Obama's War (PBS Frontline)

Obama's War (PBS Frontline)

Tens of thousands of fresh American troops are now on the move in Afghanistan. FRONTLINE producers Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria, through interviews with the top U.S. commanders on the ground, embeds with U.S. forces, and fresh reporting from Washington, they examine U.S. counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a fight that promises to be longer and more costly than most Americans understand.

Watch full show online

A Regional Approach to Afghanistan

A Regional Approach to Afghanistan



Barnett Rubin, Director of Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University (Feb 23, 2009 at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

Making the Case Against Escalation

Peace Action West's Groundswell blog has developed five articles responding to common arguments from thoughtful Democrats and progressives who are unsure about opposing President Obama's plan for Afghanistan.

Part one about whether more troops create more security is here.

Part two on women's rights is here.

Part three on the terrorist threat is here.

Part four on supporting President Obama is here.

Part five on the US obligation to Afghanistan is here

Ten Things You Can Do to Oppose the War in Afghanistan

Ten Things You Can Do to Oppose the War in Afghanistan:
from The Nation 4/8/09

"The war in Afghanistan is a quagmire bordering on a catastrophe. With a current price tag of $2 billion a month, this drawn-out conflict took the lives of 155 American soldiers and 2,118 Afghan civilians last year--the bloodiest year of the war to date. Western airstrikes alone killed 522 civilians, fueling hostility toward the United States and causing more Afghans to join and support the Taliban insurgency that has spread into Pakistan. President Obama has escalated our military presence by committing an additional 17,000 US troops and 4,000 trainers to work with Afghan security forces. Where is the public outcry? The Nation and Z.P. Heller, editorial director of Brave New Films, have put together a list of things you can do to oppose the war."

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Afghanistan: For Your Reading Pleasure

From the Dreyfuss Report, The Nation:

"Having spent a while reading about Afghanistan, I've collected some resources for anyone who'd like to learn a little more about that godforsaken country and about what various strategists think ought to be done. Pretty much everything I've listed below is useful to read, even if you don't agree with all of the conclusions that analysts come up with."

"A good place to start is The Forgotten Front, published more than a year ago by the Center for American Progress. Written by Caroline P. Wadhams, an extremely bright young analyst, and Lawrence Korb, a veteran defense expert, it's a primer about the war. Many progressives won't like their conclusion that the United States needs to send more troops. (At the time, when the US had 25,000 troops in country, CAP recommended adding 20,000 more. Currently, there are 36,000 US forces, and President Obama has ordered the deployment of 17,000 more.) And CAP puts too much emphasis on NATO, saying, "A failure in Afghanistan would throw NATO's relevance into doubt" -- as if the war were about NATO, not Afghanistan. But "The Forgotten Front," even though it is somewhat overtaken by events, is a very useful guide to the issues in the war, complete with maps, charts and graphs."

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Enlisting Anthopologists for Counterinsurgency Campaigns

The Press and Human Terrain Systems: Counterinsurgency's Free Ride by David Price, Counterpunch, April 7, 2009

Like a mad scientist’s slime monster that will not die in a 1950s B Movie, the Human Terrain System’s counterinsurgency teams not only somehow remains alive in the face of extensive devastating criticism, but the program’s existence remains firmly publicly boosted by a seemingly endless series of uncritical mainstream news and features stories that frame the program as America’s last best hope to win the hearts and minds of the occupied peoples of Iraq and increasingly Afghanistan...

The Human Terrain program embeds social scientists, such as anthropologists, with troops operating in battle theatre settings as members of Human Terrain Teams. These teams are part of counterinsurgency operations designed provide military personnel with cultural information that will help inform troop activities in areas of occupation.

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Noam Chomsky on Afghanistan Escalation

Noam Chomsky on US Expansion of Afghan Occupation, the Uses of NATO, and What Obama Should Do in Israel-Palestine

We speak to Noam Chomsky, prolific author and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As NATO leaders gather for a sixtieth anniversary summit in France, Chomsky says, “The obvious question is, why bother celebrating NATO at all? In fact, why does it exist?” Chomsky also analyzes the Obama administration’s escalation of the Afghanistan occupation and reacts to the new Netanyahu government in Israel. [includes rush transcript]

Cross-posted from: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/3/noam

Pakistan in Peril - The New York Review of Books

Great piece on the larger regional context of the Afghanistan conflict...

Pakistan in Peril - The New York Review of Books:

"Pakistan in Peril
By William Dalrymple

The relative calm in Iraq in recent months, combined with the drama of the US elections, has managed to distract attention from the catastrophe that is rapidly overwhelming Western interests in the part of the world that always should have been the focus of America's response to September 11: the al-Qaeda and Taliban heartlands on either side of the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The situation here could hardly be more grim..."