Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: War

War

No one asked their names

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al-Jazeera, 19 March 2012 al-Jazeera did: Here are the names of the killed and wounded by the US soldier Bates’ killing spree in Pamjwai – we are grateful that they do not remain anonymous.

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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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Truth, lies and Afghanistan – How military leaders have let us down

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Armed Forces Journal, February 2012 US army officer who travelled all over Afghanistan describes the situation (“bad to abysmal”) and the credibility gap between reality and spin: “No one expects our leaders to always have a successful plan. But we do expect — and the men who do the living, fighting and dying deserve — […]

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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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US Leaving Iraqi Comrades-in-Arms in Limbo

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New York Times, 13 December 2011 What leaving looks like: The Iraqi government wants the US-supported Sunni Awakening militias to disband by 31 December, now that the US is leaving,but it is doubtful that most of them will give up their weapons. An estimated 50-80,000 are still organised in irregular tribally-based units.

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When personalities trump institutions: Two assassinations in Afghanistan

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AfPak Channel, 18 July 2011 The killings of Ahmed Wali Karzai and Jan Muhammad ‘both are products of the modern way of war, men of enormous power born of contracting dollars and access to U.S. officials’, writes Anand Gopal. ‘[F]oreign forces funded an array of private militias that regularly acted outside the law (members of […]

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Do the maths: victory cannot be bought in Afghanistan

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The National (UAE), 1 July 2011 Some pretty interesting figures in this one: US military providing air conditioning for its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan comes out at $20 billion a year, more than the total budget of Nasa; by the time fuel reaches the US bases in Afghanistan, it costs $8 to $12 a […]

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Cost Of Wars In Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan To Reach $3.7 Trillion: Report

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Huffington Post, 29 June 2011 Read the summary of a Brown UNiversity report – and find the link to the full report there.

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Secret US and Afghanistan talks could see troops stay for decades

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Guardian, 13 June 2011 Jason Burke weighs the implications of the Afghan-US strategic agreement ans says that Washington wants it finished in summer, before Obama’s declaration on a frist troop ‘drawdown’. This clashes with the Afghan idea to have such an agreement (or its priciples) agreed by a Loya Jirga. Apart, there are a few […]

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Kill or Capture 3: When the International Military Says ‘Sorry’

Kate Clark •

President Karzai has said he will no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses because they are causing too many civilian casualties. The president’s ultimatum follows the pictures shown on Afghan TV on 29 May of distraught villagers in Helmand carrying the bruised and dusty corpses of their small children who had been killed in an […]

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Afghan army salary theft shows fraud widespread

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AP, 28 May 2011 Article describes one of the very few cases of prosecuted corruption in the ANA: a relatively minor salary theft (USD 22,000) that however “occurred in one of the army’s elite commando units — using a system put in place precisely to prevent such fraud.”

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Few politicians say it, but most think it: our Afghan war is a disaster

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Guardian, 11 April 2011 A few sentences of clarity by a journalist who once was optimistic that things in Afghanistan might change but saw that it did not happen.

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