Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: US

US

The start of the US campaign 11 years on: impressions then and now

Borhan Osman •

The military intervention in Afghanistan that started on 7 October 2001 with bomb attacks on Kabul and other Taleban strongholds by a US-led coalition, put Afghanistan on a new path. The Taleban was removed by force and a new government was installed with broadly defined democratic institutions. Regime changes in Afghanistan since the 1970s have […]

War and Peace Read more

AAN In The Media – October 2012

AAN Team •

Kremlin’s Blunder Backfires in Central Asia Turkish Weekly, 31 October 2012 Author Ryskeldi Satke looks at latest developments in Russia’s Central Asia policy after Putin’s re-election. Amon others, he quotes a blog by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig underscoring comments made by the Tajik opposition figures according to whom the threat of the Taliban marching over the […]

AAN in the Media 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

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

The Haqqani Network Blacklisted: From US Asset to Special Foe

Thomas Ruttig •

Earlier this month, the US government blacklisted the Haqqani network, labelling it a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’. Leaving aside the pros and cons of this decision, which have been fairly widely discussed, AAN co-director Thomas Ruttig looks at other questions: why did the blacklisting happen so late and why is the network singled out from the […]

International Engagement Read more

Bagram and Insider Attacks: ‘Shoulder to Shoulder’ no longer?

Kate Clark •

It has been a rough week for US-led international forces, with threats, tensions and setbacks multiplying. The Taleban’s spectacular attack on Camp Bastion on 15 September, which left two soldiers – including a lieutenant colonel – dead, six fighter planes destroyed and two others damaged and ISAF’s narrative of a weakening insurgency looking fragile, was […]

International Engagement Read more

The US Army And Afghanistan’s Bad Divorce

admin •

The Daily Beast
 (blog), 19 September 2012 The experience of a former US trainer embedded in the Afghan security forces, saying that already ‘by the mid 2000s, the relationship [between the trainers and the Afghan troops] had begun to fray’ – because ‘the ANA was growing, getting better at its job, and chaffing at the […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Under Strange Flags: Afghans’ delayed protests against an ‘anti-Islam film’

Borhan Osman •

Afghanistan’s public has reacted, after a few days of delay, to a video produced by fringe anti-Islam activists in the US. While last Friday saw violent demonstrations in many parts of the Muslim world, Afghans widely remained quite calm despite mullahs across major cities preaching angry sermons about the hostility of America or the West, […]

Context and Culture Read more

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (3): Bagram and the Struggle for Sovereignty

Kate Clark •

Bagram Detention Centre has been officially transferred to Afghan control today, with the fundamental question of sovereignty – who has the right to arrest and detain Afghans on Afghan soil – still not resolved. The US insists it still has the right; the government says this is illegal. On Saturday (8 September 2012), President Karzai, […]

Political Landscape Read more

AAN In The Media – September 2012

AAN Team •

The Tricky Business Of Reintegrating The Taliban  NPR, 28 September 2012 In an attempt to put down the insurgency in Afghanistan, the international community has spent millions to try to reintegrate former Taliban fighters and other militants back into society. So how well has it worked? Critics like Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network […]

AAN in the Media Read more

What Surge? Afghanistan’s Most Violent Places Stay Bad, Despite Extra Troops

admin •

Wired (blog), 23 August 2012 ‘When President Obama surged 30,000 additional U.S. troops into Afghanistan in 2010, the new forces were concentrated overwhelmingly on two volatile areas of southern Afghanistan: Helmand and Kandahar Provinces. Now, as the troop surge is practically over, those provinces still rank as the most violent in the entire country. According […]

Recommended Reads Read more

The Takhar attack and Targeted Killings: the Legal Challenge

Kate Clark •

An Afghan bank worker from rural Takhar, Habib Rahman, is taking the British government to court over Britain’s participation in drawing up and executing the US military’s ‘kill list’ which singles out alleged insurgents for targeted killing. Rahman lost his father-in-law, Zabet Amanullah, and several other close relatives in September 2010 when an air strike […]

International Engagement Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up