celebrating International Peace Day. AAN’s Gran Hewad was invited to speak at the event representing Afghan youth. For more information about the event, please click here.

Events Read more

Afghan schools and clinics built by British military forced to close

admin •

The Guardian, 27 September 2012 The British military in Helmand ‘had built too much … trying to win “hearts and minds”‘, ‘without enough consultation with the Afghan government and without thinking through how [it] would be maintained’, according to a new report. Now the PRT commander has to sort out which schools and clinics have […]

Recommended Reads Read more

In U.S. soldier’s death, a window into Afghan insider killings

admin •

Reuters, 26 September 2012 The story of Mabry Anders, from Oregon, killed by Welayat Khan, from Nangrahar, in a so-called green-on-blue shooting, who was subsequently killed by a US helicopter himself while fleeing and cannot tell what his motives were anymore. So what remains are three people dead (including another US soldier) and different versions: […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Stabilizing Afghanistan a major diplomatic challenge

admin •

People’s Daily (China), 25 September 2012 … including for China, writes a commentator with the interesting name Chen Chenchen in Beijing’s official English-language daily, the Global Times. ‘Many are speculating about the long-term ambitions of Beijing, believing that the emerging power is seeking a larger role in post-NATO Afghanistan and is looking for greater influence […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Highway Robbery on Major Afghan Road

admin •

IWPR, 25 September 2012 ‘Local officials in Afghanistan’s Laghman province are taking tens of thousands of US dollars a month in fees and taxes from drivers using the Kabul-Jalalabad highway, and the way the money is collected indicates that it is being pocketed’, writes the Kabul-based news agency. We also find the reporter’s name remarkable: […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up