Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: US

US

450 Bases and It’s Not Over Yet

admin •

Tom Dispatch (blog), 12 February 2012 ‘The hush-hush, high-tech, super-secure facility at the massive air base in Kandahar’ – ‘The American military in Afghanistan doesn’t want to talk about it, but one day soon, it will be a new hub for the American drone war in the Greater Middle East’ – is only one of […]

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War Without Accountability: The CIA, Special Forces and plans for Afghanistan’s future

Kate Clark •

That US Special Forces are likely to remain in Afghanistan after 2014 and for the long haul, has been discussed for some time. According to The Washington Post, which went to a talk by the former head of US Special Operations Forces (SOF) in Afghanistan, Admiral Bill McRaven, at the National Defence Industrial Association in […]

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US Marines posed with Nazi symbol in Afghanistan

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AP, 9 February 2011 Not what you think: It means ‘Scout Sniper’, and the Marine Corps Corps said in a statement that ‘investigators determined it was a naïve mistake’ and the soldiers did not identify with nazi ideas. According to the AP, the photo was taken in September 2010 in Sangin.

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AAN in the media – February 2012

AAN Team •

Der verlorene Krieg ZDF (German TV), 28 February 2012 This is one feature in the ‘Frontal 21’ political magazine dealing with the question whether the Afghanistan mission has failed and what role Germany’s Bundeswehr played in it. It included some statements by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, but you can watch a longer interview with him (both […]

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U.S.-Backed Militia Fortifies Afghanistan’s ‘Heart of Darkness’

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Wired, 1 February 2012 Part 1 of an interesting reportage about US forces on the Marzak Trail (find out what this is) in Afghanistan’s ‘Heart of Darkness’, ie Paktika province.

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Is the Afghan Peace Process Really in Shambles?

Thomas Ruttig •

Thomas Ruttig, in: IDN Nação e Defesa (Lisbon), no 130 (2011), pp 31-54. (Abstract online only:) In the article published in the journal of the Portuguese Instituto da Defesa Nactional (IDN), AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at the repercussions of the killing of Afghan HPC chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani and warns to interpret the assassination (the background […]

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Hekmatyar’s never-ending Afghan war

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al-Jazeera, 28 january 2012 A very enlightening account about the Hezb-e Islami leader, his past and current relations with the US (and former Ambassador Khalilzad in particular who has handled Hekmatyar during his famous US tour when he refused to meet President Reagan), but also with brief comments about other former mujahedin leaders.

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Former Taliban Officials Say U.S. Talks Started

admin •

New York Times, 28 January 2012 According to the Times, former Taleban officials in Kabul have confirmed that ‘four to eight Taliban representatives had traveled to Qatar from Pakistan to set up a political office’ and one of them spoke about ‘fairly advanced discussions’ between US and Taleban representatives ‘about the transfer of prisoners’. According […]

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The Afghan divide

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Los Angeles Times, 26 January 2012 An interesting op-ed by Sarah Chayes about whether the US is succeeding in Afghanistan and the measures used to answer that question. She refers to the latest NIE report and the negative reaction of US generals about critical remarks in it.

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The U.S.-Pakistan Relationship in the Year Ahead

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CTC Sentinel, January 2012 Ahmed Rashid looks ahead on possible developments in the US-Pakistani relations. He writes that ‘Certainly, military-to-military relations will improve in 2012, but Pakistan will not give the United States the kind of carte blanche it had in the past.’ And he warns: ‘In 2012, however, there is a real danger that […]

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Afghan Taliban announce deal to open political office in Qatar as key step toward peace talks

admin •

AP, 3 January 2012 The Taliban have confirmed officially on Tuesday that they will open an office in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar to hold talks with the United States, an unprecedented step toward a peace process that might lead to a winding down of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

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AAN In the Media – January 2012

AAN Team •

Trickreiches Tauziehen um die Taliban tageszeitung (Berlin), 31 January 2012 In this article of his, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at the latest developments in attempts for a political solution with the Taleban: the US-Afghan irritations about the Qatar office, attempts for a US-Taleban prisoner exchange and President Karzai’s attempt to create his own Taleban channel […]

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