Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: US

US

Afghanistan is (still) not Iraq

Kate Clark •

One of the monsters thought to be slain has raised one of its ugly heads again: the ‘let’s replicate our Iraq success in Afghanistan’ discussion, seasoned with ‘yes we know Afghanistan is not Iraq but…’ attachments. See the surge that supposedly has brought a decrease of violence in Baghdad and elsewhere and has been replicated […]

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AAN In The Media – August 2010

AAN Team •

Afghan Police’s Lack of Guns and Gas Shows U.S. Exit Plan Flaw Bloomberg, 31 August 2010 Baghlan’s police suffer unstable leadership because of power struggles among ethnic Pashtun and Tajik clans that have seen 10 provincial governors and numerous police chiefs appointed in nine years, said Fabrizio Foschini of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a research […]

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A City Tour for V.I.P.’s Attending the Kabul Conference

admin •

New York Times blog, 21 July 2010 Unfortunately, this tour was virtual only. The NYT’s Kabul bureau chief and her Afghan colleagues Sharifullah Sahak and Abdul Waheed Wafa report what Hillary Clinton and Gen. Petraeus COULD have seen if they had been able to leave the well-protected conference venues: people losing some days’ income because […]

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AAN In The Media – July 2010

AAN Team •

Knowledge of Afghanistan ‘astonishingly thin’ BBC, 31 July 2010 Afghan studies is an “orphan subject,” hardly taught at universities in the UK, finds the BBC’s Ray Furlong. And he quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in saying that it is not much different in germany and elsewhere in Europe. Holland geht, “M” bleibt (Holland Leaves, “M” Stays) […]

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U.S. officials say Karzai aides are derailing corruption cases involving elite

admin •

Washington Post, 28 June 2010 Another report on how political protection undermines rule of law and prevents embezzlement from being exposed in Afghanistan

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Proliferation of Bad Analysis on Afghanistan

admin •

The Captain’s Journal, 21 June 2010 Hershel Smith’s interesting blog takes on the assumption that the Sons of Iraq option can be copied in Afghanistan (see our discussion of LDI) and looks at why Helmand ‘went wrong’ and on what he calls a ‘horrible deal’ with Mulla Salam in Musa Qala.

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U.S. Hopes Afghan Councils Will Weaken Taliban

admin •

New York Times, 19 June 2010. The US and the UK supporting an effort to establish local councils in 100 districts. The revival of ASOP after all.

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Fighting the Viet Cong in Afghanistan (Gregor Samsa out of Coma)

admin •

Washington Post, 15 June 2010 Although we not necessarily agree with everything author Richard Cohen says, he says it very well (and funny). And we also have additionally confusing news for Gregor Samsa: Vietnam was called Iraq before Afghanistan. (Please read in combination with Robert D. Kaplan, ‘Man Versus Afghanistan’, see below)

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AAN In The Media – June 2010

AAN Team •

The position of Hazaras in Afghanistan The Hazara Network, 30 Juni 2010 Blogpost on the position of Hazaras quotes Thomas Ruttig’s June 18 blog ‘A New Taliban Front? (referring to it as a ‘study’ by the highly-regarded Afghanistan Analysts Network) that ‘Taleban involvement also was presumed in this year’s renewed clashes between settled Hazaras and […]

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Guest Blog: We are One Tribe – and Live in The Society of Intervention

Michael Daxner •

A critique of intervening half-education, in reply to Major Jim Gant’s much-read blog and paper ‘One Tribe at a Time’. By Prof. Michael Daxner (*) Important notice for the readers: it is unusual for blogs to annotate them with references from scientific literature. However, I will use some special terms that may raise your interest […]

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An Honest Transfer or ‘The Devil May Care’?

Thomas Ruttig •

‘Transfer of Security Responsibility’ is one of the latest buzzwords in Afghanistan. It is part of the NATO strategy also sometimes described as ‘Afghanisation’. But, maybe, the latter resounds too closely with the term ‘Vietnamisation’. So, it is more probable that we will have to get used to yet another acronym: TSR. The ‘TSR’ concept […]

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