Tag / Taliban
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Too Fast, Too Soon: Afghanistan After Withdrawal
The United States invaded Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 to kill Osama Bin Laden and to overthrow the Taliban regime, because it was hosting al-Qaeda elements. This was the U.S. objective. Now, bin Laden is dead—thanks to the U.S. Navy Seals—and the Taliban movement has been greatly weakened. Freedom was a foreign concept in…
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Carrots and Sticks
A stable, cooperative Pakistan is both a prerequisite for eradicating al-Qaeda and a key for NATO success in Afghanistan. As Michael Mullen has emphasized, “there is no solution in the region without Pakistan, and no stable future in the region without a partnership.” Historically, however, US policy toward Pakistan has consisted of flooding the country…
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Karzai Threatens to Quit and Support Taliban
Days after he gave a speech with controversial remarks claiming that America and its Western allies were intent on keeping Afghanistan “weakened and battered…ineffective”, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai threatened to defect to the Taliban if conflicts continued between the US and Afghanistan. On behalf of the U.S, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that…
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Obama Completes Afghan Visit, Prepares Arms Deal
President Obama has just completed his surprise visit to Afghanistan this morning, and is returning to the capital. Obama had delayed his travel plans to oversee the final passing of health care, but his destination was not revealed until he arrived on location at Bagram Air Base on Sunday. He discreetly departed from Camp David…
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Around the World
Of Journeys and Apathy Recently, there was a story in the news of an Afghan teenager who fled his troubled homeland eight years ago to seek asylum in London. His extraordinary modern-day odyssey saw him travel illegally in a truck through Moscow, Eastern Europe and Paris en route to his final destination. The fairytale wasn’t…
