Afghanistan

Good Gov, ~~Bad Prez~~

because responsible citizens clean up after their government

Afghanistan

The New Year:
Afghanistan Timeline during America’s War on “Terror”

By Lila Schow
written January 2004, updated whenever the hell I feel like it


2010
May 20	Afghan plane wreckage 'spotted' The tail section of an Afghan passenger plane which crashed on Monday is spotted by rescuers, Afghan officials say.
May 19	Bill for Afghan War Could Run Into the Trillions Eli Clifton, Inter Press Service: "The U.S. Senate is moving forward with a 59-billion-dollar spending bill, of which 33.5 billion dollars would be allocated for the war in Afghanistan. However, some experts here in Washington are raising concerns that the war may be unwinnable and that the money being spent on military operations in Afghanistan could be better spent." Afghan insurgents attack air base Seven insurgents are killed in an attack on the Nato air base at Bagram in Afghanistan, and five Nato troops are wounded. US death toll in Afghanistan tops 1,000 The massive suicide bombing that ripped through a NATO convoy in Kabul Tuesday marked a grim milestone for American forces, bringing the total number killed in action in "Operation Enduring Freedom" to the 1,000 mark.
May 18	Suicide Bomber Hits NATO Convoy in Afghanistan; 18 Dead, Five Americans Dion Nissenbaum and Hashim Shukoor, McClatchy Newspapers: "A suicide bomber driving a vehicle with more than a half ton of explosives hit a NATO convoy on a busy Kabul road early Tuesday morning, killing 18 people, including at least five American fighters and a dozen Afghan civilians, according to American and Afghan officials."
May 10	Karzai to visit US amid tensions Afghan President Hamid Karzai heads for the US for talks after a recent public spat between the sides on corruption.
May 8	Will Obama Say Yes to Afghan Peace Talks? Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai is coming to Washington next week to meet with President Obama. Afghan government officials have said that their top priority for these talks is to get President Obama to agree that the US will fully back efforts of the Afghan government to reconcile with senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban insurgency in order to end the war."
May 6	Afghans demonstrate against Iran Hundreds of Afghans demonstrate against alleged ill-treatment and executions of Afghan refugees by the Iranian authorities.
May 5	'Eight dead' in Afghan violence Seven suicide bombers are killed along with a government official in an attack in the Afghan city of Zaranj, officials say.
May 1	Pentagon Map Shows Wide Taliban Zone in the South Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "The Pentagon was still trying to spin its report on the war in Afghanistan issued this week as holding out hope because the instability had leveled off, even as some news outlets were noting that it documents the continued expansion of Taliban capabilities and operations."

Apr 30	Pentagon paints bleak picture of Afghanistan war as more civilians die The Obama administration’s dispatch of 50,000 more US troops to Afghanistan over the past year notwithstanding, the 150-page Pentagon report allowed that the country’s so-called insurgents considered 2009 their “most successful year,” and that the resistance to the occupation had a “robust means of sustaining its operation.”
Apr 29	Damning US Afghan report released The US defence department says only a quarter of what it regards as key regions in Afghanistan support President Hamid Karzai. Top Taliban leader 'still alive' Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud survived an American drone attack in January, intelligence sources say.
Apr 27	US military escalates its dirty war in Afghanistan American special forces' units are operating in and around the Afghan city of Kandahar, assassinating or capturing alleged leaders and militants of the Taliban resistance ahead of a major US-NATO offensive.
Apr 26	Afghanistan: War Zone Medical Aid Doubly Endangered Paul Virgo, Inter Press Service: "The case of the three Italians arrested this month on suspicion of trying to assassinate a southern Afghan governor concluded with a happy ending of sorts and a sure-fire certainty - an uncompromising attitude that makes war-zone medical aid doubly dangerous." Afghan bombs 'target police boss' Two bombs, reportedly targeting a police chief, explode in the Afghan city of Kandahar killing two civilians, officials say.
Apr 25	Fatal suicide bomb in Afghanistan A suicide bomber kills four people and injures several others in an attack at a bazaar in southern Afghanistan, officials say.
Apr 24	Nato plans Afghanistan transfer Nato foreign ministers discuss a framework to hand over responsibility in Afghanistan to the government there
Apr 23	Nato holds Afghan pull-out talks Nato foreign ministers discuss a framework to hand over responsibility for Afghanistan to the government there. Funeral for bomb victim soldier The funeral of a soldier who was serving in Afghanistan alongside his two brothers when he was killed takes place later. Afghanistan: Another massacre as a bloody summer looms in Kandahar A car carrying an Afghan police officer and three teenagers was blasted with machine gun fire by NATO troops on Monday, allegedly because it came “too close” to a convoy traveling along a highway in the eastern province of Khost. All four occupants were killed.
Apr 20	Kandahar deputy mayor shot dead The deputy mayor of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar has been shot dead while praying at a mosque, officials say.
Apr 19	Dread Surrounds "Operation Hope" in Afghanistan Jean MacKenzie, GlobalPost: "It is being called Operation Omid. The word omid means 'hope' in Afghanistan's Dari language. But, judging by the reaction of local residents, the coming US-led military offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar could not be more inappropriately named." Deadly quake in north Afghanistan Seven people are reported dead as a magnitude 5.3 earthquake hits Afghanistan and is felt in neighbouring states
Apr 15	McChrystal Backtracks on Troop Veto for Kandahar Shuras Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "The US military has now officially backtracked from its earlier suggestion that it would seek the consent of local shuras, or consultative conferences with those elders, to carry out the coming military occupation of Kandahar city and nearby districts - contradicting a pledge by Afghan President Hamid Karzai not to carry out the operation without such consent." Bill Asks Obama for Afghanistan Exit Plan Mary Susan Littlepage, Truthout: "Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) and Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and Walter Jones (R-North Carolina) introduced legislation Wednesday that calls on the White House to develop a 'flexible timetable' to draw down US troops from Afghanistan." US Military Still Lying About Special Forces Night Raid in Afghanistan Robert Naiman, Truthout: "US officials are 'probing a possible attempted coverup' in the deaths of five Afghan civilians in February in a raid carried out by US Special Forces accompanied by Afghan troops, The Los Angeles Times reports. Among the charges is that the bodies were tampered with by US forces to conceal the cause of death." Contractor Deaths Accelerating in Afghanistan as They Outnumber Soldiers T. Christian Miller, ProPublica: "A recent Congressional Research Service analysis obtained by ProPublica looked at the number of civilian contractors killed in Afghanistan in recent months. It's not pretty. Of the 289 civilians killed since the war began more than eight years ago, 100 have died in just the last six months. That's a reflection of both growing violence and the importance of the civilians flooding into the country along with troops in response to President Obama's decision to boost the American presence in Afghanistan." Afghans 'abused at secret prison' Afghan prisoners are being abused in a "secret jail" at Bagram airbase, witnesses tell the BBC.
Apr 14	Our Man in Afghanistan: Coming to Terms With Karzai Fareed Zakaria: "President Obama keeps saying that he intends to win the war in Afghanistan. 'There will be difficult days ahead, but I am absolutely confident that we will succeed,' he promised in this year's State of the Union address."
Apr 13	US Troops Open Fire on Passenger Bus in Afghanistan, Killing Four Civilians Jason Leopold, Truthout: "Four Afghan civilians were killed and 18 others wounded Monday when US troops opened fire on a passenger bus they believed was a threat to military personnel working to remove roadside bombs from a highway near Kandahar."
Apr 12	Contempt for Karzai Michael Isikoff, Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai: "Last fall President Obama made what may be his most agonizing decision yet, sending 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. But now White House officials are making little secret about how exasperated they are with the erratic behavior of the country's president, Hamid Karzai."
Apr 9	US Military Slaughters Sheep in Apology for Afghanistan Deaths Julius Cavendish, The Christian Science Monitor: "A top US Special Forces commander visited the village of Khataba in eastern Afghanistan today to apologize for a night raid that went terribly wrong. It was here on Feb. 11 that a Special Forces team gunned down an Afghan police chief, a prosecutor, and three unarmed women, infuriating locals and drawing a sharp rebuke from politicians in Kabul."
Apr 8	Cover-Ups to Protect US Murders in Afghanistan Continue Unabated Dave Lindorff, Truthout: "So, finally the truth comes out ... sort of. After initially claiming that two pregnant women and a teenage girl killed in a US Special Forces raid on an Afghan home in Khataba in February had been discovered by the Americans bound and slain, the US military has admitted that they were actually shot and killed by those US troops - who then tried to cover up their 'mistake' by carving the bullets out of the bodies with knives, removing other incriminating bullets from the compound's walls and then washing away the bloody evidence with alcohol." New US soldier video is released The Taliban release a new video which appears to show an American soldier who was captured in Afghanistan in June last year.
Apr 7	Afghan Official Says US Raiders Hid Killings Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "The head of the Afghan Ministry of Interior investigation said publicly for the first time his investigators had accepted the testimony of family members of the victims of the Feb. 12 raid by U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) that the U.S. troops had dug bullets out of the bodies of their victims in an apparent effort to cover up the killings and that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal had agreed with the team's conclusions." Despite Reports of Progress, Afghan Women Still Struggle Sananda Sahoo, McClatchy Newspapers: "The numbers tell an upbeat story about efforts to empower and protect women in Afghanistan: The country now has around 5.7 million children in school, of whom 35 percent are girls. There are 8,000 schools, including several hundred just for girls. Under the Taliban's rule, there were none. Women now have access to health care and hold a full 25 percent of the nation's parliament." Taliban kidnapper released early A senior Afghan Taliban commander jailed for kidnapping foreigners in Kabul in 2004 was given an early release, the BBC learns.
Apr 5	US Consulate in Peshawar Attacked by Pakistan Taliban Issam Ahmed, The Christian Science Monitor: "Three powerful blasts rocked the north-western Pakistan city of Peshawar on Monday, in a coordinated attack on the US consulate. Eight people including three Pakistan Taliban militants were killed but no one in the US consulate was hurt, according to Reuters." Tensions mount between Washington and its puppet in Kabul Thursday's warning by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that US and other NATO troops could be regarded as "invaders" in his country provided a rare glimpse into the political realities in Afghanistan--and called forth a furious reaction from the Obama administration and the American media.
Apr 4	Afghan soldiers killed by Germans Five Afghan soldiers are killed and three injured by German troops in an incident in northern Afghanistan, Nato says. Karzai seeks to allay US concerns Afghan President Hamid Karzai calls the US to ease concerns about a speech in which he blamed the UN and EU for fraud.
Apr 2	UN envoy denies Afghan poll fraud A former UN envoy to Afghanistan dismisses accusations of electoral fraud levelled by President Hamid Karzai.
Apr 1	UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier is killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence announces.

Mar 31	McChrystal's Support for Afghan Raids Belies New Image Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "Gen. Stanley McChrystal has recently acquired the image of a master strategist of the population-sensitive counterinsurgency, reducing civilian casualties from airstrikes and insisting that troops avoid firing when civilians might be hit during the recent offensive in Helmand Province. One recent press story even referred to a 'McChrystal Doctrine' that focuses on 'winning over civilians rather than killing insurgents.'" Can Anyone Pacify the World's Number One Narco-State? Alfred W. McCoy, TomDispatch.com: "In ways that have escaped most observers, the Obama administration is now trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and death in Afghanistan from which there is neither an easy end nor an obvious exit." Afghan market bombing kills many A bomb in a busy Afghan market kills 13 people as the top US military official visits Kabul ahead of a new offensive
Mar 30	Pacified Kathy Kelly, Truthout: "If the US public looked long and hard into a mirror reflecting the civilian atrocities that have occurred in Afghanistan over the past ten months, we would see ourselves as people who have collaborated with and paid for war crimes committed against innocent civilians who meant us no harm." Two-Thirds of Boys in Afghan Jails Are Brutalized, Study Finds Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "Nearly two of every three male juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now incarcerated in the country's juvenile justice system." Kandahar offensive 'due in June' Nato forces in Afghanistan will launch a planned assault in June on the southern city of Kandahar, military officials say.
Mar 29	Obama hails forces on Afghan trip US President Barack Obama tells US forces in Afghanistan they are there to help Afghans to forge a "hard-won peace".
Mar 28	Talking to Taliban and Tribal Warlords J. Sri Raman, Truthout: "From October 7, 2001, until about a year ago, the world was hearing of the 'war on terror' in the Af-Pak region as one on Taliban and tribal warlords allied to them. No longer. What assails our ears increasingly over the recent period is talk of a campaign to woo and win over a section of the same 'enemies of civilization.'"
Mar 26	Pentagon Wants $33 Billion More for War in Afghanistan Gordon Lubold, The Christian Science Monitor: "The Pentagon wants $33 billion in additional funding to pay for the war in Afghanistan this year and train the Afghan military, but members of Congress want to make sure they're not writing a blank check."
Mar 23	$6 Billion Later, Afghan Cops Aren't Ready to Serve T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, Mark Hosenball and Ron Moreau, Newsweek: "Mohammad Moqim watches in despair as his men struggle with their AK-47 automatic rifles, doing their best to hit man-size targets 50 meters away. A few of the police trainees lying prone in the mud are decent shots, but the rest shoot clumsily, and fumble as they try to reload their weapons. The Afghan National Police (ANP) captain sighs as he dismisses one group of trainees and orders 25 more to take their places on the firing line. 'We are still at zero,' says Captain Moqim, 35, an eight-year veteran of the force. 'They don't listen, are undisciplined, and will never be real policemen.'"
Mar 22	UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has announced. Afghan insurgents in peace talks A delegation from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's militant group meets officials for talks in Kabul, the Afghan government says. Pakistan drone raid 'kills five' Missiles fired by a suspected US drone kill at least five people in north-western Pakistan, officials say. British soldier jailed for refusing to redeploy to Afghanistan Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, 27, joined the Army in 2004 and served with the Royal Logistic Corps in Afghanistan. Having returned to the UK, just nine months after his previous tour Glenton was ordered to redeploy to Afghanistan. Instead, he absconded on June 11, 2007, and went to south-east Asia and Australia. Policing Afghanistan: How Afghan Police Training Became a Train Wreck Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch.com: "The Pentagon faces a tough choice: Should it award a new contract to Xe (formerly Blackwater), a company made infamous when its employees killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad in 2007, or to DynCorp, a company made infamous in Bosnia in 1999 when some of its employees were caught trafficking young girls for sex?"
Mar 21	Afghan blast 'kills 10' in south Ten people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, officials say.
Mar 20	Taliban arrests halt UN contacts The former UN special envoy in Afghanistan says Pakistan's arrest of Taliban leaders halted a channel of secret UN communications
Mar 18	US/NATO death squads killing indiscriminately in Afghanistan Despite a directive calling for more caution, US special forces operations are continuing to terrorise and kill civilians in Afghanistan.
Mar 17	Afghanistan Enacts Law That Gives War Criminals Blanket Immunity Jason Leopold, Truthout: "A law that provides blanket immunity and pardons former members of Afghanistan's armed factions for war crimes and human rights abuses committed prior to December 2001 was quietly enacted three years ago by parliament, despite previous assurances by President Hamid Karzai that he would not sign it or allow it to take effect."
Mar 16	Afghanistan violence escalates as US forces prepare Kandahar assault Intensified clashes between US-led occupying forces and Taliban and Afghan resistance fighters have seen a substantial increase in casualties for both sides, and a rising death toll for local civilians. Helmand and Kandahar provinces, on Afghanistan’s south-western border with Pakistan, remain the focus of Washington’s military escalation. Having captured Marjah town in Helmand last month, US military commanders are waiting for the remainder of the 30,000 additional troops deployed by President Barack Obama before launching a summer offensive in Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar. US military created private spy and murder squad in Afghanistan A long-time US military official used Pentagon funding to establish a private intelligence and assassination network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a report Monday in the New York Times.
Mar 15	Policy Battle Over Afghan Peace Talks Intensifies Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "The struggle within the Barack Obama administration over Afghanistan policy entered a new phase when the president suggested at a meeting of his 'war cabinet' Friday that it might be time to start negotiations with the Taliban, according to a report in The New York Times Saturday." This Time It's Pregnant Women: Another American Atrocity in the Bush-Obama War in Afghanistan Dave Lindorff, Truthout: "Another night-time raid on a housing compound in Afghanistan. Another bunch of innocent Afghans killed. Another round of lies by the US-led forces of the so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Only this time, among the dead are two pregnant mothers and a teenage girl."
Mar 14	Afghan attack 'was warning to US' Bomb attacks on the Afghan city of Kandahar were a warning to US and Nato forces not to target the region, the Taliban say.
Mar 11	Five Republicans Back Kucinich, but Antiwar Vote Loses Jason Leopold and Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "A resolution introduced in the House Wednesday, aimed at bringing a swift end to the war in Afghanistan, was overwhelmingly defeated following a passionate, three-hour debate on war policy." Afghan plea for 'no proxy wars' Afghanistan does not want other countries' "proxy wars" fought on its soil, President Hamid Karzai says in Islamabad Afghan police drug abuse 'rife' Drug abuse is rife in the Afghan police force with up to 40% of recruits testing positive in some areas, a US report says
Mar 10	As US death toll hits 1,000 in "Operation Enduring Freedom": Congressional Democrats back expanded war in Afghanistan In the face of growing popular opposition to the war in Afghanistan, the US House of Representatives voted by overwhelming majorities of both Democrats and Republicans to continue the war, which the Obama administration is escalating.
Mar 9	Gates visits Afghanistan to prepare US offensive against Kandahar At a joint press conference in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Gates warned of a new round of bloody violence against the Afghan people. “People do need to understand there is some very hard fighting and some very hard days ahead,” he said. “I worry people will get too impatient and think things are better than they actually are.”
Mar 8	Soldier dies in Afghanistan blast A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while on foot patrol in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence announces.
Mar 7	Kucinich Forces Congress to Debate Afghanistan Robert Naiman, Truthout: "On Thursday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced H. Com Res. 248, a privileged resolution with 16 original cosponsors that will require the House of Representatives to debate whether to continue the war in Afghanistan. Debate on the resolution is expected early next week." Brown's Afghan pledge questioned The Conservatives query Gordon Brown's announcement of 200 new patrol vehicles for British troops in Afghanistan. Afghan Taliban clash with rivals At least 60 people are killed as Taliban militants fight with rivals from an Islamic group in northern Afghanistan, police say.
Mar 6	PM visits soldiers in Afghanistan Gordon Brown visits British troops in Afghanistan amid a growing row over his evidence to the Iraq war inquiry. US to conduct Blackwater review The US defence secretary will review allegations of misconduct in Afghanistan by the security firm once known as Blackwater.
Mar 5	Afghanistan's My Lai Massacre Dave Lindorff, Truthout: "When Charlie Company's Lt. William Calley ordered and encouraged his men to rape, maim and slaughter over 400 men, women and children in My Lai in Vietnam back in 1968, there were at least four heroes who tried to stop him or bring him and higher officers to justice. One was helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr., who evacuated some of the wounded victims, and who set his chopper down between a group of Vietnamese and Calley's men, ordering his door gunner to open fire on the US soldiers if they shot any more people. One was Ron Ridenhour, a soldier who learned of the massacre and began a private investigation, ultimately reporting the crime to the Pentagon and Congress. One was Michael Bernhardt, a soldier in Charlie Company, who witnessed the whole thing and reported it all to Ridenhour. And one was journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the story in the US media." US Afghan general gets more power The top commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, gets expanded authority over forces there.
Mar 3	US worry over Afghan media curbs The US envoy to Afghanistan says Washington is concerned about new media restrictions imposed by Kabul.
Mar 2	Malalai Joya Is an Angry Woman Dominique Bari, L'Humanite in English: "Exclusive interview with the young Afghan deputy thrown out of Parliament for having exposed foreign interference in her country.... Malalai Joya is an angry woman. She's angry about the war being carried out by the international coalition in her country, Afghanistan, angry about the UN bombs that are killing civilians in their villages, angry about calls for reconciliation with the Taliban and the war lords. 'Stop the massacres in my country. Withdraw your foreign troops so we can stop Talibanization,' is what the young Afghan deputy tells Western public opinion."
Mar 1	Big rise in Afghan child migrants United Nations aid agencies warn of a sharp increase in unaccompanied Afghan children applying for asylum in Europe. UK female soldier inquest to open An inquest into the death of the only female UK soldier killed in Afghanistan is set to raise more questions about equipment. German parliament approves new Afghanistan strategy A large majority of the German parliament voted Friday, February 26 to expand the country’s military operation in Afghanistan. In future, the number of soldiers deployed in the Hindu Kush will be increased from the current level of 4,500 to 5,350. In addition, significantly more police will be sent to Afghanistan to train local security forces. Afghanistan and the "Balance of Armaments" Dallas Darling, Truthout: "Before discussing what Afghanistan has to do with the 'balance of armaments' idea, it is obvious that US and NATO forces, with regards to superior weapons and advanced armament industries, have had tremendous advantages over insurgents in the Middle East and Asia. Unfortunately, the production, maintenance and use of these advanced weapons systems and war technologies have routinely been accepted in the West. How modern war technologies, including their manufacturing and support systems, collectively shaped and changed those involved have rarely, if at all, received any type of criticism, too."

Feb 28	Troops in Afghanistan 'for years' Britain will be "militarily engaged" in Afghanistan for a further five years, head of the Army General Sir David Richards says.
Feb 27	US 'to rid Taliban from Kandahar' The US says it is planning a new offensive later this year to drive the Taliban from the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar.
Feb 26	Marjah: Success for the Military, Hell for the Residents Jean MacKenzie and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, GlobalPost: "The dusty squares of Marjah are empty; there is no life, the soul of the place seems to have disappeared. Those residents who are left cower in their homes, afraid of bullets or mines if they venture out, even for food." UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan while taking part in Operation Moshtarak. Suicide attack on Afghan capital Explosions and gunfire in the centre of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, leave at least 17 people dead, officials say. Court 'bans Taliban extradition' The Afghan Taliban's top military commander, recently detained in Pakistan, is not to be extradited, the Lahore High Court rules.
Feb 23	Air Strike on Civilians Reverberates Beyond Afghanistan Charles Fromm, Inter Press Service: "Amid growing European discontent over the war in Afghanistan, the head of US and NATO forces apologized Monday for an air strike that killed at least 27 civilians in the central part of the country Sunday." Report: 1,000th US Soldier Dies in Afghanistan Reuters: "The number of US troops killed in Afghanistan has reached 1,000, an independent Web site said on Tuesday, and another deadly bombing in the volatile south highlighted the struggle to stabilize the country. Civilian and military casualties hit record highs last year as violence reached its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted in late 2001, with foreign forces launching two big offensives in the past eight months to stem a growing insurgency." Afghanistan condemns Nato strike The Afghan government condemns a Nato air strike on a convoy in Uruzgan province, which killed at least 27 civilians.
Feb 22	Air strike kills Afghan civilians Twenty-seven civilians died in a Nato air strike in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, the Afghan government says. Afghan Push - Hype or History in the Making? Jean MacKenzie and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, GlobalPost: "Six days into the battle for Marjah, the spin doctors in Kabul and Washington may be regretting all the advance hype. With 15,000 combined Afghan, American and British forces arrayed against what was thought to be a handful of insurgents, victory had seemed assured." New York Times' "Mystery" Op-Ed Calls for More Afghan Civilian Deaths Robert Naiman, Truthout: "On Thursday, The New York Times made an astonishing editorial choice, for which its editors owe the public an explanation: it published an op-ed by an obscure and poorly identified author attacking Gen. Stanley McChrystal for his directive last July that airstrikes in Afghanistan be authorized only under 'very limited and prescribed conditions.' The op-ed denounced an 'overemphasis on civilian protection' and charged that 'air support to American and Afghan forces has been all but grounded by concerns about civilian casualties.'"
Feb 21	Dutch government collapses over military deployment in Afghanistan The collapse of the Dutch government represents a serious blow to the US administration's military strategy in Afghanistan.
Feb 20	Afghan police deployed to warzone Hundreds of Afghan police officers are sent to areas captured by Nato-led forces in an offensive against the Taliban. We've Caught the Taliban Chief! Can We Go Home Now? Robert Naiman, Truthout: "How the US handles the Pakistani arrest of the top Afghan Taliban military commander, and the aftermath of the US military assault in Marjah, may have a decisive impact on whether we get to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan soon, or in the far-off future. Some analysts - like Gareth Porter - think the key motivation of the present US military escalation is political in the bad sense: in order to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban, first the US has to 'show that nobody pushes us around,' just as President Bush had to escalate militarily in Iraq before he could cut deals with the Sunni Awakening and the Mahdi Army militia. It's a grim world in which the most powerful country kills people to look tough; but right now, the way to minimize human suffering is for the US to take advantage of recent 'successes' to take a high road towards going home."
Feb 19	Six troops die in Afghan fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan say six of their soldiers are killed in a single day during a major offensive against the Taliban. Taliban chiefs 'held in Pakistan' Two senior members of the Afghan Taliban are detained in Pakistan, reports say - but there is confusion over the details.
Feb 18	Officers Absent as Afghan Ambush Killed Five US Troops Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "The absence of experienced senior leaders and inadequate action by officers in a tactical operations center, including a failure to provide effective artillery and air support, contributed to the deaths of five US troops and nine Afghans in a September 8 battle, an official investigation has found." Bagram, Obama's Secret Penal Colony Le Nouvel Observateur: "It's the biggest American prison outside the United States. No journalist has ever been able to penetrate this no-law zone situated to the north of Kabul. Arbitrary detentions, humiliations, even torture, in the name of the 'war against terror' ... From Afghanistan, Sara Daniel reports horrific testimonies. After Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the next scandal to threaten America?" Jailed Taliban Leader Still a Pakistani Asset Gareth Porter, OpEdNews: "Contrary to initial US suggestions that it signals reduced Pakistani support for the Taliban, the detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the operational leader of the Afghan Taliban, represents a shift by Pakistan to more open support for the Taliban in preparation for a peace settlement and US withdrawal." Taliban ammunition 'running low' Taliban militants battling troops in southern Afghanistan, are running out of ammunition, Nato officials say citing intelligence reports.
Feb 17	Team America Kills Five Kids in Marjah Robert Naiman, Truthout: "'Civilian casualties are inevitable,' said US officials before launching their weekend military assault on Marjah in southern Afghanistan, and in this case, they were telling the truth. Yesterday, The New York Times reported, a US rocket strike 'hit a compound crowded with Afghan civilians ... killing at least 10 people, including 5 children.'" US Marines battle Afghan Taliban US Marines battling the Taliban in Afghanistan call in helicopter gunships for support, as a major offensive enters its fifth day. Pakistan media 'muted' on arrest The Pakistani media is muted over the arrest of top Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Afghanistan: Obama's escalation begins The offensive begun February 13 against the town of Marjah is the first major effort undertaken by the US military in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered the intensification of the US war effort and the dispatch of 30,000 additional American troops.
Feb 16	Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life Norman Solomon, Truthout: "When the US military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation." Afghan Taliban resist Nato push US forces face sporadic resistance in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah as the Nato offensive in Afghanistan enters its fourth day.
Feb 15	Errant Rockets Kill 12 Civilians in Afghan Offensive Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers: "Twelve Afghan civilians died Sunday after U.S. rockets mistakenly hit a house during the much-trumpeted offensive to clear the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, a loss of life that is likely to seriously undermine the operation and the renewed American-led mission to win the trust of the population." Taliban bombs 'slow Afghan push' Improvised bombs placed by Taliban fighters are slowing Nato's big offensive in Afghanistan, military officials say.
Feb 14	Nato aims to add to Afghan gains Thousands of US, UK and Afghan troops are trying to consolidate gains on the second day of a big offensive against the Taliban.
Feb 13	US, Afghan Forces Begin Assault in Helmand Province US forces launched a major offensive in southern Afghanistan Friday afternoon in what McClatchy Newspaper says is "probably the biggest assault since the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001."
Feb 12	US Poised to Commit War Crimes in Marjah Robert Naiman, Truthout: "The United States and NATO are poised to launch a major assault in the Marjah District in southern Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians are in imminent peril. Will President Obama and Congress act to protect civilians in Marjah, in compliance with the obligations of the United States under the laws of war?" Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on Anti-US Terror Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States." Unlocking the Quiet Courage of Afghans Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, On The Issues: "When I saw the Afghans in refugee camps in Pakistan in 1992, I couldn't believe what was happening. I left Afghanistan in 1970 to pursue my education in the United States, but I was amazed by what I saw in the camps upon return. These were not the Afghans that I had known growing up in Afghanistan."
Feb 11	Afghan avalanche toll 'may rise' Afghan officials fear the number of dead in an avalanche in the north-east could continue to rise beyond 166 people.
Feb 10	The 700 Military Bases of Afghanistan Black Sites in the Empire of Bases Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com: "In the nineteenth century, it was a fort used by British forces. In the twentieth century, Soviet troops moved into the crumbling facilities. In December 2009, at this site in the Shinwar district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, U.S. troops joined members of the Afghan National Army in preparing the way for the next round of foreign occupation. On its grounds, a new military base is expected to rise, one of hundreds of camps and outposts scattered across the country." War wounded 'straining' hospitals Afghan and UK hospitals are being stretched by the number of troops wounded in Helmand, the National Audit Office says.
Feb 9	The F Word: Lifting the Veil on US Troops in Pakistan Laura Flanders, GRITtv: "'The deaths of three American soldiers in a Taliban suicide attack on Wednesday lifted the veil on United States military assistance to Pakistan.' So began a February 4 piece by Jane Perlez in The New York Times. But even all these days on, it's been a very discreet unveiling. Lest we forget, US servicepeople are not supposed to be dying in Pakistan. It's not Iraq, it's not Afghanistan. There's no agreement for combat troops to operate. Until recently, US officials have repeatedly officially denied having any combat troops in place. This month's killing exposed that lie - so what were the US troops doing there?"
Feb 8	Two UK soldiers killed in Helmand Two British soldiers have been killed in an explosion while on foot patrol in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says. Villages empty before Afghan push Hundreds of villagers leave a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan ahead of a major expected Nato-led offensive.
Feb 7	Afghan villagers shot 'in error' Afghan police shoot dead seven young men near the Pakistani border after mistaking them for insurgents, a police official says.
Feb 6	Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators' Plan Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "If peace talks do ultimately begin between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leadership, they may well follow a "road map" to a political settlement drawn up by a group of ex-Taliban officials who have been serving as intermediaries between the two sides. The four Taliban mediators have been encouraging both Karzai and the Taliban leadership to begin with steps toward military de-escalation and confidence-building before proceeding to the central political-military issues that must be negotiated, a member of the mediation team, Arsullah Rahmani, told IPS in an interview at his home in Kabul." Report: "No Strategic Value" to Afghan Outpost Where Eight Died John Walcott and Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "A US military investigation into a battle last October in eastern Afghanistan that cost eight American soldiers their lives has concluded that the small outpost was worthless, the troops there didn't understand their mission, and intelligence and air support were tied up elsewhere in the province."
Feb 5	US to launch Fallujah-style attack in Afghanistan As US and British troops prepare to attack the town of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, military commanders and the media are openly comparing the operation to the siege of Fallujah, one of the bloodiest war crimes of the Iraq war.
Feb 4	Scientist guilty of US murder bid A US court finds a Pakistani female scientist guilty of attempting to murder US agents while detained in Afghanistan.
Feb 3	Obama's surge: killing spree on both sides of AfPak border CIA drone missile attacks claimed the lives of 123 civilians last month alone in Pakistan, it was reported this week. Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, US Special Forces have launched an assassination campaign against alleged leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban movement in preparation for an imminent military offensive. US soldiers die in Pakistan blast At least 10 people, including three US soldiers, are killed in a convoy attack in north-west Pakistan, officials say.
Feb 2	US, Karzai Clash on Unconditional Talks with Taliban Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "On the surface, it would seem unlikely that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who presides over a politically feeble government and is highly dependent on the U.S. military presence and economic assistance, would defy the United States on the issue of peace negotiations with the leadership of the Taliban insurgency." Pakistan 'captures Taliban base' A major Taliban base in a north-western tribal region of Pakistan is captured after days of fierce fighting, officials say.

Jan 31	Afghanistan: Record winter casualties for US-led occupying forces Last month 44 US and coalition troops were killed in Afghanistan—the bloodiest month of fighting recorded in the country’s winter season since the 2001 invasion. In previous years, the freezing temperatures and snowy conditions have seen a lull in the conflict between the US and NATO led International Security Assistance Force and anti-occupation guerrillas. Translator kills two US soldiers Two US soldiers who died in Afghanistan on Friday were shot dead by an Afghan interpreter, it has emerged. Pakistan Taliban leader 'buried' The row over the reported death of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud deepens after reports of his burial.
Jan 30	Blast hits Pakistani checkpoint A suspected suicide bomber kills at least 12 people in an attack on a checkpoint in north-west Pakistan, officials say. Afghan Taliban deny talks with UN The Afghan Taliban deny reports that some of their members met UN special envoy Kai Eide to discuss peace.
Jan 29	Regardless of Polls, Afghans Say Mood in Country is Worsening Jean MacKenzie, GlobalPost: "There is a loud sound of head-scratching in Kabul these days as Afghans and foreigners alike ponder the results of a poll conducted jointly by ABC News, the BBC and German television company ARD."
Jan 28	German government falls in behind US strategy for Afghanistan The "new approach" by Germany in Afghanistan is now clear, i.e., more of the same criminal military occupation that has already brought death and misery to hundreds of thousands of Afghans in a war that has already lasted twice as long as the First World War.
Jan 27	UN eases curbs on Taliban leaders The UN removes five former Afghan Taliban officials from its sanctions list which was imposed due to alleged al-Qaeda links.
Jan 26	Germany to increase Afghan forces Germany will increase its military deployment in Afghanistan by 500 troops, Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
Jan 25	Afghan Elections Delayed, but Even Later Date May Come Too Soon Ben Arnoldy, The Christian Science Monitor: "The Afghan government has postponed upcoming parliamentary elections, but doubts are already surfacing as to whether the later date will be possible either." US general signals Taliban talks The top US commander in Afghanistan calls for a negotiated peace with the Taliban, ahead of a major conference
Jan 24	Afghan parliament poll postponed Afghanistan is postponing its parliamentary election by four months until September, the election commission confirms. Rare warbler found in Afghanistan Scientists say they have discovered a breeding site for the world's least-known bird species in a remote part of Afghanistan.
Jan 23	Defense Secretary Robert Gates Confirms Blackwater in Pakistan Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports: "In an interview with the Pakistani TV station Express TV, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the private security firms Blackwater and DynCorp are operating inside Pakistan."
Jan 22	All-party conspiracy of silence on German army role in Afghanistan The article shows Steinmeier and Merkel agree that the military deployment in Afghanistan should continue, even though the September 4 massacre in Kunduz initiated by German army officers has revealed the criminal character of the war. According to recent opinion polls, over 70 percent of the German population is opposed to the presence of German troops in Afghanistan. Drone 'kills Filipino militant' A Filipino militant wanted by the US is believed killed in a drone strike in Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials say.
Jan 19	Afghanistan: Women Dying and Torture Run Amuck Jeffrey Kaye, Truthout: "Two reports coming out of Afghanistan illustrate the depth of hypocrisy and subterfuge characterizing the US/NATO intervention in that country. One could cite a myriad of such examples, so immoral and wrong is the US war there." Dark Revelations in the Bagram Prisoner List Andy Worthington, Truthout: "On Friday, the ACLU secured a significant victory in its campaign to gain information about the prisoners held in the US prison at Bagram airbase, Afghanistan (known as the Bagram Theater Internment Facility), when the Pentagon released a list of the names of the 645 prisoners who were held on September 22, 2009."
Jan 18	Taliban attacks in Kabul deepen crisis of US occupation The capital was paralyzed for more than five hours as gun battles continued following attacks by two suicide bombers and a small number of insurgents who used grenades and other weapons. The attack began in the middle of a downtown traffic circle only 50 yards from the presidential palace and equally close to the Ministry of Justice and the Central Bank. According to Afghan officials, the seven attackers were all killed, along with three Afghan soldiers and two civilians. More than 70 people were injured. Taliban Fighters Attack Afghan Capital, Target Government Buildings Matt Renner, Truthout: "A coordinated Taliban attack in the heart of Kabul, Afghanistan killed at least five people and cast new doubts on the security apparatus in the capital city." Good Money After Bad in Afghanistan? Jean MacKenzie, GlobalPost: "Helmand, even more than the rest of Afghanistan, is a bewildering labyrinth of competing interests: tribal affiliations, complex political ties and regional factionalism all lurk just below the surface coloring attitudes and dictating actions." Militants attack Afghan capital Suspected Taliban militants attack key buildings in the Afghan capital, setting off explosions and sparking a gun battle. Parliament delays Afghan cabinet The Afghan parliament starts a winter recess without waiting for President Karzai to fill his cabinet, dealing him another setback.
Jan 17	US Spending in Afghanistan Plagued by Poor US Oversight Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Newspapers: "The US has spent more than $732 million to improve Afghanistan's electrical grid since 2002, but delays and rising costs have plagued many of the projects in part because of poor oversight by the American government, a watchdog agency reports." Pakistan drone attack 'kills 15' An attack by a US drone kills at least 15 suspected militants in north-west Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials say.
Jan 16	US releases Afghan prison names The US releases the names of 645 prisoners held at Bagram air base in Afghanistan following a freedom of information lawsuit. Soldiers hurt in Kashmir bombing At least two soldiers are injured in a suicide bomb attack on a military vehicle in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, officials say.
Jan 14	Can Cheryle Jackson End the War in Afghanistan? Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Add Illinois to Pennsylvania as states where there is a contested Senate primary in which the war in Afghanistan has become an issue. The Chicago Tribune reports that the two leading contenders for the Democratic nomination for Barack Obama's former seat in the Senate have staked out diametrically opposed positions." Raid 'fails to kill' top militant The Pakistani Taliban deny their leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US missile attack near the Afghan border. Afghanistan explosion 'kills 15' At least 15 people are killed by an explosion in a crowded market in southern Afghanistan, a local police chief says
Jan 13	Afghans shot down while protesting US occupation At least eight protesters were killed and 13 wounded in the southern Afghanistan town of Garmsir Wednesday, when security forces fired on a demonstration of several thousand people protesting against the US military. Protesters blamed the deaths on Afghan intelligence agents, backed up by US soldiers. Peace Through Education Bill Moyers, Truthout: "America has committed billions to escalate military action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but humanitarian and bestselling author Greg Mortenson argues that there's a better path to peace: building schools and nurturing local communities."
Jan 11	Afghans optimistic, poll reveals Most Afghans are increasingly upbeat about the state of their country, a survey commissioned by the BBC and others show. Afghanistan: Necessity Isn't Always Just Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III, Truthout: "As Americans usher in a new year and new decade, they find themselves confronted with old problems: war and terror. The epicenter of these problems has shifted from Iraq to Central Asia - Afghanistan/Pakistan." The Shadow War Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com: "It was a Christmas and New Year's from hell for American intelligence, that $75 billion labyrinth of at least 16 major agencies and a handful of minor ones. As the old year was preparing to be rung out, so were our intelligence agencies, which managed not to connect every obvious clue to a (literally) seat-of-the-pants al-Qaeda operation."
Jan 9	'CIA bomber' shown vowing revenge Video purportedly of a man who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan shows him vowing revenge for a Pakistani Taliban chief's death.
Jan 7	Children's deaths spark anti-US outrage in Afghanistan More than 5,000 people demonstrated in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad Thursday to protest the deaths of four children and wounding of scores of others in an explosion that ripped through a crowd in a nearby village the day before. Retired Army General Predicts 300 to 500 Casualties Per Month in Afghanistan Mary Susan Littlepage, Truthout: "The US could see as many as 300 to 500 soldiers killed and wounded per month in Afghanistan as 30,000 additional troops are sent to the country to launch a major offensive against insurgents, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey said in a recent report."
Jan 6	Afghan CIA bomber 'fooled family' The Jordanian bomber who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan lied to his family about his intentions, the BBC is told.
Jan 5	Soldier killed in Helmand named The first British soldier killed in Afghanistan this year is named as Pte Robert Hayes of 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment. CIA bomber 'was a double agent' The bomber who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan was an al-Qaeda double agent from Jordan, US reports say.
Jan 4	US drone missiles slaughtered 700 Pakistani civilians in 2009 US drone missile attacks have claimed the lives of over 700 Pakistani civilians since Barack Obama took office a year ago, according to figures released this week by officials in Islamabad. US surge in Afg hanistan exposes dilemma of German foreign policy On December 27 German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he did not believe it was possible to bring Western-style democracy to Afghanistan. “I have long come to believe that Afghanistan, because of its history and its characteristics, is not suited as a model for democracy by our standards,” the minister declared. Afghan blasts kill five soldiers Five servicemen from the US and UK are killed in Afghanistan - the first deaths blamed on hostile action in 2010.
Jan 3	CIA base in Afghanistan hit by suicide attack Press accounts suggest the bombing was in retaliation for CIA air strikes from unmanned Predator drones organized from FOB Chapman—officially a civilian camp involved in reconstruction efforts and guarded by Afghan troops. The principal target of these strikes was reportedly the Haqqani Network, a militia led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin that operates on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. There were also reports that the bombing aimed to avenge the CIA’s August 5, 2009 assassination of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Pakistan Volleyball Game Attack: Will Local Opposition to Taliban Hold Firm? Issam Ahmed, The Christian Science Monitor: "The death toll from a massive suicide attack at a volleyball tournament in northwest Pakistan mounted to 95 on Saturday, in what appears to be another retaliatory strike for recent Army offensives against the Taliban. More than 600 civilians have now lost their lives to such attacks since the Pakistan Army began a military offensive in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan in October." CIA bomber 'courted as informant' The bomber who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan was invited to the base as a potential informant, officials say.
Jan 2	Success of Afghanistan Troop Surge Doubted Widely Sherwood Ross, The Public Record: "'There isn’t the slightest possibility that the course laid out by Barack Obama in his Dec. 1 speech (at West Point) will halt or even slow the downward spiral toward defeat in Afghanistan,' writes Thomas Johnson in a report published Dec. 10 in Foreign Policy magazine. And for emphasis, he adds the word 'None.' 'The US president and his advisors labored for three months and brought forth old wine in bigger bottles,' Johnson wrote, noting, 'The speech contained not one single new idea or approach, nor offered any hint of new thinking about a conflict that everyone now agrees the United States is losing.'"
Jan 1	Tibetan 'living Buddha' jailed A revered Tibetan lama is jailed for eight years by China on ammunitions and embezzlement charges, which he denies.
2009
Dec 30	Thirty years since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan An examination of the US role in provoking the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan sheds light on the imperialist motivations behind US policy in Central Asia.
Dec 29	Afghan children 'die in fighting' At least 10 Afghan civilians, most of them children, are killed during Western military operations, says President Hamid Karzai.
Dec 28	Afghanistan Escalation a Bad Sign for the Country's Environment Joshua Frank, Truthout: "Shipping off 30,000 more troops to the land of the Taliban may be infuriating to devoted antiwar activists, but the toll the Afghanistan war is having on the environment should also force nature lovers into the streets in protest. Natural habitat in Afghanistan has endured decades of struggle, and the War on Terror has only escalated the destruction." Afghanistan: What Would a Real Policy Look Like? Michael N. Nagler, Truthout: "At a Washington meeting some years back, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia said to a group of us who had come to discuss Mideast policy, 'All foreign policy is domestic politics.' The recently announced 'surge' of 30,000 additional troops for Afghanistan was designed to placate political pressures on the president, which, even if it were possible, is not the right way to formulate a policy. What would be?" Militants kill Afghan policemen Two policemen are killed when militants attack a checkpoint in north-western Afghanistan, police say.
Dec 27	US steps up drone attacks, assassinations in AfPak "surge" Missiles form US Predator drones struck a village in Pakistan over the weekend, killing at least 13 people. The attack coincided with reports of intensified operations by US assassination squads on the Afghanistan side of the border.
Dec 26	US condemns Taliban soldier video The US military says a video, issued by the Taliban, of a captive soldier in Afghanistan is an affront to his family.
Dec 25	Taliban video 'shows US soldier' The Taliban releases a video purporting to show US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl, captured in Afghanistan six months ago. Afghan suicide bomb kills eight A suicide bomber kills eight Afghan civilians in Kandahar when his bomb explodes near a hotel, police say.
Dec 23	Afghan senator killed by police An Afghan senator was shot dead by police when his car failed to stop at a checkpoint in northern Baghlan province, officials say.
Dec 21	Afghanistan: Karzai picks cabinet of US stooges and warlord cronies The cabinet selection was closely watched by Washington and the other Western powers that are contributing troops to the eight-year-old occupation. Following a presidential election marked by wholesale fraud and a decree granting Karzai another term in the face of an aborted second round vote, Western officials looked to the cabinet announcement as an opportunity for the Afghan president to do something to legitimize his regime and distance himself from its rampant corruption. Obama's Af-Pak War Is Illegal Marjorie Cohn, Truthout: "President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize nine days after he announced he would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. His escalation of that war is not what the Nobel committee envisioned when it sought to encourage him to make peace, not war. In 1945, in the wake of two wars that claimed millions of lives, the nations of the world created the United Nations system to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.'" Taliban gunmen storm Afghan town Security forces in eastern Afghanistan kill two militants who seized a building in the city of Gardez, officials say.
Dec 19	UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier from 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, has been killed in Afghanistan.
Dec 18	The murderous face of Obama's surge With the first of 30,000 additional US troops having arrived in Afghanistan, a series of events have begun to expose the murderous character of the "surge" ordered by President Obama. Stunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports: "Contrary to popular belief, the US actually has 189,000 personnel on the ground in Afghanistan right now - and that number is quickly rising." They Are Afghan; They Decry NATO's War Pierre Barbancey reports from Kabul for L'Humanite: "The Taliban surf on the population's rejection of a corrupt government sustained by foreign armies that kill civilians. Women make the point that violence against them increases incessantly." Pelosi Says Kucinich Resolution Will Satisfy Need for Afghanistan Vote Sabrina Eaton, The Plain Dealer: "Rep. Dennis Kucinich's proposed resolution to pull troops out of Afghanistan seems to be getting a favorable reception from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi."
Dec 17	$57,077.60 Surging by the Minute Jo Comerford, TomDispatch.com: "$57,077.60. That's what we're paying per minute. Keep that in mind - just for a minute or so. After all, the surge is already on. By the end of December, the first 1,500 US troops will have landed in Afghanistan, a nation roughly the size of Texas, ranked by the United Nations as second worst in the world in terms of human development." UK soldiers died 'to save lives' Two British soldiers killed trying to stop suicide bombers attacking a Afghan packed marketplace are named by the MoD.
Dec 16	Afghan police die in bomb attack Five Afghan policemen are killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the western Afghan province of Herat, officials say. German probe into Afghan strike Germany opens an inquiry into a strike in Afghanistan that killed up to 142 people, amid calls for the defence minister to resign. Torture in Afghanistan: UK Court Orders Release of Evidence Andy Worthington, Truthout: "Reprieve, the legal action charity, the lawyers of which represent dozens of prisoners still held at Guantanamo, won a court victory in the case of British resident Shaker Aamer, which appears to draw on the organization's success in securing a judicial review in the case of another of their clients, Binyam Mohamed. Initiated in May 2008, this led, eventually, to a fast-track review of Mohamed's case by the Obama administration, and his return to the UK in February of this year."
Dec 15	Suicide Blast Kills Eight in Kabul Thomas L. Day and Hashim Shukoor, McClatchy Newspapers: "A suicide bomber killed eight Afghan civilians Tuesday blocks from the US Embassy in Kabul in an attack that targeted a neighborhood where many former and current Afghan officials live. Afghan officials said the dead included four men and four women and that more than 40 were injured. Two witnesses said they saw an Afghan police officer lying dead near the blast, but a government spokesman said all of the causalities were civilians."
Dec 14	Bishop sorry for Taliban comments The new bishop to the Armed Forces apologises over comments he made about how the Taliban could be admired. Afghan police killed in attacks At least 16 policemen have been killed by suspected militants in two separate attacks in Afghanistan, officials say.
Dec 12	Pakistan Taliban offensive 'over' Pakistan's prime minister says a military offensive against the Taliban in the tribal region of South Waziristan is over. CIA cancels Blackwater contract The CIA cancels a contract with US private security firm Blackwater for its role in drone aircraft attacks in Pakistan.
Dec 11	Talking With the Enemy Le Nouvel Observateur's intrepid reporter Sara Daniel interviews Afghans who were ministers under the Taliban and Soviet regimes. She reveals parallels between the US and Soviet occupations, as well as well-used communication channels between the Taliban in exile and the current regime. UN Afghan envoy to leave in March The UN envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, will not continue in his role once his current term expires in March, the UN says.
Dec 9	Afghanistan massacre on eve of Obama's surge With the first elements of 30,000 additional US troops set to arrive in Afghanistan next week, the massacre of as many as 15 civilians in a US raid has heightened fears that Obama's escalation will spell a dramatic rise in bloodletting. US 'must step up' Bin Laden hunt The top US commander in Afghanistan says al-Qaeda cannot be defeated until Osama Bin Laden is killed or captured.
Dec 8	Afghan mission 'vital for the UK' The defence secretary says the Afghanistan mission is vital to the UK's security, following the 100th military death of this year.
Dec 7	US rejects Afghan exit criticism Senior government figures reject criticism of President Barack Obama's plan to start pulling troops from Afghanistan in 2011. No Bin Laden reports 'in years' Defence Secretary Robert Gates admits the US has had no reliable information on Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts "in years".
Dec 6	Coverup of the German army's role in the Kunduz massacre continues During last Thursday’s plenary session of the German federal parliament, in which a wide majority of deputies voted to continue the German military’s operation in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg made a statement about the recent massacre in the Kunduz region. Contrary to his earlier estimation of the incident, the minister declared that the bombing of two tanker lorries on September 4 had been “militarily disproportionate”.
Dec 5	US prepares Fallujah-style offensive in Afghanistan About 1,000 Marines attacked an area in southern Afghanistan controlled by insurgents on Friday, in the US-led occupation’s first major offensive since President Obama announced that he would send 30,000 more soldiers to the war.
Dec 4	Nato allies to add 7,000 to surge Nato's top official says 25 countries will send at least 7,000 extra troops to support the US surge in Afghanistan.
Dec 3	Italy 'to boost Afghan mission' Italy is to send about 1,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to support a US troops surge, say reports.
Dec 2	Oppose Obama's escalation of the Afghan-Pakistan war! Withdraw all troops now! Obama's speech last night, which packaged the deployment of an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan as the prelude to withdrawal, was a cynical exercise in evasion, double-talk and falsification. Canada's Conservatives respond to Afghan torture charges with lies and slurs Richard Colvin, who served in Afghanistan for 17 months in 2006-7 and is currently an intelligence officer at Canada’s US embassy, told a parliamentary committee last month that his superiors initially ignored his repeated warnings that the prisoners whom the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) transferred to Afghan security forces were subject to abuse and torture. Subsequently, the government tried to obstruct and silence him. Taliban defiant over Obama surge The Taliban say they will step up the fight in Afghanistan, after pledges by the US to send substantial reinforcements. Nato pledges 5,000 Afghan troops Nato's secretary general says members will do "substantially more" to fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Dec 1	Afghanistan: Our 177th Colony David Swanson, Truthout: "During a televised football game on Sunday, an announcer welcomed the members of the US military viewing the game in 177 nations around the world. When the news came on, the topic was the same one it's been for weeks, speculation as to whether and how much a single individual will escalate war by sending tens of thousands of additional troops to nation number 177, Afghanistan." Karzai briefed on new US strategy Barack Obama briefs Afghan leader Hamid Karzai about the US strategy for Afghanistan to be unveiled later.

Nov 30	Torture continues at US prisons in Afghanistan The jail, located on the Bagram Air Base next to the notorious Bagram prison north of Kabul, operates under the executive order of President Obama. After entering office, Obama ordered the closure of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prison “black sites”—which were in fact no longer active—but exempted those prisons run by the military’s Special Operations, which was headed from 2003 until 2008 by General Stanley McChrystal, now US commander of the Af-Pak theater. War Fraud Whistleblowers Under Wraps Dina Rasor, Truthout: "Recently, the Congressional Research Service released an amazing statistic - it will cost $1 million a year to support one soldier for one year in Afghanistan. This mind-blowing number partly includes the cost of private contractors who have moved into areas of support that have been strictly military in the past. Estimates for the numbers of contractors have been as high as one contractor for every soldier ... One of the reasons for the high costs of maintaining each soldier is the lack of oversight of private contractor billings over the course of these two wars ... So where are all the whistleblowers who have witnessed this fraud?" The Hollow Politics of Escalation Norman Solomon, Truthout: "An underlying conceit of the new spin about benchmarks and timetables for Afghanistan is the notion that pivotal events there can be choreographed from Washington. So, a day ahead of the president's Tuesday night speech, The New York Times quoted an unnamed top administration official saying, 'He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down.' But 'eventually' is a long way off. In the meantime, the result of Washington's hollow politics is more carnage." Kit 'ready' for Afghan build-up The government confirms that UK armed forces now have the equipment needed to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Nov 25	Obama's Plans to Increase Afghanistan Troop Levels Would Leave US With No Reserve Jason Leopold, Truthout: "President Barack Obama intends to announce next week that he will deploy tens of thousands of additional US troops to Afghanistan, according to numerous published reports citing unnamed administration officials, to fight an eight-year-old war that a majority of Americans do not support and numerous Democratic lawmakers say is no longer worth waging."
Nov 23	Four more US soldiers killed in Afghanistan Four US soldiers died in Afghanistan on Monday, as Obama's "war council" finalizes its plans to substantially increase the number of soldiers participating in the occupation.
Nov 19	Karzai sets Afghan forces target Hamid Karzai says he wants Afghan forces in charge within five years, as he is sworn in for a second term as president.
Nov 18	Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Is it just me, or is the pontification of Western leaders about corruption in Afghanistan growing rather tiresome? There is something very Captain Renault about it. We're shocked, shocked that the Afghans have sullied our morally immaculate occupation of their country with their dirty corruption. How ungrateful can they be? But perhaps we should consider the possibility that our occupation of the country is not so morally immaculate - indeed, that the most corrupt racket going in Afghanistan today is the American occupation." Afghans 'blame poverty for war' Poverty and unemployment are seen as the main factors fuelling conflict in Afghanistan, according to a survey in that country.
Nov 17	Paying Off the Warlords: Anatomy of an Afghan Culture of Corruption Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch.com: "Every morning, dozens of trucks laden with diesel from Turkmenistan lumber out of the northern Afghan border town of Hairaton on a two-day trek across the Hindu Kush down to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. Among the dozens of businesses dispatching these trucks are two extremely well-connected companies -- Ghazanfar and Zahid Walid -- that helped to swell the election coffers of President Hamid Karzai as well as the family business of his running mate, the country's new vice president, warlord Mohammed Qasim Fahim."
Nov 15	Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service: "US Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas."
Nov 14	Afghanistan and the "Other" Vietnam War Dallas Darling, Truthout: "When discussing the Vietnam War or comparing it to America's other conflicts, such as the current one in Afghanistan, the 'other' Vietnam War is rarely mentioned. This is very unfortunate, because it might be just the correct path to pursue in seeking a peaceful solution."
Nov 13	Another Problem for Obama: Prison Corruption in Afghanistan William Fisher, Truthout: "Amid the near-constant speculation over President Barack Obama's strategy for Afghanistan, there appears to be virtually universal consensus that rooting out corruption has to be a top priority if the US and its NATO allies are to have a 'credible partner' in the Afghan government. But corruption takes many forms and is found at many levels. To the lawyers of Human Rights First (HRF), understanding the relationship between corruption, how prisoners are treated and the rule of law is 'critical to the success of any strategy' the Obama administration may decide to pursue."
Nov 12	Obama Wants Revised Afghanistan Options Victoria Harper, Truthout: "Following a request by Gen. Stanley McChrystal for tens of thousands of new troops to fight in Afghanistan, US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry has advised President Obama against such troop increases due to the instability and corruption of the Afghan government. Likewise, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she is 'concerned' about Afghan government corruption. President Obama now wants revised options for US commitments in Afghanistan."
Nov 11	Mandelson attack on 'crude' Sun Lord Mandelson accuses the Sun newspaper of portraying the UK government as the "enemy" of British troops in Afghanistan. Obama in Afghan troop level talks US President Barack Obama is to discuss Afghan policy with his national security team, as speculation mounts over a decision on troop levels. Australian PM visits Afghanistan Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan to spend Remembrance Day with the troops.
Nov 10	Labor Antiwar Group Refocuses on Afghanistan Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes: "According to US Labor Against the War, the money spent in Iraq and Afghanistan could have paid for a year's worth of health care for 140 million people - almost every working person in the U.S. The wars have cost each U.S. family $12,750 so far."
Nov 9	Where Will They Get the Troops? Preparing Undeployables for the Afghan Front Dahr Jamail and Sarah Lazare, TomDispatch.com: "Hidden behind the gates of military bases across the U.S., troops facing AWOL and desertion charges regularly find themselves in the hands of a military that metes out informal, open-ended punishments by forcing them to wait months -- sometimes more than a year -- to face military justice. In the meantime, some of these soldiers are offered a free pass out of this legal limbo as long as they agree to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq -- even if they have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."
Nov 8	Rethinking Afghanistan: Alternatives to War Robert Dodge, Truthout: "President Obama is reviewing the way forward in Afghanistan. His decision will define his presidency much as Vietnam defined the legacy of President Johnson's presidency in the 1960s. At a time when so much opportunity and necessity for change is at stake from health care reform to climate change legislation, education and nuclear weapons policy and the economy, the war and its costs will trump all." Deadly suicide attack in Pakistan At least 10 people, including an anti-Taliban mayor, die in a suicide attack near Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar. Afghans die in 'Nato air strike' Nato officials investigate whether the death of eight Afghans working with US troops was a "friendly-fire" incident.
Nov 7	US Seeks to Limit Warlords in Karzai Cabinet Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "The Barack Obama administration is talking tough to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the need for decisive action on corruption and governance reform, but its main objective is to prevent particularly corrupt and incompetent warlords from getting plum ministries as rewards for helping clinch his fraudulent reelection, IPS has learned." What Option for Afghan Women Ellen Goodman, Truthout: "After 9/11, when we went after al-Qaeda and the Taliban who had hosted these terrorists, many saw collateral virtue in the liberation of Afghan women. Indeed, President Bush played this moral card in his 2002 State of the Union speech when he declared to thunderous applause: 'Today women are free, and are part of Afghanistan's new government.' Mission accomplished. Many women shed their burqas, opened schools, entered parliament. Equal rights were written into the constitution. But slowly, as America turned to the disastrous misadventure in Iraq, Afghan women's freedoms were casually traded in like chits for power." Brown warns Karzai on corruption Gordon Brown warns the Afghan president he will not put British troops "in harm's way" to defend a corrupt administration.
Nov 6	2014 or Bust: The Pentagon's Building Boom in Afghanistan Indicates a Long War Ahead Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com: "In recent weeks, President Obama has been contemplating the future of US military operations in Afghanistan. He has also been touting the effects of his policies at home, reporting that this year's Recovery Act not only saved jobs, but also was 'the largest investment in infrastructure since [President Dwight] Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950's.' At the same time, another much less publicized US-taxpayer-funded infrastructure boom has been underway. This one in Afghanistan. While Washington has put modest funding into civilian projects in Afghanistan this year - ranging from small-scale power plants to 'public latrines' to a meat market - the real construction boom is military in nature. The Pentagon has been funneling stimulus-sized sums of money to defense contractors to markedly boost its military infrastructure in that country."
Nov 5	Afghan strife makes UN relocate The UN says it is to temporarily move 600 of its foreign staff in Afghanistan, after last week's deadly Taliban hostel raid.
Nov 4	Five British soldiers shot dead Five British soldiers are shot dead in an attack in Afghanistan, which the UK military blames on a "rogue" Afghan policeman. Karzai poll victory 'is illegal' Former Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah says Hamid Karzai's re-election 'has no legal basis'.
Nov 2	Concerns Raised After Taliban Attacks Pakistan Guard Post J. Sri Raman, Truthout: "Alarm signals flashed cross South Asia and elsewhere after a reported Taliban attack on the guard post at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, about 65 kilometers outside Islamabad. The attack left eight dead, and revived a debate about the security of the nuclear-armed state's arsenal. The incident should also raise a more basic question. Or questions of that kind. What is the degree of danger posed by such extremist assaults? Is terrorism the top nuclear threat in Pakistan? Does it deserve top priority among the targets of an anti-nuke campaign?" Afghan election run-off cancelled The second round of Afghanistan's troubled election is scrapped, a day after President Karzai's sole challenger quits the race.
Nov 1	Kipling Haunts Obama's Afghan War Ray McGovern, Truthout: "The White Man's Burden, a phrase immortalized by English poet Rudyard Kipling as an excuse for European-American imperialism, was front and center Thursday morning (October 29) at a RAND-sponsored discussion of Afghanistan in the Russell Senate Office Building. The agenda was top-heavy with RAND speakers, and the thinking was decidedly 'inside the box' - so much so, that I found myself repeating a verse from Kipling, who recognized the dangers of imperialism, to remind me of the real world." Abdullah pulls out of Afghan vote Afghanistan's election is thrown into confusion after President Karzai's rival says he will pull out of the second round next week. UK soldier dies in Afghan blast A British soldier was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, the Ministry of Defence confirms.

Oct 30	UN to boost Afghanistan security The UN Security Council backs a call by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to offer more protection to UN staff in Afghanistan. Civilians killed in Afghan blast At last eight civilians are killed as a roadside bomb hits their vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, officials say. UN Can't Account for Millions Sent to Afghan Election Board T. Christian Miller and Dafna Linzer, ProPublica: "The United Nations cannot account for tens of millions of dollars provided to the troubled Afghan election commission, according to two confidential UN audits and interviews with current and former senior diplomats. As Afghanistan prepares for a second round of national voting, the documents and interviews paint the fullest picture to date of the finances of the election commission, which has been accused of facilitating election fraud and operating ghost polling places. The new disclosures also deepen the questions about the UN's oversight of money provided by the United States and other nations to ensure a fair election in Afghanistan."
Oct 29	Obama honours Afghanistan killed President Obama pays his respect to 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan, the first time he has honoured the dead in this way. What are US troops dying for in Afghanistan? After several days in which US troops suffered their worst casualties in the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan, it was revealed Wednesday that President Hamid Karzai's brother, reputedly a key figure in the country's drug trade, is on the CIA payroll. Attack on UN in Kabul in lead-up to sham Afghan election An attack by Taliban fighters on a UN guesthouse in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has underscored the fragility of the US-led occupation in the lead-up to the second round of presidential elections on November 7.
Oct 28	UN defiant after Kabul killings The UN says the Taliban raid on a guesthouse in Kabul that killed six employees and three Afghans will not deter its work in Afghanistan. Nimrod review to reveal failures An independent review into a fatal Nimrod crash in Afghanistan is expected to criticise air safety procedures. US warned on deadly drone attacks The US is told its use of drones to target suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan may break international law.
Oct 27	Obama's AfPak War: "It's the Mission, Creep" Steve Weissman, Truthout: "Dick Cheney and his neoconservative fringe are showing true gall and no grit in accusing President Obama of 'dithering' and 'waffling' on Afghanistan. They are, after all, the deep thinkers who rushed the Bush administration into Iraq, which diverted troops and other resources from their earlier mission to defeat the Afghan Taliban and catch or kill Osama bin Laden. Still, the shameless critics raise an intriguing question. Why has the president taken so much time to announce how many more troops he will send?" US Official Resigns Over Afghan War Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post: "When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan. A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency." Eight More US Troops Die in Afghanistan as America Suffers Deadliest Month Jerome Starkey and Tim Reid, The Times UK: "Eight American servicemen were killed in a series of explosions today, making October the deadliest month for US troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. Officials said that several soldiers were injured in 'multiple, complex' bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, just a day after 14 Americans were killed in two separate helicopter crashes in the south and west of the country. An Afghan civilian working with the military was also killed." Obama vows no rush on Afghanistan US President Barack Obama says he will not be rushed as he considers whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan.
Oct 26	US casualties rise as Obama prepares Afghan escalation Eleven US soldiers and three drug agents were killed in the space of 24 hours in Afghanistan as the Obama administration's war cabinet prepared to meet Monday on escalating the war. In Afghanistan, NATO Helicopter Crashes Kill 14 Americans Jonathan Adams, The Christian Science Monitor: "Fourteen Americans were killed and more injured in two separate incidents of helicopter crashes Monday in Afghanistan, underscoring the risks of the increasingly controversial US-led war." More Spending on Afghan War Could Hurt the Dollar David R. Francis, The Christian Science Monitor: "Could an expanded war in Afghanistan be the costly straw that breaks the dollar's back, exacerbating already high concerns around the world over its value and damaging its central role in global commerce?" Call to sack Afghan election head Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah calls for the removal of the chief of the country's election commission.
Oct 24	Pakistan 'takes key Taliban town' Pakistan's army says it has captured the hometown of the country's Taliban leader, in its South Warziristan offensive. Taliban vow to attack Afghan poll Campaigning opens for Afghanistan's run-off presidential election, but the Taliban threatens anyone taking part.
Oct 23	The Rotten Fruits of War Dan Pearson and Kathy Kelly, Truthout: "Five months ago, shortly after the Pakistani government had begun a military offensive against suspected Taliban fighters in the northernmost area of the country, we arrived in Islamabad, the capital, as part of a small delegation organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org). Our initial travel plans had focused on learning more about civilian suffering caused by US drone attacks."
Oct 22	Afghan opium fuels 'global chaos' Afghanistan's opium funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people a year, the UN says. Karzai bows to US pressure on Afghanistan runoff In an action that was as predictable and as degrading as a serf prostrating himself before his master, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, bowed to relentless pressure from the Obama administration and agreed Tuesday to a runoff election. A Letter to Members of the US Military on Their Way to Afghanistan Nick Mottern, Truthout: "When you lace up your boots and head for the plane that will carry you to Afghanistan, you will be joining Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson and Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov in what has been described in the US Congress as 'the new great game'." Uncle Sam in Afghanistan: Good Help Is Hard to Find Norman Solomon, Truthout: "Almost eight years after choosing Hamid Karzai to head the Afghan government, Uncle Sam would like to give him a pink slip. But it's not easy. And the grim fiasco of Afghanistan's last election is shadowing the next." The Washington Post Creates Its Own Facts to Support Afghan Nation-Building Melvin A. Goodman, Truthout: "The Washington Post is creating its own facts in order to support its argument for US nation-building in Afghanistan. In its lead editorial on Saturday, the Post asserted that the United States is capable of building a strong government in Afghanistan at the national and local levels. The Post claimed that Afghanistan had had a 'working national government through most of the 1970s and 1980s.' This is simply not so."
Oct 21	Afghan poll fraud officials fired Officials involved in flawed Afghan elections are being removed ahead of next month's run-off, the UN says.
Oct 20	Final Afghan election results due Afghanistan's electoral body is set to declare the presidential election result, after weeks of wrangling and uncertainty.
Oct 19	CodePink Founder Jodie Evans Challenges Obama Up Close and Personal on His Afghanistan Policy Don Hazen, AlterNet: "Everyone in the universe by now knows that the progressive anti-war group CodePink has plenty of chutzpah. But co-founder Jodie Evans really doesn't mess around. She went straight to the top and challenged Barack Obama face-to-face on his visit to San Francisco on Thursday night at a high-priced fund raiser at the Westin St. Francis hotel." US decision after Afghan result The US says it will take no decision on more troops to Afghanistan until it decides its government is a "true partner".
Oct 17	Afghan Economy Stumbles Amid Election Uncertainty Hal Bernton and Hashim Shukoor, McClatchy Newspapers: "Gulbuddian Arabzada has a small factory that turns scrap aluminum into shiny new pans that Afghan families use for washing clothes, making bread and other tasks. His products are hardly luxury items, yet amid all the uncertainty surrounding this country's presidential election, even these pans are a hard sell. Since the Aug. 20 vote, Arabzada has slashed his daily production in half and laid off 15 of his 50 workers." Pakistan 'starts Taliban assault' Fierce fighting breaks out as the Pakistan army reportedly starts its long-awaited attack on the Taliban in South Waziristan.
Oct 16	Morale crumbling among US and British troops in Afghanistan Several reports from the frontlines of Afghanistan this month provide an insight into the growing demoralisation among US and British troops who have been sent to kill and be killed for the neo-colonial occupation. The articles suggest that many soldiers believe that the war is not justified and not worth dying for. US troops killed in Afghan blast The US military say four of its soldiers have been killed in a roadside blast in southern Afghanistan.
Oct 15	McChrystal's 40,000 Troop Hoax Robert Naiman, Truthout: "General McChrystal says that if President Obama does not approve 40,000 more US troops for Afghanistan, and approve them right away, 'our mission' - whatever that is - will likely 'fail' - whatever that is. But even if President Obama were to approve General McChrystal's request, the 40,000 troops wouldn't arrive in time to significantly affect the 12-month window McChrystal says will be decisive." Did a US "Hit" Create an Afghan Hero? Jean MacKenzie and Mustafa Saber, GlobalPost: "Yahya was killed in a raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Oct. 8. For the past year he had been the target of numerous American efforts to neutralize him and his fighters, who, by most accounts, never numbered more than 200. But until he found himself firmly in U.S. sights, Yahya was just one of many rebel commanders in western Afghanistan, little known outside his native Gozara district. Repeated U.S. assassination attempts conferred upon him a certain notoriety."
Oct 14	A War of Absurdity Robert Scheer, Truthout: "There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaeda back. On the contrary, all the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise. Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd."
Oct 13	Obama Quietly Deploying 13,000 More US Troops to Afghanistan Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian UK: "President Barack Obama is quietly deploying an extra 13,000 troops to Afghanistan, an unannounced move that is separate from a request by the US commander in the country for even more reinforcements." Japan 'will end' Afghan mission Japan says it will not renew its operation in support of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, but is mulling alternative ways to help.
Oct 12	Taliban claim Pakistan army raid The Taliban says it was responsible for a weekend attack on Pakistan's army HQ, which left at least 19 people dead. Afghan quits election fraud panel An Afghan member of a UN-backed panel investigating fraud in the presidential election resigns, blaming "interfering foreigners". Another costly week in Afghanistan As the Obama administration considers a request for the deployment of as many as 60,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, the current 100,000-strong US and NATO occupation force is continuing to suffer casualties at an unprecedented rate. In the week since eight American soldiers were killed in a major insurgent attack on a now abandoned base in the province of Nuristan, a further 10 troops have lost their lives and dozens have been wounded. The October death toll has already reached 29 and the total number of fatalities in 2009 stands at 408.
Oct 9	US Afghanistan commander requested as many as 60,000 more soldiers The top-end request for an increase in US troop levels in Afghanistan presented to President Obama by Gen. Stanley McChrystal is substantially larger than the 40,000 previously reported, according to anonymous government sources. UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence announces.
Oct 8	Five Myths on Afghanistan Melvin A. Goodman, Truthout: "President Barack Obama is entering a crucial decision-making phase on Afghanistan at a time when geopolitical mythology is dominating the debate, the Pentagon is requesting additional forces in Afghanistan." Indian Embassy Bombed in Afghanistan Truthout NewsWire: "A powerful suicide car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 17 and wounding 83. It was the second attack against the Indian Embassy in that nation in two years. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the attack appeared similar to the first one, which took place in July of 2008 and which American intelligence officials believe Pakistan's intelligence agency helped to plan. Pakistan denied any involvement in the July 2008 attack." Are Pentagon Contracts Funding the Taliban? Jean MacKenzie, GlobalPost: "It seemed like such a good idea at the time. At a staff meeting in 2006, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, who was then commander of Combined Forces Afghanistan, took a sip of bottled water. Then he looked at the label of one of the Western companies that were being paid millions of dollars a year to ship bottled water by the container load into Afghanistan."
Oct 7	Obama rules out Afghan cutbacks The US president tells senior politicians that his Afghanistan strategy review will not look at reducing troop numbers. Eight years after invasion Washington faces deepening debacle in Afghanistan Eight years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Obama White House and the Pentagon are engaged in a heated debate over whether to send another 40,000 troops in an attempt to salvage an intervention that has succeeded only in intensifying the resistance to the US-led occupation.
Oct 6	500,000 Troops to Pashtunistan Steve Weissman, Truthout: "Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, talks of winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. He sees the need to get beyond standard military thinking and understand the political, religious, social and economic context. He also knows that kicking down doors, destroying homes and killing civilians turns the Afghans against us and creates more insurgents than we could ever kill." Gates to Army: We'll Follow Obama's Orders on Afghanistan Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers: "Amid tension between the military and President Barack Obama over military action in Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a gathering of Army officers Monday that the Pentagon would follow any strategy that Obama orders." NY Times Whines That "Rethink Afghanistan" Film Is Not "Balanced" Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports: "Perhaps more than any other major corporate news outlet, The New York Times played a central role in promoting the Bush administration's fraudulent case for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The 'reporting' of Judith Miller and Michael Gordon basically served as a front-page fiction laundering factory for Dick Cheney's fantasy of a 'mushroom cloud' threat from Saddam Hussein looming on the immediate horizon, topped off with a celebratory slice of yellowcake. More recently, the paper's propagandists, William Broad and David Sanger, have aimed their sights on reporting dubious claims about Iran's nuclear program." PM 'refused extra Afghan troops' Gordon Brown refused a major Afghanistan troop reinforcement against the military's advice, the ex-head of the Army claims. UK soldier killed in Afghan blast A British soldier is killed in an explosion while on foot patrol in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, the MoD says. Pakistan Taliban claim UN attack The Pakistani Taliban says it launched Monday's attack on the UN World Food Programme offices in Islamabad, killing five people. White House-military tensions over Afghanistan Growing tensions between sections of the military brass and the Obama administration have emerged openly in the conflict between the top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, and the White House.
Oct 5	Heavy US troop losses in insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan The United States military suffered its worst single-engagement losses in more than a year and one of the worst in the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan on Saturday, when several hundred insurgents attacked a remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan, killing eight American soldiers.
Oct 4	Sakena Yacoobi's Vision for Afghanistan Marcia G. Yerman, The Women's Media Center: "Sakena Yacoobi is on a mission. Her goal is to bring education to Afghanistan, a country that has a 70 percent illiteracy rate. Her main focus is girls and women. She believes education can ameliorate the ravages of 35 years—and counting—of war. She speaks with an urgency that emanates from that core conviction. To 'build a better future for Afghanistan,' she founded the Afghan Institute of Learning in 1995. “Empowerment” is the key word in all of her NGO’s literature. Yacoobi, who serves as the chief executive of A.I.L., was one of 1,000 women to be nominated as a joint recipient of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. She is featured in Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl DuWunn’s new book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunities for Women Worldwide."
Oct 3	Afghans Criticize UN's Strong Hand in Their Election Julius Cavendish, The Christian Science Monitor: "Before their country's fraud-riddled election in August, some Afghans complained it was the international community that would decide the result. With the United Nations having fired a top diplomat for urging a tougher stand against vote-rigging, a move made public Wednesday, they say they now have proof. Several Afghan analysts and opposition figures criticized the decision to sack Peter Galbraith, the UN's No. 2 person in Afghanistan, for accusing his boss, Kai Eide, of endorsing a decision by the Independent Election Commission to allow fraudulent ballots to be counted – a move he said gave the election to President Hamid Karzai."
Oct 2	General McChrystal publicly campaigns for Afghanistan "surge" With his appearance Thursday before a British think tank, Gen. Stanley McChrystal intensified what has become a public campaign for his proposal to escalate the US war in Afghanistan with the deployment of 40,000 more American troops. US faces worsening military situation in Afghanistan The US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, used a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London on October 1 to continue the Pentagon’s campaign for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan. The Obama administration is currently considering a report by McChrystal requesting as many as 40,000 additional personnel. Starting Another Year of War in Afghanistan Norman Solomon, Truthout: "October 2009 has begun with The New York Times reporting that 'the president, vice president and an array of cabinet secretaries, intelligence chiefs, generals, diplomats and advisers gathered in a windowless basement room of the White House for three hours on Wednesday to chart a new course in Afghanistan.'" US Troops Call Afghan Region "Vietnam Without Napalm" Hal Bernton, McClatchy Newspapers: "The men of Bravo Company have a bitter description for the irrigated swath of land along the Arghandab River where 10 members of their battalion have been killed and 30 have been wounded since the beginning of August. 'Like Vietnam without the napalm,' said Spc. Nicholas Gojekian, 21, of Katy, Texas."
Oct 1	Afghan sacking 'sends bad signal' The UN Afghan envoy apparently dismissed in a row about election fraud tells the BBC the move sent "a terrible signal" about the UN.

Sep 30	Afghanistan: NATO's Graveyard? Is the Transatlantic Alliance Doomed? John Feffer, TomDispatch.com: "Celebrating its 60th birthday this year, NATO is looking peaked and significantly worse for wear. Aggressive and ineffectual, the organization shows signs of premature senility. Despite the smiles and reassuring rhetoric at its annual summits, its internal politics have become fractious to the point of dysfunction."
Sep 29	Afghan bus blast kills civilians At least 12 civilians die as a bus hits a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, officials say. Nato chief calls for US support Anders Fogh Rasmussen tries to calm US "doubts" over Nato's commitment in Afghanistan in his first US speech. Fears of Blame for Defeat Shadow Afghan War Meetings Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "In a remarkable parallel with a similar turning point in the Vietnam War 44 years ago, President Barack Obama will preside over a series of meetings in the coming weeks that will determine whether the United States will proceed with an escalation of the Afghanistan War or adjust the strategy to reduce the US military commitment there. The meetings will take place in the context of a request from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, for 40,000 additional troops, which reached Washington over the weekend. That would bring the total US troop strength in Afghanistan to 108,000 - nearly a 60 percent increase."
Sep 26	US Commander in Afghanistan Submits Request for More Troops Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers: "Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, hand-delivered his request for as many as 45,000 more troops to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Germany Friday and made his case for why he needs more forces to fight an increasingly unpopular war."
Sep 25	Drone targets militant stronghold At least 12 people are killed and five injured in a suspected US drone attack in north-west Pakistan, officials say. How to Trap a President in a Losing War Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "Front and center in the debate over the Afghan War these days are General Stanley 'Stan' McChrystal, Afghan war commander, whose 'classified, pre-decisional' and devastating report - almost eight years and at least $220 billion later, the war is a complete disaster - was conveniently, not to say suspiciously, leaked to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post by we-know-not-who at a particularly embarrassing moment for Barack Obama; Admiral Michael 'Mike' Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been increasingly vocal about a 'deteriorating' war and the need for more American boots on the ground; and the president himself, who blitzed every TV show in sight last Sunday and Monday for his health reform program, but spent significant time expressing doubts about sending more American troops to Afghanistan. ('I'm not interested in just being in Afghanistan for the sake of being in Afghanistan ... or sending a message that America is here for the duration.')"
Sep 24	Militants kill Pakistani elders Seven pro-government tribal elders have been killed by Taliban militants in north-west Pakistan, police say. US troops out of Afghanistan With the US commander in Afghanistan set to deliver a request for tens of thousands more troops, all sides in the Obama administration's so-called strategy debate are pushing for increased bloodletting in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sep 22	Report: Pentagon Delays Afghan Troop Request JoAnne Allen and Golnar Motevalli, Reuters: "The Pentagon has told its top commander in Afghanistan not to ask for extra troops until the Obama administration completes a strategy review, The Wall Street Journal reported.... A senior Pentagon official said the administration had asked for the reprieve so it can complete a review of the U.S.-led war effort." Meet the Afghan Army: Is It a Figment of Washington's Imagination? Ann Jones, TomDispatch.com: "In Washington, calls are increasing, especially among anxious Democrats, for the president to commit to training ever more Afghan troops and police rather than sending in more American troops. Huge numbers for imagined future Afghan army and police forces are now bandied about in Congress and the media - though no one stops to wonder what Afghanistan, the fourth poorest country on the planet, might actually be like with a combined security force of 400,000. Not a 'democracy,' you can put your top dollar on that."
Sep 21	Italians mourn Afghanistan dead Italy holds a day of mourning for six soldiers killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan last week, with a state funeral in Rome.
Sep 19	Rising Threat to Aid Agencies in Afghanistan William Dowell, GlobalPost: "International aid and humanitarian organizations are increasingly under the threat of attack in Afghanistan and are struggling to find ways to operate safely in areas where the U.S. and the Taliban are at war."
Sep 18	'Time against' Afghanistan forces Troops in southern Afghanistan do not have time on their side, but success remains possible, a British major general says. Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "On September 7 the Swedish aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported that the previous week US soldiers raided one of its hospitals. According to the director of the aid agency, Anders Fange, troops stormed through both the men's and women's wards, where they frantically searched for wounded Taliban fighters. Soldiers demanded that hospital administrators inform the military of any incoming patients who might be insurgents, after which the military would then decide if said patients would be admitted or not. Fange called the incident 'not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict, but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement' between nongovernmental organizations and international forces. Fange said that US troops broke down doors and tied up visitors and hospital staff." Rising Threat to Aid Agencies in Afghanistan William Dowell, GlobalPost: "International aid and humanitarian organizations are increasingly under the threat of attack in Afghanistan and are struggling to find ways to operate safely in areas where the U.S. and the Taliban are at war. Amid concerns for security, the United States Agency for International Development has opened an investigation into claims highlighted in a GlobalPost special report that some international contractors may be involved in payments - through local Afghan subcontractors - that end up in the hands of the Taliban in exchange for protection in Taliban-controlled areas."
Sep 17	White House Issues Yardsticks for Success in Afghanistan Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers: "The White House Wednesday presented Congress with eight general yardsticks to measure success in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but didn't say how they'd help the administration determine how well U.S. policy in the region is working." Suicide Car Bomb Kills 16, Wounds Dozens in Afghan Capital Mark Magnier, The Los Angeles Times: "A powerful car bomb hit an Italian military convoy here today, killing at least 6 soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians and wounding at least 52 people, according to Italian and Afghan government officials." Italian troops die in Kabul blast Italy says a bomb attack on one of its military convoys in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed at least six troops. Karzai defends vote 'integrity' Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he believes in the integrity of last month's election, despite allegations of fraud.
Sep 16	Democracy and Action in Afghanistan James Foley, In These Times: "As gunshots rang out from the mountain tops of the Dewegal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, men voted under the shade of trees next to their village's mosque. Heads turned upward whenever a heavy shell or particularly loud burst echoed, but the voters appeared in no hurry to leave. This was supposed to be their election, after all." US Peace Activists Call for Near-Term Withdrawal of Foreign Troops From Afghanistan Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: "The coming weeks hold critical significance for the US occupation of Afghanistan. The Senate is expected to vote on the Obama administration's $128 billion request to fund war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq for the coming fiscal year. Next week, the Obama administration will unveil a report on whether US benchmarks for success in Afghanistan are being achieved. It's widely believed President Obama will receive a military request to escalate the Afghan war with thousands of additional troops. The apparent congressional unease over a troop escalation comes near Friday's eight-year anniversary of the vote authorizing the attack on Afghanistan. We speak to Norman Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy on his recent trip to Afghanistan and CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin." Washington's "good war" Death squads, disappearances and torture in Pakistan Reports from Pakistan's Swat valley of the disappearance, torture and execution of civilians at the hands of the military death squads expose the reality of the so-called "good war" prosecuted by the Obama administration.
Sep 15	Afghan votes 'need 10% recount' Ballots from 10% of Afghan polling stations must be recounted because of fraud indications, a top election official says.
Sep 14	Soldier shot dead in Afghanistan A British soldier has been shot dead in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says. Three killed in US drone attack At least three suspected militants are killed in a US drone attack in north-west Pakistan, officials say. Deadly Afghan Ambush Shows Perils of Ill-Supplied Deployment Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "Manning a machine gun on a ridge overlooking this remote Afghan village, U.S. Marine Cpl. Steven Norman tried desperately to lay down covering fire for some 90 Afghan security forces and U.S. military trainers who were trapped in an ambush in the valley below." Fighting rages across Afghanistan as US military buildup continues Attacks by anti-occupation forces spread across Afghanistan over the weekend, with major armed clashes, bombings and other incidents in at least 10 provinces, including eight that are outside the southern region where the US and NATO forces have launched a major military offensive
Sep 13	Afghan Detainees Allowed to Question Detention Pauline Jelinek, The Associated Press: "The Pentagon has begun putting into place a new program under which hundreds of prisoners being held by the military in Afghanistan will be given the right to challenge their detentions, a defense official said Sunday. Prisoners at Bagram military base are all to be given a US military official to serve as their personal representative and a chance to go before new so-called Detainee Review Boards, to have their cases considered, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss a program that has not been formally announced."
Sep 12	Health Care vs. Warfare: The Future Costs of the Afghanistan War Jeff Leys, Truthout: "On Wednesday, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on health care. Later this year, he will decide whether to deploy additional troops to the war in Afghanistan on top of the 69,000 troops already deployed. The struggle for health care and the struggle to end warfare are inextricably linked." Democrats in Congress Wary of Afghanistan Escalation David Lightman and Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers: "Congress will examine next week the future of American military involvement in Afghanistan, a future that many key lawmakers hope won't include sending more US troops than President Barack Obama already has committed. 'There's a significant number of people in the country, and I don't know the exact percentages, that have questions about deepening our military involvement in Afghanistan,' Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Friday." US 'risks Afghan Soviet failure' A former US national security advisor warns that the US risks replicating the Soviet Union's failures in Afghanistan.
Sep 11	Top Taliban arrested in Pakistan One of Pakistan's highest ranking Taliban officials, Muslim Khan, is arrested by security forces in Swat valley, officials say. Afghan journalists criticise raid The death of Sultan Munadi in a raid to rescue a Briton shows troops' disregard for Afghan lives, Afghan journalists say.
Sep 10	Ministers approved Afghan rescue The final decision to rescue a kidnapped British journalist was taken by the foreign and defence secretaries, Downing Street says. Court to probe Afghan war crimes The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he is gathering information about possible war crimes in Afghanistan. Recount Ordered in Afghan Election Jean MacKenzie, The Global Post: "The latest results from Afghanistan's presidential election show incumbent President Hamid Karzai with just over 54 percent of the vote, topping the 50-percent threshold he needs to avoid a run-off election. But with 92 percent of polling stations declared, Karzai's purported lead is clouded by rampant allegations of fraud and the main election watchdogs are virtually at each other's throats."
Sep 9	"We're Pinned Down": Four US Marines Die in Afghan Ambush Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition." Afghanistan by the Numbers Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "Here may be the single strangest fact of our American world: that at least three administrations - Ronald Reagan's, George W. Bush's, and now Barack Obama's - drew the US 'defense' perimeter at the Hindu Kush; that is, in the rugged, mountainous lands of Afghanistan. Put another way, while Americans argue feverishly and angrily over what kind of money, if any, to put into health care, or decaying infrastructure, or other key places of need, until recently just about no one in the mainstream raised a peep about the fact that, for nearly eight years (not to say much of the last three decades), we've been pouring billions of dollars, American military know-how, and American lives into a black hole in Afghanistan that is, at least in significant part, of our own creation." Men With Guns in Kabul and Washington Norman Solomon, Truthout: "For those who believe in making war, Kabul is a notable work product. After 30 years, the results are in: a devastated city. A stale witticism calls Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai 'the mayor of Kabul.' Now, not even. On block after block in the Afghan capital, AK-47s are conspicuous in the hands of men on guard against a near future. Widely seen as corrupt, inept and - with massive election fraud - now illegitimate, Karzai's government is losing its grip along with its credibility." UN-backed panel denounces fraud in Afghan election As official vote-counting indicated that President Hamid Karzai was nearing victory in Afghanistan's recent elections, a UN-backed electoral commission issued an order for a large-scale recount.
Sep 8	Merkel regrets Afghan raid deaths Germany's Chancellor Merkel says she "deeply regrets" any loss of innocent life caused by an air strike in Afghanistan.
Sep 7	Against European calls for UN conference on Afghanistan Plans for a United Nations conference on Afghanistan early next year are a political fraud directed against the Afghan people and the working class.
Sep 6	Funding the Pakistani Taliban Shahan Mufti, GlobalPost: "You don't see Taliban foot soldiers - young men with the signature long hair, black turbans and beards - cruising the streets in the backs of pick-up trucks shaking down shop owners like gangsters. But in this bustling town and many others much farther away from the war zones, the Taliban's financial engine is chugging at full force right under the nose of law enforcement." Afghanistan Isn't Worth One More American Life Joseph L. Galloway, McClatchy Newspapers: "The debate over our creeping military mission in distant Afghanistan grows ever hotter, and before we march even deeper into trouble, perhaps it’s time to dig out the old Powell Doctrine and answer the eight questions it poses."
Sep 5	NATO Seeks to Calm Afghans After Deadly Airstrike Maria Golovnina, Reuters: "NATO officers met air strike victims and their families in Afghanistan on Saturday and their commander took to the TV airwaves in a bid to cool anger over an incident that undermines efforts to win hearts and minds."
Sep 4	NATO Airstrike in Afghanistan Kills Scores James Sturcke, David Batty and agencies, The Guardian UK: "At least 90 people, including 40 civilians, have been killed in northern Afghanistan after Nato launched an air strike on two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban, officials said today." Afghanistan for Dummies Ray McGovern, Truthout: "I'm going to ask for my money back. I've seen this Afghanistan movie before. The first time, Vietnam was in the title. As in an early scene from the Vietnam version, U.S. military officials are surprised to discover that the insurgents in Afghanistan are stronger than previously realized." For the mobilization of the working class to end the war in Afghanistan There are clear signs of growing popular opposition in the US and around the world to the war in Afghanistan, as the Obama administration readies another major increase in the US troop presence
Sep 2	Blast kills top Afghan official Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence is among at least 22 people killed in a suicide attack east of Kabul, officials say. 'Sharp drop' in Afghan opium crop Afghan opium cultivation has decreased by more than a fifth in a year, with the biggest fall in Helmand, the UN says. US commander's report paves way for military escalation in Afghanistan A classified report issued by the US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, sets the stage for a major increase in US troop levels.
Sep 1	A Little Girl in Kabul Norman Solomon, Truthout: "Yesterday, I met a little girl named Guljumma. She's seven years old, and she lives in Kabul at a place called Helmand Refugee Camp District 5. Guljumma talked about what happened one morning last year when she was sleeping at home in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Valley. At about 5 AM, bombs exploded. Some people in her family died. She lost an arm." Pentagon Worried About Obama's Commitment to Afghanistan Nancy A. Youssef, Mcclatchy Newspapers: "The prospect that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal may ask for as many as 45,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan is fueling growing tension within President Barack Obama's administration over the U.S. commitment to the war there."

Aug 31	Gordon Brown reaffirms UK commitment to Afghan war British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reaffirmed the UK's commitment to the war in Afghanistan in the face of mounting domestic opposition. Suicide Bomber Kills 15 Police in Pakistan's Swat Region Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers: "A suicide bomber killed at least 15 police recruits in Pakistan's Swat valley Sunday, the first major attack since the army announced it had taken the area back from the Taliban. The bomber detonated himself at a training session for a new community police force intended to provide security for an area that had been overrun by the Taliban."
Aug 30	Pakistan blast 'kills 14 cadets' A suspected suicide bomb attack in Pakistan's Swat valley has killed at least 14 police recruits, officials say. Afghan election fraud probe grows Election officials in Afghanistan say they have received more than 560 major allegations of fraud from the 20 August vote.
Aug 29	Fury at Nato's Afghan clinic raid An Afghan member of parliament condemns a Nato air strike on a clinic where a Taliban leader was being treated for his injuries.
Aug 28	US Death in Afghanistan Ties August for Deadliest Month of Eight-Year War Amir Shah, The Associated Press: "A U.S. service member died Thursday in a militant attack involving a roadside bomb and gunfire, a death that pushed August into a tie with July as the deadliest months of the eight-year war. The death brings to 44 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan this month. But with four days left in the month, August is likely to set a new record." Afghan War's Blowback for India's Children? J. Sri Raman, Truthout: "Children born with abnormally enlarged or small heads, disproportionately short arms and legs, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and other complications.... According to a section of the researchers particularly concerned with the cases of birth deformities, Punjab may be paying with the health of its people for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq." The Unfinished Agenda on Women's Equality Day Carol Peasley, The Huffington Post: "Eighty-nine years ago today the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, finally giving women full voting rights. Thanks to Congresswoman Bella Abzug, since the early 1970s we have commemorated the anniversary as Women's Equality Day. It is indeed a day to step back and reflect on how far -- or not far -- women have come in achieving political equality over these nearly 90 years."
Aug 27	Delay Further Muddies Confused Afghan Poll Picture Hamid Shalizi, Reuters: "Afghan officials said on Thursday they had delayed releasing further results from the nation's disputed presidential poll, adding further confusion to a contest which appears headed for a second round. Votes from about 17 percent of 27,000 polling stations have been counted so far, meaning results could swing wildly in the coming days. Preliminary final results are due on September 3, with the final tally about two weeks later." Washington's double standard: The elections in Iran and Afghanistan The Obama administration and the American media, after denouncing the presidential election in Iran as "rigged" and undemocratic (without any evidence), now uphold the legitimacy of the presidential election in Afghanistan, despite growing evidence of vote fraud.
Aug 25	New US Deaths Make 2009 Afghan War's Deadliest Peter Graff, Reuters: "Four U.S. servicemen were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Tuesday, making 2009 the deadliest year for the growing contingent of foreign troops since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. The deaths highlighted the steadily worsening violence in the country, which has been in political limbo since a disputed presidential election last week. Afghan election authorities were preparing later on Tuesday to publish the first partial results from the presidential election, but the tiny sample may do little to resolve a growing war of words on the outcome." Bodies found in Pakistan valley The bodies of 22 suspected militants are found in Pakistan's Swat valley, raising concerns about extra-judicial killings.
Aug 24	Afghan Challenger Says Election "Widely Rigged" Paul Tait and Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main challenger said on Sunday he had evidence last week's election had been widely rigged by the incumbent and that he had lodged more than 100 complaints. With counting underway following Thursday's vote, the country is on tenterhooks ahead of an official result -- although the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and a relative lull in violence has helped calm tensions."
Aug 22	Washington praises Afghan election fiasco to justify war escalation In an attempt to legitimize the escalation of a war opposed by the majority of the American people, the Obama administration, backed by the US media, has hailed Afghanistan's August 20 election.
Aug 21	Karzai and Abdullah Both Claim Victory in Afghan Elections Jon Boone, The Guardian UK: "Despite calls by the US for the leading candidates in Afghanistan's election not to claim victory, both Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah said they won yesterday's vote." Two UK soldiers killed in Helmand Two British soldiers have been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says. Deadly missile strike in Pakistan At least nine people are reported to have been killed in north-west Pakistan in a suspected US missile strike. Afghan Voters Go to the Polls Despite Violence Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "The concrete floor was cracked and the windows caked with grime, but the sense of pride was palpable at Zarghani Girls' High School as voters lined up today to cast their ballots in Afghanistan's second-ever direct presidential election. 'It's for me, and it's for my country,' said a baby-faced 18-year-old named Nasir, who was voting for the first time. 'If it's dangerous, I don't care. I'm happy.'"
Aug 20	Mass abstention and vote rigging in Afghanistan election Yesterday’s presidential election in Afghanistan featured massive abstention and blatant ballot rigging, underscoring the corrupt character of the entire exercise. Conducted under the guns of 100,000 foreign troops, the vote had nothing to do with democracy and was instead designed to provide a veneer of legitimacy for the US-led NATO forces’ increasingly bloody counter-insurgency campaign against those resisting the occupation. Afghan Media Refuse to Censor Election Reporting Rahim Faiez And Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press: "'If anyone broadcasts or gives news about any movements or activities of terrorists, domestic media offices will be closed and foreigners will be kicked out of the country,' he told AP in a phone interview. Media watchdog groups condemned the order. Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that it 'not only violates media freedom but also the fundamental right of Afghan citizens to know what is going on in their country.'" Six US Troops Die in Afghanistan Ahead of Election Jason Straziuso and Amir Shah, The Associated Press: "The US military said Wednesday six American troops were killed in Afghanistan, as militants killed six election workers amid growing fears on the eve of the presidential election that insurgents would mar the vote. Two troops were killed in gunfire in the south on Wednesday, the US military said, while a third was killed in an unspecified hostile attack. The US also said a roadside bomb Tuesday in the south killed two troops, while another died of noncombat-related injuries. No other details were released."
Aug 19	Afghanistan's gunpoint election The poll takes place under conditions of a continuing foreign military occupation to prop up a puppet government that is notorious for its human rights abuses, corruption and failure to provide for the basic needs of the vast majority of the population. Afghan Civilians Soured on US Security Contractors David Zucchino, The Chicago Tribune: "The shooting deaths of Raheb Dost, 24, and Romal, 22, who used just one name, by four gunmen with the company once known as Blackwater have turned an entire neighborhood against the American presence here. Enraged by the deaths of civilians in military airstrikes, many Afghans are demanding more accountability from security contractors who routinely block traffic and bark orders to motorists and pedestrians." New violence hits Afghan capital Troops battle insurgents raiding a bank in Kabul, killing three, a day before Afghan presidential elections.
Aug 18	Pakistan Taliban spokesman 'held' Pakistani officials say the army has arrested a man they believe to be the chief spokesman for the country's Taliban rebels.
Aug 17	How Did a Suicide Bomber Get Into Kabul's NATO Headquarters? Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "Afghan authorities are trying to determine how a suicide bomber breached tight security in Kabul's diplomatic quarter on Saturday and detonated an SUV packed with explosives in front of NATO headquarters five days before the presidential election. At least seven people died and 91 others were injured by the explosion, according to a Defense Ministry statement."
Aug 16	Afghanistan War Resister Sentenced Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "Sergeant Travis Bishop, with the US Army's 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, pled not guilty at a special court martial on Thursday to two counts of missing movement, disobeying a lawful order and going absent without leave (AWOL). Friday, in a trial full of theatrics from the jury, prosecution witnesses and the prosecution, he was found guilty on all counts. Sgt. Bishop is the second soldier from Fort Hood in as many weeks to be tried by the military for his stand against an occupation he believes is 'illegal.' He insists that it would be unethical for him to deploy to support an occupation he opposes on both moral and legal grounds, and has filed for conscientious objector (CO) status. A CO is someone who refuses to participate in combat based on religious or ethical grounds, and can be given an honorable discharge by the military."
Aug 15	Afghanistan's Women Yearn for More Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "One is the face of despair; the other, of hope. Zeinab, 22, believed that only death could provide an escape from her husband's merciless beatings. So she set herself on fire, leaving one-third of her body covered with oozing, blistering burns. She faces a lifetime of disfigurement and, unless she returns to her abusive husband, the likely loss of her two children. Twelve-year-old Nazira's classroom is a sweltering tent, and her desk is a plastic mat on the ground. But her teachers say she is one of their brightest pupils, encouraged by a mother and father who want her to get as much education as she can. Her eyes sparkle when she describes her ambition: to become a doctor." Afghan suicide bomb near Nato HQ A suicide car bomb explodes outside the Nato headquarters in the Afghan capital, killing seven people, officials say.
Aug 14	Bombs Kill 14 Afghan Civilians, One US Soldier Bronwen Roberts, Agence France-Presse: "Bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan killed 14 Afghan civilians, including 11 members of one family, and a US soldier, officials said Thursday, in new attacks threatening elections next week. In an increasingly violent north, Afghan security forces fought off Taliban in a battle an official said left eight militants and two policemen dead." British Army chief says military may have 40-year Afghan role Richards, who takes over Afghan command as chief of the general staff on August 28, told the Times, “I believe that the UK will be committed to Afghanistan in some manner—development, governance, security sector reform—for the next 30 to 40 years.”
Aug 13	Blackwater (Xe) Accused in Afghan Murders David Zucchino, The Los Angeles Times: "Mirza Mohammed Dost stood at the foot of his son's grave, near a headstone that read, 'Raheb Dost, martyred by Americans.' His son was no insurgent, Dost said. He was walking home from prayers on the night of May 5 when he was shot and killed on a busy Kabul street by U.S. security contractors. 'The Americans must answer for my son's death,' Dost said as a large crowd of young men murmured in approval."
Aug 12	Another Soldier Refuses Afghanistan Deployment Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "Sgt. Travis Bishop, who served 14 months in Baghdad with the 3rd Signal Brigade, faces a court-martial this Friday for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan." US Marines Storm Taliban-Held Town in Afghanistan Alfred de Montesquiou, The Associated Press: "Helicopter-borne U.S. Marines backed by Harrier jets stormed into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan before dawn Wednesday and exchanged heavy fire with insurgents, killing at least seven." Fighters kill Afghan police chief Militants kill a police chief during an attack on a government compound in northern Afghanistan, days ahead of elections.
Aug 11	Three US Troops Killed in Afghanistan Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "Taliban militants killed three American troops in volatile southern Afghanistan, US military authorities said today, part of a recent wave of violence that could complicate next week's Afghan elections."
Aug 10	Militants launch Afghan attacks Militants attack government and police buildings near the Afghan capital, Kabul, triggering gun battles, officials say. US to target 'Afghan drug lords' The US puts 50 Afghans suspected to be drug traffickers on a list of people to be "captured or killed", the New York Times reports. Hamid Karzai's Government Using State Resources to Swing Afghan Election Ben Farmer, The Telegraph UK: "An election report released said monitors had received increasing reports officials were biased and were using their resources to campaign for Mr Karzai. Rival candidates were being denied access to national state television and government cars or lorries were being used to ship people to rallies."
Aug 9	Mystery of Taliban chiefs deepens Confusion surrounds leadership of Pakistan's Taliban as deadly in-fighting is said to follow Baitullah Mehsud's reported death.
Aug 8	Five US Troops Killed as Afghan Violence Swells Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "The pace of American combat deaths in Afghanistan has quickened anew as roadside bombs killed five U.S. troops in 24 hours in the same western province, the American military said Thursday."
Aug 7	US soldier who opposes Afghan war sentenced A US Army Specialist and veteran of the war in Iraq will face jail time for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. The non-commissioned officer objects to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on principle, claiming the US military occupies both countries in violation of international law. NATO's Problems in Afghanistan Weigh on Pakistan Marie-France Calle, Le Figaro: "Most experts agree: the Pakistani army's operation against the Taliban in the Malakand region is a success and the military have the wind in their sails once again. But the reverses suffered by NATO troops in Afghanistan risk cutting short this distinct momentum. A vast offensive by the Pakistani army against the rebels in the Waziristan tribal region is already out of the question." Three Paras killed in Afghanistan Three British soldiers from the Parachute Regiment have been killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says. Pakistani Taliban leader 'killed' There are growing indications that Pakistan's most wanted man, Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, has been killed by a US missile.
Aug 5	'Drone attack' kills Taliban wife Two missiles suspected to have been fired by a US drone kill a wife of a leading Pakistani militant, relatives tell the BBC. Outrage over Afghan child deaths Three children and a man are killed in an overnight air strike by international forces, angry villagers in southern Afghanistan say.
Aug 4	Rocket attack on Afghan capital At least five rockets are fired into the Afghan capital, Kabul, with one landing near the US embassy, officials say. UK Afghan helicopters 'not safe' Helicopters may be unfit for combat in Afghanistan because of inadequate protection, says a Daily Telegraph report. As US, NATO causalities mount Pentagon to press for more troops in Afghan war After the deadliest month since the Afghan war began, US military commanders are planning to press for more troops in order to mount a counterinsurgency campaign in the Central Asian country.
Aug 3	At Least 12 Killed in Afghan Bombing BBC News: "A bomb attack in the western Afghan city of Herat has killed at least 12 people and injured at least 20, police officials say. They said the attack had targeted a police convoy, killing and wounding both police and civilians." US to Seek More British Troops for Afghanistan Patrick Wintour and Richard Norton Taylor, The Guardian UK: "Britain will come under fresh pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan this month when General Stanley McChrystal, the Nato commander in the country, tells President Barack Obama that a further troop surge by the military alliance is necessary." Afghan priority for new Nato head Nato's priority must be the Afghan war, including talks with parts of the Taliban, the alliance's new leader says.
Aug 2	Six US Troops Killed in Afghanistan Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "Six American soldiers were killed in a 48-hour period ending Sunday, their deaths coming on the heels of the most lethal month for U.S. and Western troops since the start of the war nearly eight years ago, military officials said." Tensions Grow in Afghanistan as Villagers Get Rid of Opium, Fall into Poverty Rukmini Callimiachi, The Associated Press: "For as long as anyone can remember, there was no need for paper money in this remote corner of the Hindu Kush. The common currency was what grew in everyone's backyard - opium." Civilian death toll soaring in Afghanistan A report issued late last month by the Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) sheds light on the rising number of innocent Afghan men, women and children who are being killed in order for the US and its allies to consolidate their neo-colonial occupation of the country. UK troops 'given too many tasks' UK troops are suffering "mission creep" in Afghanistan and should focus solely on security, a report from MPs says. US pledge to reduce Afghan deaths The new US commander in Afghanistan vows to work to reduce civilian deaths after a UN report showed they had risen.

July 31	Afghan civilian deaths 'increase' More than 1,000 civilians were killed in conflict in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2009, a 24% rise, the UN says.
July 29	Britain and US Prepared to Open Talks With the Taliban Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian UK: "A concerted effort to start unprecedented talks between Taliban and British and American envoys was outlined yesterday in a significant change in tactics designed to bring about a breakthrough in the attritional, eight-year conflict in Afghanistan."
July 27	Talk to Taliban, Miliband urges David Miliband backs talks with moderate elements of the Taliban as part of a change of emphasis in Afghanistan. Afghanistan 'agrees Taliban deal' Afghan officials agree a truce with the Taliban in a north-western province ahead of elections next month. The German offensive in Afghanistan The German army has dramatically intensified its intervention in Afghanistan in the past few days, employing heavy weaponry for the first time.
July 26	Suicide bombers hit Afghan city Taliban suicide bombers strike government targets in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, the latest attack ahead of August polls. Pakistani held over Polish death Pakistani police arrest a former right-wing MP accused of ordering the Taliban murder of an abducted Polish engineer.
July 25	Suicide bombers hit Afghan city Suicide bombers attack government buildings in the south-eastern Afghan city of Khost, reports say. An Afghan voice against the US-led occupation The so-called “lefts” and liberals who try to justify the war in Afghanistan with claims it is bringing democracy and liberation to women do not like what Malalai Joya has to say. A 31-year-old Afghan woman and politician, she is intimately familiar with the reality of what is happening in her country and she tells the truth: the US/NATO occupation has created a “disastrous situation” for the long-suffering Afghan people.
July 24	Bloody July in Afghanistan: Comedy of Errors Serge Truffaut, Le Devoir: "The current month is not yet over and is already proving to be the most deadly since an international expedition overthrew the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001. This resurgence in the power of the Islamists, even though they are despised by the majority of the population, is the direct consequence of a comedy of errors."
July 23	Afghan war is 'worth the effort' The war against the Afghan Taliban is in the national interest of the US and Europe, US Vice-President Joe Biden tells the BBC. Taliban say Swat leader 'alive' The Taliban deny reports that their leader in Pakistan's Swat valley, Maulana Fazlullah, is close to death.
July 22	No Let-Up in US Drone War in Pakistan Dan De Luce, Agence France-Presse: "The expanding US drone war against Al-Qaeda may be disrupting the terror network's operations but the lethal bombing raids carry risks for Washington and its ally Pakistan. The head of the CIA has defended the attacks in Pakistan by unmanned aircraft as 'the only game in town' when it comes to targeting Al-Qaeda and its allies.... Yet an unknown number of civilians have died in the bombing war, possibly as many as 700, according to the Pakistani press."
July 21	"Be Bold" Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "US Army Specialist Victor Agosto, who publicly refused to deploy with his unit to Afghanistan, was to receive the harshest court-martial possible for his decision - one that would land him in jail for up to one year, followed by a dishonorable discharge. However, within hours of the publication of a Truthout report about his story, Agosto received word from the military that his court-martial had been reduced." Filipinos killed in Afghan crash The Philippines says that 10 of its nationals died in a helicopter crash at a military base in Afghanistan on Sunday. East Afghan cities hit by Taliban Several people are killed as Taliban militants using suicide bombers attack key targets in two eastern Afghan cities.
July 20	Captors Release Video of US Soldier Who Went Missing in Afghanistan Greg Miller and Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "Posing an emotional new complication for the expanding U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, Islamic militants released a video of a captured American soldier whom U.S. military officials identified for the first time Sunday as Pvt. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho. The video marked the first time that militants have sought to take advantage of Bergdahl's June 30 capture to mount a propaganda attack on President Obama's decision to escalate U.S. involvement in the war." UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A UK soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the MoD says - the 17th to die in the country this month. US 'seeks Afghan prison overhaul' A US military review calls for the overhaul of the entire Afghan prison system, the New York Times reports.
July 19	NATO: At Least 16 Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash Agence France-Presse: "At least 16 civilians were killed on Sunday when a helicopter crashed near a military base in southern Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said, in the second fatal chopper crash here in a week. The civilian-contracted aircraft was not shot down by insurgents, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said, but gave no details on what caused the crash in war-torn Kandahar province."
July 18	US Airstrike in Afghanistan Tests McChrystal's New Order Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers: "An airstrike that Afghan officials allege killed at least four civilians Wednesday is the first test of a new U.S. directive that American troops let Taliban fighters flee if civilian lives are at risk." US Persists in Pakistan Drone Attacks Rasool Dawar and Munir Ahmad, The Associated Press: "A suspected U.S. missile strike in a Pakistani tribal region killed at least five alleged militants Friday, officials said, showing America's unwillingness to abandon the tactic even as Pakistani officials say it could interfere with army offensives in the northwest."
July 17	US air strikes kill Afghan civilians An attack by US warplanes left Afghan civilians dead and wounded, underscoring the grim human cost of the military escalation ordered by the Obama administration. Detainees Protest in Bagram Prison Greg Jaffe and Julie Tate, The Washington Post: "The prisoners at the largest US detention facility in Afghanistan have refused to leave their cells for at least the past two weeks to protest their indefinite imprisonment, according to lawyers and the families of detainees." Everything That Happens in Afghanistan Is Based on Lies or Illusions Ann Jones, TomDispatch.com: "I've come back to the Afghan capital again, after an absence of two years, to find it ruined in a new way. Not by bombs this time, but by security. The heart of the city is now hidden behind piles of Hescos - giant, grey sandbags produced somewhere in Great Britain. They're stacked against the walls of government buildings, UN agencies, embassies, NGO offices, and army camps (of which there are a lot) - and they only seem to grow and multiply." Obama's war With Obama approaching the end of his sixth month in office, there are growing indications that Washington is in only the first stages of a major escalation of the Afghanistan war.
July 14	Afghanistan War Resister to "Put the War on Trial" Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "US Army Specialist Victor Agosto served a 13-month deployment in Iraq with the 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion ... His experience in Iraq, coupled with educating himself about US foreign policy and international law, has led Agosto to refuse to deploy to Afghanistan. 'It's a matter of what I'm willing to live with,' he said of his recent decision, 'I'm not willing to participate in this occupation, knowing it is completely wrong.'" US commander in Afghanistan lobbies for more troops Less than six months after Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional American soldiers to Afghanistan, and barely two weeks into the first major offensive by the reinforcements, General Stanley McChrystal, the newly-appointed US commander, has launched a lobbying drive for a substantial further increase in troop numbers. Crisis mounts over Afghanistan as UK troop deaths exceed Iraq total The death of eight soldiers, three just 18-years-old, in a 24-hour period brings total UK troop deaths in Afghanistan to 184, exceeding the 179 killed during the occupation of Iraq.
July 13	Obama Orders Probe of Alleged Mass Grave The Associated Press: "President Barack Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that U.S. allies were responsible for the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war during the opening days of the war in Afghanistan. Obama told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday that he doesn't know how the U.S.-allied Northern Alliance behaved in November 2001, but he wants a full accounting before deciding how to move forward." Two US Marines Killed in Afghan Bomb Blasts Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press: "A bomb blast killed two US Marines in Afghanistan's dangerous south, where thousands of American troops have deployed in a massive operation to oust Taliban fighters from the country's opium poppy region, officials said Sunday. Some 4,000 Marines moved into Helmand province this month, the largest Marine operation in Afghanistan since the 2001 US invasion. They have met little head-on resistance but remain vulnerable to guerrilla tactics like suicide and roadside bombs."
July 12	Afghan Bombings Kill NATO Troops BBC News: "Four NATO soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, the coalition has said." Obama Admin: No Grounds to Probe Afghan War Crimes Lara Jakes, The Associated Press: "Obama administration officials said Friday they had no grounds to investigate the 2001 deaths of Taliban prisoners of war who human rights groups allege were killed by US-backed forces."
July 10	A war of colonial conquest in Afghanistan The largest military operation since the Obama administration took office is now underway in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Some 4,000 marines, along with hundreds of British troops, are attempting to impose control over an ethnic Pashtun population that has opposed the US-led occupation ever since the 2001 invasion overthrew the Taliban government and installed a puppet regime.
July 9	Many killed in Afghan explosion At least 25 people are killed in an explosion in Logar province in central Afghanistan, police officials say.
July 8	Two Suspected US Missile Attacks Kill 45 in Pakistan Ishtiaq Mahsud, The Associated Press: "Suspected US drones launched two missile attacks on Taliban targets in the South Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday, killing at least 45 militants in the latest in a barrage of strikes close to the Afghan border, intelligence officials said." Afghans: Taliban Have Escaped Helmand and Marines Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers: "Taliban fighters and their commanders have escaped the Marines' big offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province and moved into areas to the west and north, prompting fears that the US effort has just moved the Taliban problem elsewhere, Afghan defense officials have told McClatchy." Soldier dies as Afghan toll rises A British soldier becomes the seventh to die in a week in Afghanistan, as a minister admits more sacrifice will be needed.
July 7	What Are Afghan Lives Worth? Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "In the two weeks since, however, that's been on my mind -- or rather the lack of interest our world shows in dead civilians from a distant imperial war -- and all because of a passage I stumbled upon in a striking article by journalist Anand Gopal. In 'Uprooting an Afghan Village' in the June issue of the Progressive magazine, he writes about Garloch, an Afghan village he visited in the eastern province of Laghman. After destructive American raids, Gopal tells us, many of its desperate inhabitants simply packed up and left for exile in Afghan or Pakistani refugee camps." Seven American Troops Killed in Afghan Incidents Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "Seven American service members were killed Monday in Afghanistan, the largest one-day death toll here in months for US troops. The deaths -- two in the south, four in the north and one in the east -- reflected in part the intensifying conflict in a large swath of the south, where a major US offensive is underway. But they also signaled Taliban insurgents' determination to push into areas that have been relatively quiet, such as Afghanistan's northern tier, and to keep up pressure on American forces in the east, which borders Pakistan's volatile tribal areas." Afghan deaths, troop casualties soar in first days of new US offensive The US tactics are modeled on the Iraq surge and are aimed at embedding troops among civilians. Forward bases are being established in numerous small villages and hamlets that have never seen occupation forces or representatives of the Afghan puppet government headed by President Hamid Karzai. The population is being ordered to attend meetings or shuras, where marine officers dictate how they will live.
July 6	Afghan car bomb attack near base At least two people have been killed and many others wounded in a suicide bombing near a major Nato base in southern Afghanistan. ,German military to engage more offensively in Afghanistan The poet and dramatist Bertolt Brecht once spoke of “the necessity of propaganda” to convince people “That the creation of an army is an act of peace / Every new tank is a dove of peace / And each new regiment further evidence / Of the love of peace”. But according to Brecht, propaganda reaches the limit of its effectiveness when it appears too blatantly opposed to reality and the experience of its victims. Six US Troops Killed in Afghanistan Fisnik Abrashi, The Associated Press: "Two roadside bombs killed six American troops in Afghanistan on Monday, as a suicide bomber attacked the gate of the main NATO base in the south, officials said."
July 3	Officials: US Drone Strike Kills Ten in Pakistan Hafiz Wazir, Reuters: "A US drone aircraft fired missiles on Friday into Pakistan's South Waziristan region, killing 10 militants, officials said, ahead of an expected Pakistani military offensive in the area." Afghanistan: Massive US Offensive Targets Taliban Heartland BBC News: "As the US launches a major offensive in Helmand where the Taliban insurgency is at its fiercest, the BBC's Caroline Wyatt assess the tactics and dangers involved in such an operation. The US Marines say Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, will be decisive."
July 4	Russia 'agrees US troop transit' An Obama administration official says Russia has agreed to let US troops bound for Afghanistan fly through its airspace. Obama sends marines to suppress population of southern Afghanistan The Obama administration has ordered the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (2 MEB) into a potentially bloody offensive in the southern province of Helmand. The objective is the suppression of the ethnic Pashtun population, which is overwhelmingly hostile to the seven-and-a-half year US and NATO occupation of the country and rejects the legitimacy of the Afghan puppet government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
July 2	Poll: Pakistanis Turn on Taliban, but Resent US Paul Eckert, Reuters: "Public opinion in Pakistan has turned sharply against the Taliban and other Islamist militants but Pakistanis still do not trust the United States and President Barack Obama, a poll showed on Wednesday. The WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, conducted last month as Pakistan's army fought the Taliban in the Swat Valley, found that most Pakistanis see the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda as a critical threat to the nuclear-armed country." US opens 'major Afghan offensive' The US military says it has begun a large operation against the Taliban in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Two UK soldiers die in explosion Two British soldiers are killed in a blast in southern Afghanistan, during operations to drive out the Taliban.
July 1	Refusing to Comply: The Tactics of Resistance in an All-Volunteer Military Dahr Jamail, TomDispatch.com: "On May 1st at Fort Hood in central Texas, Specialist Victor Agosto wrote on a counseling statement, which is actually a punitive US Army memo: 'There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect.'"

June 29	Afghan clash 'kills police chief' A provincial police chief and eight other police are killed in a clash with US-trained Afghan guards in Kandahar, reports say. Ambush kills 12 Pakistan troops Taliban militants kill 12 soldiers in an ambush on a Pakistani military convoy near the Afghan border, the army says.
June 27	US Announces Revamp of Afghan Drug Policy The Associated Press: "The United States announced a new drug policy Saturday for opium-rich Afghanistan, saying it was phasing out funding for eradication efforts and using the money for drug interdiction and alternate crop programs instead. The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, told The Associated Press that eradication programs weren't working and were only driving farmers into the hands of the Taliban."
June 26	Now We See You, Now We Don't Kathy Kelly, Truthout: "In early June 2009, I was in the Shah Mansoor displaced persons camp in Pakistan, listening to one resident detail the carnage that had spurred his and his family's flight there a mere 15 days earlier. Their city, Mingora, had come under massive aerial bombardment. He recalled harried efforts to bury corpses found on the roadside even as he and his neighbors tried to organize their families to flee the area."
June 25	'Shift needed' in Afghan combat US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan must make a "cultural shift" to protect Afghan civilians, the new US commander says. US drone strike kills 80 Pakistanis On Tuesday, an unmanned US Predator drone fired missiles into a funeral procession in the Pakistani region of South Waziristan, killing as many as 80 people and maiming dozens more. It was the deadliest US attack within Pakistan to date.
June 24	Sixty Pakistanis Killed in US Drone Strike BBC News: "At least 45 people have died in a missile strike by a US drone aircraft in Pakistan, officials there have said. The people killed in South Waziristan region had been attending a funeral for others killed in a US drone strike earlier on Tuesday."
June 23	US Commander in Afghanistan to Order Limits on Airstrikes Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian UK: "The new US commander in Afghanistan is to issue fresh orders this week setting tighter limits on the use of air strikes to try to reduce the high civilian death toll, one of the reasons attributed to the swing in support behind the Taliban. General Stanley McChrystal, who took over last month after the failure to stem the Taliban advance, told senior US officers and Nato counterparts in video-conference last week the number of civilian casualties was counterproductive."
June 22	Reporters Escape Taliban Captors Keith B. Richburg, The Washington Post: "A New York Times reporter kidnapped by the Taliban and held for seven months in the rugged mountainous region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border escaped Friday, along with a local Afghan reporter, by climbing over a wall and finding a nearby Pakistani army base, according to the newspaper, US officials and the journalist's family. David Rohde, 41, was taken captive November 10 along with local reporter Tahir Ludin, 35, and their driver while Rohde was researching a book on Afghanistan."
June 21	US Accepts Blame for Deaths of 26 Afghan Civilians Anne Gearan, The Associated Press: "The United States accidentally killed an estimated 26 Afghan civilians last month when a warplane did not strictly adhere to rules for bombing, the US military concluded in a report that recommends even tighter controls to limit deaths that risk turning Afghans against the US war effort. 'The inability to discern the presence of civilians and assess the potential collateral damage of those strikes is inconsistent with the US government's objective of providing security and safety for the Afghan people,' the report prepared by US Central Command said."
June 20	UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says.
June 18	US 'to improve' Afghan training A US report on airstrikes in Afghanistan calls for better training for US forces to reduce civilian casualties, officials say.
June 17	Pentagon Wavers on Releasing Report on Afghan Attack Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers: "Defense Department officials are debating whether to ignore an earlier promise and squelch the release of an investigation into a US airstrike last month, out of fear that its findings would further enrage the Afghan public, Pentagon officials told McClatchy Monday. The military promised to release the report shortly after the May 4 air attack, which killed dozens of Afghans, and the Pentagon reiterated that last week. US officials also said they'd release a video that military officials said shows Taliban fighters attacking Afghan and US forces and then running into a building. Shortly afterward, a US aircraft dropped a bomb that destroyed the building." Al Jazeera demands Afghan release The Arabic Al Jazeera television channel calls for the release of two journalists arrested by Afghan intelligence agents.
June 13	UK soldier dies in Afghan blast A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says. Zardari condemns 'brutal' Taliban Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemns the killing of an anti-Taliban cleric and vows pay rises for the army. US 'to protect Afghan civilians' The incoming US general in Afghanistan says his priority will be to review Nato operations in a bid to reduce civilian casualties.
June 12	Anti-Taliban Cleric Killed in Pakistani Blast Mubasher Bukhari, Reuters: "A prominent anti-Taliban Muslim cleric who condemned suicide bombings was killed on Friday in a suicide attack in the Pakistani city of Lahore, police said." Mercenaries Set Off for Afghanistan Remy Ourdan, Le Monde: "They are trying to be more discreet and less murderous than in Iraq. In Kabul, foreign mercenaries don't let loose with rapid fire at intersections and the laws attempt to compel them to cooperate with Afghan companies. However, with the improvement of the situation in Iraq and since Barack Obama announced that Afghanistan and Pakistan were the 'central front' of the war against al-Qaeda, they've been arriving."
June 11	New US commander in Afghanistan assembles team of assassins Confirmed Wednesday as President Barack Obama’s new commander for the widening war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, General Stanley McChrystal has been given extraordinary powers to assemble his own staff. According to press reports published Thursday, in forming a permanent war council-dubbed the Afghanistan-Pakistan Coordination Cell-McChrystal is drawing heavily from a super-secret assassination squad that he commanded under the Bush administration. That unit, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), was formed in December 1980 in the wake of the military’s abortive operation to free US hostages in Iran. Comprised of the Army’s Delta Force and Navy SEALs, the command directs Special Mission Units that carry out classified operations, often in collaboration with CIA squads. US reinforcements in place in southern Afghanistan The Obama administration’s “surge” in Afghanistan is taking shape, with 10,000 marines from the North Carolina-based 2^nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) completing the commencement of their deployment to the volatile province of Helmand over the next several weeks.
June 10	'Many militants dead' in Pakistan At least 70 militants have been killed since an artillery offensive began on Tuesday in north-west Pakistan, the army says. Visitors and Hosts in Pakistan Kathy Kelly, Truthout: "The most recent plane to attack the Pakistani village of Khaisor (according to a Waziristan resident who asked me to withhold his name) came 20 days ago, on May 20, 2009. A US drone airplane fired a missile at the village at 4:30 AM, killing 14 women and children and two elders, wounding 11."
June 9	Words and War Norman Solomon, Truthout: "It takes at least tacit faith in massive violence to believe that after three decades of horrendous violence in Afghanistan, upping the violence there will improve the situation. Despite the pronouncements from high Washington places that the problems of Afghanistan can't be solved by military means, 90 percent of the spending for Afghanistan in the Obama administration's current supplemental bill is military."
June 8	Pakistan tribesmen battle Taliban Hundreds of tribesmen continue an offensive against the Taliban following a deadly mosque bombing in north-west Pakistan.
June 7	Poppy link to Afghan bumper crop The Afghan government says this year's bumper wheat harvest is partly due to its successful poppy eradication programme.
June 6	Rebels 'kill Pakistan Islamists' Two arrested aides to radical cleric Sufi Mohammed are killed in an ambush by militants in Pakistan, the army says. Pakistan mosque bomb kills dozens A bomb explodes at a mosque in the north-west of Pakistan during Friday prayers, killing at least 38 people and wounding dozens.
June 3	US Military Admits Errors in Air Strikes That Killed Scores of Afghan Civilians Mark Tran, The Guardian UK: "A failure to follow strict rules devised to prevent civilian casualties in Afghanistan led to the death of scores of villagers last month, a US military investigation has concluded." US general warns over Afghan war The general chosen to be the next US commander in Afghanistan says civilian deaths are a "critical" threat.
June 2	US Helps Afghans Assume Control of Local Security Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News: "In volatile Wardak province, bordering the Afghan capital, US Army Special Forces are establishing a neighborhood watch program that US and Afghan officials hope will help drive out the Taliban and other militants. Members of the Afghan Public Protection Force, known as the Guardians, carry Kalashnikov rifles to protect their families and homes. The idea is to get local Afghans to take charge of securing their villages against militants who find safe haven in the isolated, mountainous region that Afghan and U.S. soldiers have been unable to control."
June 1	Trying Harder in Pakistan and Afghanistan Steve Weissman, Truthout: "'Master, how long will it take for me to reach enlightenment?' the eager student asked. 'Perhaps ten years,' the teacher answered. 'But what if I try extra hard?' the student asked. 'How long will it take then?' The teacher thought for a moment and smiled. 'Then,' he said, 'it will take twenty years.' Anyone who has studied Eastern philosophy or martial arts will have heard the story in one form or another, but it has special application to President Barack Obama's escalating intervention in Afghanistan and Pakistan." Extra Troops in Afghanistan by Mid-July Golnar Motevalli, Reuters: "The majority of the 17,000 extra US troops being sent to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency in southern and western Afghanistan should be on the ground by mid-July, the US military said on Sunday. A further 4,000 troops are arriving to train Afghan security forces and they will be deployed by August. Washington pledged to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to reinforce security ahead of presidential elections scheduled for August 20 and to support NATO-led troops which have struggled to fight an escalating insurgency there."

May 31	Afghanistan's Untold Story Ryan Croken, Truthout: "America has many virtues; collective memory is not one of them. When history is invoked in the theater of the mass media, it generally appears as either sanitized nostalgia from our civic religion (something about the Founding Fathers), or as a one-sided flashback designed to give some oomph to some -ism (something about Hitler). Pandemic amnesia is a dangerous affliction for a democracy under any circumstances, but when it comes to our current - that is, our continuing - engagement with Afghanistan, the disorder may very well prove fatal."
May 28	Iraq Redux? Obama Seeks Funds for Pakistan Super-Embassy Saeed Shah and Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers: "The US is embarking on a $1 billion crash program to expand its diplomatic presence in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, another sign that the Obama administration is making a costly, long-term commitment to war-torn South Asia, US officials said Wednesday. The White House has asked Congress for - and seems likely to receive - $736 million to build a new US embassy in Islamabad, along with permanent housing for US government civilians and new office space in the Pakistani capital." Torture photos: US soldiers raped, sodomized Iraqi prisoners In an interview with the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph published Wednesday, former US General Antonio Taguba said that photographs the Obama administration is seeking to suppress show images of US soldiers raping and sodomizing Iraqi prisoners. Taguba, who conducted the military inquiry of prisoner abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 after some photos of US soldiers torturing prisoners became public, said that among the photos are images of soldiers raping a female prisoner, raping a male detainee, and committing “sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and phosphorescent tube,” according to the Telegraph. Pakistani Taliban claim bombing The Pakistani Taliban claim responsibility for a bomb attack in Lahore which killed at least 24 people and injured about 200.
May 26	US Soldiers' Options Limited to Protect Afghans From Taliban Philip Smucker, McClatchy Newspapers: "Fortress Margha, with its grenade launchers and mortars sticking out from behind sandbags and bulletproof windows on three watchtowers, is a safe redoubt for the American troops stationed there. Within its walls, soldiers play ice hockey and video games that imitate guerrilla warfare. For the Afghans who live in a medieval world of mud homes with interlocking walls in the valley below, however, reality is a reign of terror."
May 24	Aerial Bombing Makes Terrorists Abdul Malik Mujahid, Truthout: "During the last thirty years of wars in Afghanistan, Afghan civilians have had one safe place to escape to: Pakistan. They fled the Soviet invasion. They fled civil wars. They fled US bombing. Pakistan took care of millions of these Afghan refugees. Now that safe haven with its lush green valleys is burning with bombs." 'Record' Afghanistan drugs bust International and Afghan troops kill 60 insurgents and make a record drugs haul in south Afghanistan, the US military says.
May 23	British soldier killed in Helmand A British soldier has died in southern Afghanistan after being shot while on patrol, the Ministry of Defence says.
May 22	US Troop Surge in Afghanistan "Could Push Taliban Into Pakistan" Matthew Weaver and Agencies, The Guardian UK: "The buildup of US troops in Afghanistan could force more Taliban fighters into neighbouring Pakistan, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff conceded last night. Admiral Mike Mullen told the US Senate's foreign relations committee: 'We can't deny that our success may only push them [the Taliban] deeper into Pakistan.'" The Bomb Within Range of the Taliban Sara Daniel, Le Nouvel Observateur: "Could the Taliban, under the cover of an unacknowledged civil war, get their hands on Pakistani nuclear weapons? Since the fundamentalists occupied the Buner district, less than 100 kilometers from the capital of Islamabad, that's been the Americans' obsession. Every two or three months, the Pentagon and the State Department engage in a simulation. How to react should a terrorist group succeed in grabbing one of that country's 100 atomic bombs?"
May 21	Going for Broke: Six Ways the Af-Pak War Is Expanding Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "Yes, Stanley McChrystal is the general from the dark side (and proud of it). So the recent sacking of Afghan commander Gen. David McKiernan after less than a year in the field and McChrystal's appointment as the man to run the Afghan War seems to signal that the Obama administration is going for broke. It's heading straight into what, in the Vietnam era, was known as 'the big muddy.'" Hiding Behind the Skirts of Women Jodie Evans, CommonDreams: "For eight years, many Americans have justified the war in Afghanistan as a moral battle to 'protect' Afghan women. But Afghan women tell another story: more US war will bear them more suffering." The March of Folly, Continued Norman Solomon, Truthout: "To understand what's up with President Obama as he escalates the war in Afghanistan, there may be no better place to look than a book published 25 years ago. 'The March of Folly,' by historian Barbara Tuchman, is a chilling assessment of how very smart people in power can do very stupid things - how a war effort, ordered from on high, goes from tic to repetition compulsion to obsession - and how we, with undue deference and lethal restraint, pay our respects to the dominant moral torpor to such an extent that mass slaughter becomes normalized in our names." US military denies atrocity in Afghanistan’s Farah province This conclusion, unsubstantiated by any evidence, flies in the face of local accounts, International Red Cross reports and an official Afghan government inquiry that found 140 civilians, including 93 children, died in the US air attack. Only 22 of the victims were adult males. Other sources have put the total death toll higher.
May 20	US Watchdog Faults Afghan Troop Training Oversight strategy, lacks the capacity to oversee multimillion-dollar contracts it has awarded, a watchdog reported on Tuesday. The Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan is responsible for programs worth some $15 billion to develop Afghan security forces so they can take over from US and NATO troops in leading the fight against Taliban militants."
May 19	Documents Describe Torture Photos Jason Leopold, Truthout: "US Army soldiers in Afghanistan took dozens of pictures of their colleagues pointing assault rifles and pistols at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees and another photograph showed two male soldiers and one female soldier pointing a broom to one detainee 'as if I was sticking the end of a broom stick into [his] rectum,' according to the female soldier's account as told to an Army criminal investigator."
May 18	Killing of Afghan civilians covered-up by Australian military Information has surfaced this month that the Australian military has covered up the role of Special Air Service (SAS) personnel in the killing and wounding of civilians in Afghanistan. Why Do Afghans Have a Life Expectancy of Only 44 Years? Abdul Malik Mujahid, Truthout: "According to the CIA World Factbook, an Afghan's life expectancy is merely 44 years. That's 20 to 30 years fewer than neighboring Pakistan and all other surrounding countries. It is just one result of the ongoing devastation in that country."
May 17	Our President, Our War? Steve Weissman, Truthout: "Obama campaigned vigorously in favor of fighting an aggressive war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He chose as his National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones, one of the leading advocates of a major American push in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the entire administration has endlessly repeated that they intend to stay in the region for the long haul. Yet, 51 Democrats in the House stood up against the insiders and refused to go along." Afghan Civilian Deaths: Who Is to Blame? Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "Local people are adamant that bombardment caused the civilian deaths; the U.S. military asserts that at least some were inflicted by the Taliban, and it sharply disputes the toll of 140. Whatever emerges as something akin to truth, the events that took place in this desolate patch of western desert stand as a microcosm of the Afghan war, a stark illustration of the enormous obstacles faced as the new American administration commits greater numbers of U.S. troops than ever before to confront an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency."
May 16	Blackwater in Hot Water Again Fisnik Abrashi, The Associated Press: Four US contractors for the private security company formerly known as Blackwater are accusing the company of holding them against their will in Afghanistan following their involvement in a shooting this month, a lawyer said Saturday. A spokeswoman for the company denied the allegation."
May 15	Afghan Women's Situation a Test Case for Obama Administration's Foreign Assistance Policy Ritu Sharma, The Huffington Post: "President Obama has signaled a change of course on the military side of US policy in Afghanistan this week, replacing US military leadership in the country. The jury is out on whether these are the right changes to be making and whether this new military policy will succeed, but there is another aspect to Afghanistan policy that is also in need of a serious fix: foreign assistance. While our focus is on the war on terror, we have yet to figure out how economic development, which is the crying need of Afghanistan, fits into our engagement in that country."
May 14	Suicide Bomb Kills Seven, Wounds 21 in Afghanistan Rahim Faiez and Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press: "A suicide car bomber killed seven people and wounded 21 others Wednesday outside a U.S. military base in the same part of eastern Afghanistan where militants stormed government buildings a day earlier, police said."
May 13	Several killed in Afghan bombing A suicide car bombing near a US base in east Afghanistan kills seven civilians and injures several more, the US military says.
May 12	US sacks top Afghanistan general The US defence secretary says he forced out the top American general in Afghanistan because "new thinking" was needed. Pakistan raids Taleban stronghold Pakistan's army broadens its offensive against the Taleban with an airborne assault on a militant stronghold Multiple blasts hit Afghan city Suicide bombers attack government buildings in the eastern city of Khost, officials say. After Afghan massacre, Washington says airstrikes will go on In the final days of his trip to Washington, President Hamid Karzai demanded an end to US airstrikes in Afghanistan. In response, US National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones (ret.) insisted that the bombing of Afghan villages will continue, whether the country’s supposed sovereign government likes it or not.
May 11	Gates Recommends Replacement for Top Command in Afghanistan Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked for the resignation today of the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, and recommended that the critical job go to veteran Special Operations commander Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal." Doctors Raise Phosphorus Concerns After US Strikes in Afghanistan Jon Boone, The Guardian UK: "Afghanistan's leading human rights organisation is investigating claims that white phosphorus was used during a deadly battle between US forces and the Taliban last week in which scores of civilians may have died. Nader Nadery, a senior officer at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said the organisation was concerned that the chemical, which can cause severe burns, might have been used in the firefight in Bala Baluk, a district in the western province of Farah."
May 10	Desperation in Pakistani Hospitals, Refugee Camps The Associated Press: "Civilians cowered in hospital beds and trapped residents struggled to feed their children Saturday, as Pakistani warplanes pounded a Taliban-held valley in what the prime minister called a 'war of the country's survival.'" Family of dead Gurkha 'can stay' The family of a Gurkha killed in Afghanistan will not be made to leave the country, the UK Border Agency has said.
May 8	Pakistani Forces Bomb Taliban in Swat Junaid Khan, Reuters: "Pakistani planes bombed the Taliban in their Swat bastion on Friday, after the prime minister ordered elimination of 'militants and terrorists' and on the heels of a commitment to Washington to fight extremists."
May 7	Stopping Pakistan Drone Strikes Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Until this week, it seemed like the conventional wisdom in Washington was that stopping US drone strikes in Pakistan was outside the bounds of respectable discussion. That just changed. Or it should have." One Aim of US-Afghan-Pakistani Summit: A Parade for Aid Howard LaFranchi, The Christian Science Monitor: "The Washington visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is billed as a trilateral summit to advance the Obama administration’s strategy for battling the region’s Islamist extremists. But all three leaders also have another objective: convincing Congress to open up the purse strings." Obama Expresses Regret for Afghan Civilian Deaths Robert Burns, The Associated Press: "Flanked by the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, President Barack Obama expressed deep US regret Wednesday for civilian casualties in a deadly incident this week in western Afghanistan, promising 'every effort' to avoid recurrences in the war against a rising Taliban insurgency. Obama had a more upbeat and determined tone as he lauded 'unprecedented cooperation' between the two neighbors in fighting Taliban and other extremist threats. But he cautioned that success will not come quickly."
May 6	US-Led Air Strikes Kill Dozens of Afghani Civilians Sharafuddin Sharafyar, Reuters: "Afghan villagers mourned relatives buried in mass graves after US-led air strikes that the Red Cross said killed dozens and local officials said may have killed more than 100 civilians." Obama Prepares to Meet With Leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan Paul Richter and Christi Parsons, The Los Angeles Times: "President Obama begins two days of talks Wednesday with the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to hastily overhaul a painstakingly developed security strategy that was unveiled only five weeks ago but is already badly outdated. The three countries spent months developing the plan to combat an insurgency centered in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. But they are being forced to switch focus because of growing militant activity in Pakistan that is emerging as Obama's first major foreign policy crisis."
May 5	US airstrikes kill scores of civilians in Afghanistan On the eve of a tripartite summit in Washington which the Obama administration has organized with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, reports from Afghanistan indicate that US air strikes in western Farah province have killed and wounded scores of civilians, many of them women and children. Pakistani Army Flattening Villages as It Battles Taliban Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers: "The Pakistani army's assault against Islamic militants in Buner, in northwest Pakistan, is flattening villages, killing civilians and sending thousands of farmers and villagers fleeing from their homes, residents escaping the fighting said Monday."
May 2	Afghan attack kills Isaf troops Five coalition soldiers have been killed after coming under attack from insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, Nato says.

Apr 27	Pakistan Taleban talks 'halted' The Taleban suspend talks with officials in north-west Pakistan amid more clashes between troops and militants.
Apr 26	Events in Pakistan, Afghanistan Overtake Obama's New Strategy Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "Events in Pakistan and Afghanistan are already overtaking the Obama administration's month-old strategy for the two countries, and it needs to be modified even before it's been implemented, US officials and experts said this week. As Islamic militants continue their advance in Pakistan and press their attacks on overstretched US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, many US officials fear that the administration is running out of time." Bomb kills 12 Pakistani children Twelve children die in north-western Pakistan after playing with a bomb they mistook for a toy, officials say. Taleban announce key withdrawal Pakistan's Taleban say they are withdrawing from a district where they had consolidated power just 100km from Islamabad.
Apr 25	US to issue 'prison abuse' photos The US is about to release hundreds of photographs showing alleged prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials say. Deadly suicide attack in Kandahar At least three policemen are killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, officials say. Taleban announce key withdrawal Pakistan's Taleban say they are withdrawing from a district where they had consolidated power just 100km from Islamabad.
Apr 24	Killing Civilians: How Safe Do You Actually Want to Be? Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "Almost like clockwork, the reports float up to us from thousands of miles away, as if from another universe. Every couple of days they seem to arrive from Afghan villages that few Americans will ever see without weapon in hand. Every few days, they appear from a world almost beyond our imagining, and always they concern death -- so many lives snuffed out so regularly for more than seven years now. Unfortunately, those news stories are so unimportant in our world that they seldom make it onto, no less off of, the inside pages of our papers." Taliban Militants Edge Closer to Pakistan Capital Mark Magnier and Mubashir Zaidi, The Los Angeles Times: "Emboldened militants made their presence felt closer to Islamabad today, raising fears throughout Pakistan and around the world that the capital and the nation were increasingly vulnerable."
Apr 23	US prepares new escalation of Afghanistan intervention The chief official overseeing US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, arrived in Brussels Monday to brief NATO representatives on the Obama administration plans for the region, amid press reports that the US intends to push aside Afghan President Hamid Karzai and supplant him with an unelected "czar" to take charge of the vast new influx of military and economic aid for the US puppet regime. Holbrooke Rejects Report on Sidelining Karzai Reuters: "A senior US official rejected on Monday a newspaper report that Washington and its European allies sought to create a new chief executive or prime ministerial role in Afghanistan to rival President Hamid Karzai." US Wants Afghanistan Exit Strategy Reuters: "The United States met NATO allies on Monday to outline its policy review for Afghanistan after President Barack Obama said it would contain an exit strategy and greater emphasis on economic development. With violence rising ahead of elections in August, Obama has already committed an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, but on Sunday he said military force alone would not end the war." US Will Appoint Afghan "Prime Minister" to Bypass Hamid Karzai Julian Borger and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian UK: "The US and its European allies are preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned. The creation of a new chief executive or prime ministerial role is aimed at bypassing Karzai. In a further dilution of his power, it is proposed that money be diverted from the Kabul government to the provinces." Anti-War Protesters March on Pentagon Donna St. George, The Washington Post: "Thousands of demonstrators marked the sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq with an impassioned protest of the nation's military policies yesterday, demanding that President Obama bring US troops home. The demonstration was the first in Washington of the Obama presidency, replete with many of the same messages of protests during the Bush era. Placards read 'War Is Not the Answer,' 'Troops Out Now' and 'We Need Jobs and Schools, Not War.' As marchers made their way from the Mall toward the Pentagon and a hub of defense contractors in Crystal City, they chanted: 'Hey, Obama, yes, we can. Troops out of Afghanistan.'"
Apr 22	Envoy damns US Afghan drug effort US counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan are "wasteful and ineffective", the US envoy to Afghanistan says.
Apr 21	Afghan blasts kill Canada troops Four Canadian soldiers are killed and eight injured in two separate bombs in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. Taleban head 'not in Balochistan' The head of Balochistan province in Pakistan says Taleban chief Mullah Omar is not there, amid reports of possible US strikes.
Apr 20	Afghanistan to boost police force Afghanistan plans to recruit 15,000 new police officers in time for the presidential election in August, the interior minister says. 'US strike' on Pakistan militants A suspected US missile strike has targeted a Taleban base in north-western Pakistan, say local security officials.
Apr 19	US Drone Bombs Pakistan, Killing at Least Three Agency France-Presse: "At least three suspected militants were killed on Sunday in Pakistan's tribal area, thought to have been by a US missile aimed at Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels, officials said.
Apr 17	Mary McCarthy in Vietnam, Barack Obama in Afghanistan William Astore, TomDispatch.com: "Mary McCarthy brought a novelist's keen eye to America's activities and its rhetoric in Vietnam. By no means a military expert, not even an expert on Vietnam -- she only made a conscious decision to study the war in Vietnam after she returned from her trip to Saigon -- her impressionistic writings were nevertheless insightful precisely because she had long been a critical thinker beholden to no authority. Her insights into our approach to war-fighting and to foreign cultures are as telling today as they were 40 years ago, so much so that President Obama and his advisors might do well to add her unconventional lessons to their all-too-conventional thinking on our spreading war in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Apr 16	Women Protesting "Pro-Rape" Law Attacked by Afghan Men Jerome Starkey, The Independent UK: "Women marching against new legislation which effectively legalizes rape met violent opposition from an opposing mob in Kabul yesterday. Dozens of riot police, backed by more than 50 elite counter-terrorism officers, struggled to keep the groups apart as hordes of men charged at the protesters, who had taken to the streets near Afghanistan's parliament."
Apr 15	US airstrike kills six civilians in Afghanistan US attack helicopters killed six civilians Monday in Afghanistan’s mountainous eastern Kunar province near the Pakistan border. The attack follows by less than a week a raid by US troops in nearby Khost province that killed five innocent civilians, four of them relatives of an Afghan army officer.
Apr 14	Rethinking Afghanistan Anne Miller, Truthout: "The lack of serious scrutiny of the president's Afghanistan policy is nothing short of stupefying, especially given our recent misadventures in Iraq. Where is the critical debate? The mantra of many Democrats is that military force alone won't solve the problem in Afghanistan. The 'problem' seems to be how to keep the corrupt US-backed central government in Kabul from falling, and what to do about the thousands of al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Meanwhile, many conservative members of Congress lament that the president isn't sending additional brigades. Congress and the public should be asking what President Obama realistically thinks the US military can accomplish with an additional 21,000 US forces in Afghanistan. What can they do that soldiers from forty-one countries in seven and a half years have been unable to accomplish? And what the British and the Soviets were unable to accomplish before that?" Taliban Shoot Dead Afghan Politician Who Championed Women's Rights Jon Boone, The Guardian UK: "A leading female Afghan politician was shot dead yesterday after leaving a provincial council meeting in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, which her colleagues had begged her not to attend. Sitara Achakzai was attacked by two gunmen as she arrived at her home in a rickshaw - a vehicle colleagues said she deliberately chose to use to avoid attracting attention. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murder. The two gunmen were apparently waiting for Achakzai, a 52-year-old women's rights activist who had lived for many years in Germany when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan." Taleban 'kill love affair couple' The Taleban in Afghanistan publicly shoot dead a young couple who they said had tried to elope to marry, officials say.
Apr 13	Militants Torch Trucks Along US-NATO Supply Line Riaz Khan, The Associated Press: "About 150 militants armed with rockets and automatic weapons attacked a transport terminal in northwestern Pakistan that lies along a key supply route used by US and NATO troops, wounding three guards and torching eight cement trucks Sunday, police said. Militants in Pakistan frequently attack cargo terminals and other stops used by vehicles taking supplies to Western troops in Afghanistan through the legendary Khyber Pass. Scores of trucks have been damaged and several people have died, adding urgency to US efforts to find safer supply routes."
Apr 12	Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban' At least 27 suspected insurgents are killed by international forces in Afghanistan, the US-led coalition says.
Apr 10	ObamaNation Wants Taliban Talks, Not Military Escalation, in Afghanistan Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Americans elected President Obama in part based on his promise to put diplomacy and international cooperation, rather than the use and threat of military force, at the center of his foreign policy. With respect to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while there have been some encouraging signals in terms of actually implemented policies, the folks who voted for Obama are not yet getting the 'diplomacy first' that they were promised." US Military Concedes Afghan Civilian Casualties Kamal Sadat, Reuters: "The US military has conceded that a raid this week by troops under its command in Afghanistan killed a group of civilians who were defending their home, not militants as it had earlier reported."
Apr 9	Nato 'struggling in Afghan south' Coalition forces in Afghanistan are not winning in large parts of the south, the commander of Nato and US forces says.
Apr 8	Do US Drones Kill Pakistani Extremists or Recruit Them? Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "Even as the Obama administration launches new drone attacks into Pakistan's remote tribal areas, concerns are growing among US intelligence and military officials that the strikes are bolstering the Islamic insurgency by prompting Islamist radicals to disperse into the country's heartland."
Apr 6	Afghan Women to Obama: We Must Be at the Table! Patricia DeGennaro, The Women's Media Center: "United States President Barak Obama unveiled his new strategy for Afghanistan last week. In it he pledged both military and civil support to Afghanistan. 'And,' he went out of his way to say, 'we will continue to support the basic human rights of all Afghans - including women and girls.' Despite this, Afghan women continue to be absent from the discussion when it comes to their futures and the future of Afghanistan."
Apr 5	Extra NATO Troops for Afghan Poll BBC News: "Nato has agreed to boost troop numbers to cover the Afghan presidential election in August, outgoing alliance chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said." Roman police find sewer children Italian police find more than 100 immigrants, including 24 Afghan children, living in sewers beneath railway stations in Rome.
Apr 4	Nato leaders mull Afghan 'test' Tough challenges in Afghanistan look set to dominate as Nato leaders meet for summit talks in France. Karzai orders urgent law review The Afghan president orders an urgent review of a controversial new law that critics say might tolerate rape within marriage. 'Deadly air strike' in Pakistan A suspected US missile strike in a remote area of north-west Pakistan has killed 13 people, local security officials say.
Apr 3	Afghan MP's Defend Family Law Against "Concerns" Agence France-Presse: "Afghan lawmakers Friday defended a new family law signed by President Hamid Karzai, saying it included key changes to draft legislation despite UN and Western concerns about restrictions on women."
Apr 2	New Afghan law worries Nato chief Nato's head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says planned new Afghan women's laws could harm future Nato involvement. 'Taleban flogging of girl' filmed A video showing suspected members of the Taleban flogging a teenage girl is being circulated in Pakistan.
Apr 1	US commander seeks 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan The top US military commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, has formally requested the deployment of an additional 10,000 US combat troops for the increasingly bloody war in the Central Asian country. Many killed in 'US drone attack' A missile fired by a suspected US drone kills at least 10 people in Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, eyewitnesses say. '10 dead' in Afghanistan attack A suicide attack on a local council building in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar kills at least 10 people, officials say.

Mar 31	British Army chief ready to send more UK troops to Afghanistan The head of the British Army announced at the weekend that he stood ready to send 2,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, while the government made clear its intent to pursue the war into Pakistan US Offers Olive Branch to Non-Violent Taliban Sue Pleming and David Brunnstrom, Reuters: "The United States offered Taliban fighters who renounce violence in Afghanistan an 'honorable form of reconciliation' on Tuesday as part of a revamped strategy to tackle a deepening insurgency. Traditional US foe Iran, attending an international conference on Afghanistan, pledged help in tackling the huge opium trade in its neighbor but stressed it remained opposed to US and other foreign troops there. The conference in the Netherlands is a chance for NATO and other US allies to consult on the Afghan strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama last week, stressing the need to cooperate with regional players such as Iran, Pakistan, Russia and India." Willing Change in Afghanistan Pascal Baeriswyl, writing for Fribourg's La Liberte, calls Obama's plan for Afghanistan a "band-aid," while Luis Lema in Geneva's Le Temps sees the plan as "the end of a long diversion," and Le Figaro's Francois Hauter, writing from Kabul, reports that Afghans consider the Americans "occupiers." Lahore 'was Pakistan Taleban op' The Pakistani Taleban chief tells the BBC his group was behind Monday's attack on a police school in Lahore.
Mar 30	The Great Afghan Bailout: It's Time to Change Names, Switch Analogies Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "Let's start by stopping. It's time, as a start, to stop calling our expanding war in Central and South Asia 'the Afghan War' or 'the Afghanistan War.' If Obama's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke doesn't want to, why should we? Recently, in a BBC interview, he insisted that 'the "number one problem" in stabilizing Afghanistan was Taliban sanctuaries in western Pakistan, including tribal areas along the Afghan border and cities like Quetta' in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. And isn't he right? After all, the US seems to be in the process of trading in a limited war in a mountainous, poverty-stricken country of 27 million people for one in an advanced nation of 167 million, with a crumbling economy, rising extremism, advancing corruption, and a large military armed with nuclear weapons. Worse yet, the war in Pakistan seems to be expanding inexorably and in tandem with American war planning from the tribal borderlands ever closer to the heart of the country." Meeting to Launch New Commitment to Afghanistan Mike Corder and Arthur Max, The Associated Press: "A 72-nation conference on Afghanistan will launch a broader international commitment to the security of the region, including neighboring Pakistan, special U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said Monday. The hastily convened conference opening Tuesday in this Dutch city brings together all the countries bordering Afghanistan, including Iran, and all nations contributing troops to the NATO-led international force fighting Taliban insurgents."
Mar 29	Obama Afghan Strategy Not Just About Bullets, Bombs Lachlan Carmichael, Agence France-Presse: "The new Afghan war strategy unveiled Friday by US President Barack Obama goes beyond 'bullets and bombs' to a plan to overhaul international aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan." Afghan leader welcomes US review Afghan President Hamid Karzai praises a US review of strategy in the region, saying it was better than he expected.
Mar 28	Obama Sets Qaeda Defeat as Top Goal in Afghanistan Ross Colvin, Reuters: "President Barack Obama unveiled a new war strategy for Afghanistan on Friday with a key goal -- to crush al Qaeda militants there and in Pakistan who he said were plotting new attacks on the United States." Afghanistan: The Four Questions Robert Naiman, Truthout: "It is widely recognized that sending more people - whether soldiers or civilians - is very unlikely in itself to change anything fundamental because the order of magnitude is wrong. The United States has not been, is not, and almost certainly never will be willing and able to commit the resources, which would be necessary to transform Afghanistan into a peaceful 'democracy' according to the present policy. The most that could be plausibly hoped for is that additional resources would help make a new policy work: a new policy based on a fundamental, political shift in US policy, including accommodation with the bulk of the political forces now backing Afghanistan's various insurgencies." US warns Pakistan on Taleban link US military officials say elements in Pakistan's military intelligence service still have ties to the Taleban and al-Qaeda militants. Obama announces escalation of war in Afghanistan, Pakistan His statement was presented as the outcome of a review of US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan involving the State Department, the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies, all of whose top officials were on the platform behind Obama when he gave his remarks.
Mar 27	A New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan President Barack Obama: "Good morning. Today, I am announcing a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan." Enduring Freedom William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "Our war in Afghanistan began almost 3,000 days ago, on October 7, 2001. Our war in Afghanistan has lasted longer than World War I, World War II, the Civil War, the Korean War, the first Gulf War in Iraq and the second Gulf War in Iraq. If we are still fighting in Afghanistan a year from now, the war will have lasted longer than the American Revolution. Children who were born on the day the war began are now halfway through grammar school. All the bad economic news and the turmoil in the financial and housing markets have America looking inward these days. We rarely hear anything about Iraq anymore, and even less about Afghanistan. For the record, and to bring everyone up to speed, the following events have taken place in Afghanistan during the last 72 hours." 4,000 More US Troops to Be Sent to Afghanistan as Trainers Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post: "President Obama will deploy as many as 4,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, beyond the 17,000 he authorized last month, as trainers and advisers to the Afghan Army, according to a senior Pentagon official who has seen the new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy Obama will unveil Friday. Obama briefed House and Senate leaders at the White House this afternoon on the strategy, while special envoy Richard Holbrooke outlined the plan to other lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The president also telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart, President Asif Ali Zardari. The result of military, intelligence and diplomat reviews that began the day Obama took office, the strategy is expected to include major increases in US military and development assistance to both countries."
Mar 26	Deadly Pakistan restaurant blast A suicide blast targeting a tribal leader in Pakistan's South Waziristan region kills at least 10 people, say officials. Iran accepts US Afghan invitation Iran agrees to attend a US-backed international conference on Afghanistan next week. Afghan attack kills nine police Nine policemen die as suspected Taleban militants attack a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, police say.
Mar 25	Former Taliban See Opening for Talks Jean MacKenzie, GlobalPost: "Talking to the Taliban is all the rage. Whether for or against, upbeat or down, everyone seems to be weighing in on the wisdom or folly of negotiating with the black-turbaned crowd. President Barack Obama has even suggested that his administration may reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban. GlobalPost has gained unique access here in Kabul to two former high-ranking officials of the now-deposed Taliban government to hear their view of the possibility of an opening for dialogue."
Mar 24	These Colors Won't Run ... Afghanistan Norman Solomon, Truthout: "Is your representative speaking out against escalation of the Afghanistan war? Last week, some members of Congress sent President Obama a letter that urged him to "reconsider" his order deploying 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan. Karzai, Opponents Clash Over Afghan Election Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News: "Throughout Afghanistan's history, the handover of power has been anything but peaceful - and many observers worry this year will be no different. At issue is the confrontation between President Hamid Karzai and his opponents over whether he should step down in May as mandated by Afghanistan's Constitution. Karzai says he should remain in office to ensure stability during a time of war until presidential elections... are held in August. But his opponents say Karzai's real motive is to manipulate the polls so he can win a second term."
Mar 18	One Country, Three Futures: The Afghanistan Americans Seldom Notice Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch.com: "Want a billion dollars in development aid? If you happen to live in Afghanistan, the two quickest ways to attract attention and so aid from the US authorities are: Taliban attacks or a flourishing opium trade. For those with neither, the future could be bleak. In November 2008, during the US presidential elections, I traveled around Afghanistan asking people what they wanted from the United States. From Mazar in the north to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan to the capital city of Kabul, I came away with three very different pictures of the country."
Mar 17	Murdered Afghan leader is buried The remains of former Afghan president Mohammad Daud Khan are buried in Kabul 30 years after he was killed in a coup.
Mar 16	Policemen killed in Afghan blast A suicide bomber kills 11 people, including nine policemen, and wounds many others in an attack in southern Afghanistan. US drone 'kills five in Pakistan' A suspected missile fired by a US drone kills at least five people in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, officials say.
Mar 14	Warning to US about Taleban talks Great caution must be exercised in any talks with Afghan rebels, a think-tank warns Kabul and Washington.
Mar 13	Death Toll in Pakistan Missile Attack Hits 22 Munir Ahmad, The Associated Press: "Militants searched Friday for bodies in the debris of a house destroyed by suspected US missiles in northwestern Pakistan as the death toll rose to 22, including foreign extremists, intelligence officials said." The New York Times Publishes Roadmap for Taliban Talks Robert Naiman, Truthout: "If you're interested in a 'way forward' in Afghanistan that's not built around killing a bunch of innocent people for no reason, then I strongly encourage you to read every word of Carlotta Gall's report in Wednesday's New York Times, 'As US Weighs Taliban Negotiations, Afghans Are Already Talking.'"
Mar 11	Can Congress Save Obama From Afghan Quagmire? Robert Naiman, Truthout: "A progressive presidency is a terrible thing to waste. It only comes around once every so often. Wouldn't it be a shame if Americans' hopes for the Obama administration were squandered in Afghanistan?"
Mar 8, 2009	Afghan Road Blocked in Protest Against Deadly Raid Agence France Presse: "Nearly 150 people on Saturday demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan over the deaths of four people killed in a night raid that US-led coalition forces said was targeted at insurgents. Carrying the coffins of the victims, protesters blocked the road between Gardez and Khost for two hours, according to an AFP correspondent."
Mar 7, 2009	Afghan operation is 'worthless' The military situation in Afghanistan is 'worthless' and similar to the Vietnam war, an ex-SAS commander claims. Karzai agrees to delay elections Afghanistan's president says he now accepts polls must be delayed to August, but insists he will remain in office until then.
Mar 6, 2009	US Hints at Inviting Iran to Afghan Meeting The Associated Press: "US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed on Thursday a high-level international conference on Afghanistan to be sponsored by the United Nations and attended by a wide range of countries including Pakistan and possibly Iran. Clinton presented the proposal at a NATO foreign ministers meeting where she said the session could be held March 31 and led by the U.N.'s special representative for Afghanistan, Kai Eide of Norway, who was appointed to improve coordination of international civilian assistance to Kabul."
Mar 4	Afghan election 'set for August' Afghanistan's Election Commission rejects President Karzai's call for April elections, saying they will take place on 20 August.
Mar 3	UN concern over Afghan elections A senior UN official says it will be nearly impossible to hold credible elections in Afghanistan in April, as ordered by President Karzai
Mar 2	Missing From the Afghan "Surge": A Congressional Debate Robert Naiman, Truthout: "A key fact about the recent history of Iraq is absolutely critical to the nascent debate about Afghanistan: There was more to the Iraq 'surge' than sending additional troops. So, if folks are going to justify sending more troops to Afghanistan on the grounds that sending more troops 'worked' in Iraq, we should be talking about the other elements of US policy in Iraq that changed after November 2006, not just about more troops." Afghan-Border Missile Attack Kills Eight, Pakistan Says Laura King, The Los Angeles Times: "A missile attack near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, believed to have been carried out by a US drone aircraft, killed at least eight people Sunday, Pakistani officials said. The strike, the first of its kind since a high-level Pakistani military delegation visited the United States last week, suggested the Obama administration intends to press ahead with a campaign of targeting militants in Pakistan's tribal areas."

Feb 28	Doomed to Repeat History in Afghanistan? Joe Galloway, McClatchy Newspapers: "If the new American team has some new ideas about how to succeed in Afghanistan, now would be the time to lay them out. Nothing that Alexander the Great, Queen Victoria or Leonid Brezhnev tried in their attempts to subdue the quarrelsome Afghan tribes worked, and nothing we've tried in the last eight years has, either. While we're waiting for a new strategy, perhaps we should break out some old Kipling: 'When wounded and left on Afghanistan's plain.' 'And the women come out to cut up your remains ....' Etc., etc."
Feb 27	Britain Admits Handing Over Terrorism Suspects to US Julie Sell, McClatchy Newspapers: "Contradicting previous denials about Britain's participation in the Bush administration's global war on terrorism, Defense Minister John Hutton said Thursday that Britain had handed over two terrorism suspects it captured in Iraq to the US, which sent them to Afghanistan, where they're still being held after more than four years."
Feb 26	US Troops Mount Offensive in Remote Afghan Valley Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "Hundreds of US troops pushed into a key Taliban stronghold Wednesday in a major operation to stop the insurgents from infiltrating the Afghan capital from the south and clear the way for the first sustained international aid effort in this remote valley. Supported by about 200 Afghan soldiers and their French army trainers, 200 soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y., encountered no resistance."
Feb 24	Four US Coalition Troops Killed in Afghanistan Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press: "A roadside bomb killed four U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday in the deadliest single attack on international forces this year. The coalition troops died when their vehicle struck a bomb while on a patrol Tuesday afternoon with Afghan troops, the U.S. military said in a statement. An Afghan civilian working with the troops was also killed. The military did not release the attack's location pending the notification of relatives." Treat US-Held Prisoners Like Guantanamo Detainees, Afghans Urge Graeme Smith, The Globe and Mail: "The word 'Guantanamo' serves as shorthand among some Afghans for all the reasons they hate foreign troops, but the impending closing of the notorious prison has gotten surprisingly little attention in this country. Nothing changed with last month's US presidential order to close Guantanamo, many people here say, because another prison inspires even greater fear: Bagram." Taleban Swat truce 'indefinite' Taleban insurgents in the troubled north-western Swat valley of Pakistan say they have agreed an indefinite ceasefire.
Feb 22	The US and Afghan Tragedy Khushal Arsala and Stephen Zunes, Foreign Policy in Focus: "One of the first difficult foreign policy decisions of the Obama administration will be what the United States should do about Afghanistan. Escalating the war, as National Security Advisor Jim Jones has been encouraging, will likely make matters worse. At the same time, simply abandoning the country - as the United States did after the overthrow of Afghanistan's Communist government soon after the Soviet withdrawal 20 years ago - would lead to another set of serious problems."
Feb 21	US: 13 Civilians Killed in Afghan Operation Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press: "US military airstrikes in western Afghanistan killed 13 Afghan civilians and only three militants, the US said Saturday, three days after an American general traveled to the site to investigate. Civilian casualties have been a huge source of friction between the US and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has stepped up demands that US and NATO operations kill no civilians and that Afghan soldiers take part in the missions to help prevent unwanted deaths." No Rights for Detainees in Afghanistan Nedra Pickler and Matt Apuzzo, The Associated Press: "The Obama administration, siding with the Bush White House, contended Friday that detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights. In a two-sentence court filing, the Justice Department said it agreed that detainees at Bagram Airfield cannot use US courts to challenge their detention. The filing shocked human rights attorneys." US finds new Afghan supply route Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agree to allow Nato supplies for Afghanistan through their territory, the US says.
Feb 20	US commander warns American troops will be in Afghanistan for years The top US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, warned on Wednesday that the huge boost to US troop numbers announced this week would have to continue for years. His comments underscore the fact that the Obama administration is preparing for a dramatic escalation of the war in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan that will inevitably heighten tensions throughout the region, especially in Central Asia.
Feb 19	Kyrgyz Parliament OKs Closing US Air Base Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers: "The Kyrgyz parliament voted Thursday to force the US military to abandon its air base here - part of what many say is a Kremlin-backed initiative - posing a severe setback to American efforts in Afghanistan." Pre-empting a Progressive Split on Afghanistan Spencer Ackerman, The Washington Independent: "As the Obama administration spends the next two months reviewing strategy options for Afghanistan, a progressive organization is attempting to cobble together a liberal consensus around basic principles for the future of the seven-year-old war - thereby fending off a progressive split over Afghanistan early in the Obama administration's term." Obama orders 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan In a brief written statement issued by the White House—Obama did not personally address the American people to inform them that a growing number of their sons and daughters would be sent to kill and be killed in defense of US strategic interests in Central Asia—the president signaled that the escalation in Afghanistan would be combined with an intensified military intervention across the border in Pakistan
Feb 18	Afghanistan hails 'new US ties' Afghan President Hamid Karzai is turning a new page in US ties, his spokesman says, as 17,000 more American troops are pledged. Pakistan leaders mark first year Pakistan's government completes one year in power but is still plagued by the Taleban militancy and economic concerns.
Feb 17	Alarm over Afghan civilian deaths The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan's conflict jumps nearly 40%, with more than 2,000 killed last year, the UN says.
Feb 16	Obama Slows Down Troop Boost Decision David S. Cloud, The Politico: "President Barack Obama is refusing to be rushed into his first decision to send troops into combat, an early sign he may be more independent-minded than U.S. military leaders expected. The new president's methodical decision-making offers an early insight into how the new commander in chief will approach the war in Afghanistan and has surprised some Pentagon officials, who had predicted repeatedly in the past two weeks that Obama would decide within days on additional forces, only to find the White House taking more time." Is the US Repeating Soviet Mistakes in Afghanistan? Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "Twenty years to the day after the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan, Dastagir Arizad ticked off grievances against President Hamid Karzai and the United States that are disturbingly reminiscent of Moscow's humiliating defeat. 'Day by day, we see the Karzai government failing. The Americans are also failing,' said Arizad, 40, as he huddled against the cold in the stall where he sells ropes and plastic hoses. 'People are not feeling safe. Their lives are not secure. Their daughters are not safe. Their land is not secure. The Karzai government is corrupt.'" Pakistan agrees Sharia law deal Pakistan signs a peace deal with a Taleban group that will lead to the enforcement of Islamic Sharia law in its Swat valley. Holbrooke begins key India talks The new US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, is holding talks with Indian leaders on the last leg of a regional tour. 'US missile strikes' hit Pakistan At least 10 people are reported dead in a suspected US drone attack in north-west Pakistan near the Afghan border.
Feb 15	US to include Afghans in review The Obama administration is to include Afghanistan in a major US policy review of the region, President Hamid Karzai says. Taleban release Chinese engineer Taleban militants in north-western Pakistan release a Chinese engineer held hostage for more than five months Pakistan 'in fight for survival' Pakistan's president says his country is fighting for its survival against the Taleban, whose influence, he says, has spread.
Feb 12	Taliban Stealing War From US Shahan Mufti, GlobalPost: "Throughout the ages, this ancient Silk Road town near the border of Afghanistan has been the place where the black market thrives and the military spoils of empires are hawked openly. Here in the storefronts you can still buy antique field rifles left over from the British presence of the 19th century and find uniforms and revolvers from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Now the shops in this industrial rim of Peshawar are filling with military equipment and computers looted from the most recent empire to bog down in this hostile and impenetrable terrain: the United States of America."
Feb 11	Deadly attacks hit Afghan capital Gunmen and suicide attackers target two government buildings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, leaving at least 19 dead
Feb 9	Afghan people 'losing confidence' Afghans are increasingly pessimistic about the future with support for the government and Nato falling, a BBC/ABC poll finds. National Security Team Delivers Grim Appraisal of Afghanistan War Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post: "President Obama's national security team gave a dire assessment Sunday of the war in Afghanistan, with one official calling it a challenge 'much tougher than Iraq' and others hinting that it could take years to turn around. U.S. officials said more troops were urgently needed, both from America and its NATO allies, to counter the increasing strength of the Taliban and warlords opposed to the central government in Kabul. They also said new approaches were needed to untangle an inefficient and conflicting array of civilian-aid programs that have wasted billions of dollars."
Feb 7	Obama: US Needs Clear Mission in Afghanistan Reuters: "US President Barack Obama on Thursday expressed concerns about the difficulty of maintaining a focused military mission in Afghanistan as his administration prepares a troop buildup there, sources at a Democratic meeting said. Obama was addressing House of Representatives Democrats on the first day of a three-day retreat here. Following a speech that focused on the domestic economy, Obama took questions from the lawmakers during a short, private session." Italians 'to boost Afghan force' Italy is to increase its contribution to Nato forces in Afghanistan by 800 to 2,800 troops this year, the BBC learns.
Feb 6	Whistling Past the Afghan Graveyard: Where Empires Go to Die Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "It is now a commonplace - as a lead article in the New York Times's Week in Review pointed out recently - that Afghanistan is 'the graveyard of empires.'... Far less attention has been paid to the 'empire' part of the equation. And there's a good reason for that - at least in Washington. Despite escalating worries about the deteriorating situation, no one in our nation's capital is ready to believe that Afghanistan could actually be the 'graveyard' for the American role as the dominant hegemon on this planet." Kyrgyz closure of US base 'final' Kyrgyzstan says its decision to close a key US base is "final", as Tajikistan offers use of its airspace for Afghan supplies.
Feb 5	Afghanistan: Losing a No-Win War Steve Weissman, Truthout: "I could go on, but it all boils down to the one lesson of Vietnam that Robert Gates and his Pentagon brass do not want to accept - that Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis and other people in Asia, Africa and Latin America will no longer accept the United States and Europe occupying and running their countries. Counter-insurgency can prolong the pain, but it will never overcome the anti-colonial dynamic, as the British Empire, the French Empire and others all learned before us."
Feb 4	Kyrgyzstan May Close Key US-Afghan Airbase Mike Eckel, The Associated Press: "Kyrgyzstan's president said Tuesday that his country is ending US use of a key airbase that supports military operations in Afghanistan. A US military official in Afghanistan called President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's statement 'political positioning' and denied the US presence at the Manas airbase would end anytime soon." Pentagon Study: US Should Pare Afghanistan Goals Robert Burns and Pauline Jelinek, The Associated Press: "A classified Pentagon report urges President Barack Obama to shift US military strategy in Afghanistan, de-emphasizing democracy-building and concentrating more on targeting Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries inside Pakistan with the aid of Pakistani military forces. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has seen the report prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but it has not yet been presented to the White House, officials said Tuesday." Afghanistan 'priority', says UN UN head Ban Ki-moon begins a key regional visit in Kabul, with a pledge that Afghanistan will be a priority this year. Taleban kidnap Pakistani troops Taleban fighters kidnap 30 Pakistani policemen and troops in the restive Swat valley in the north-west, police say. Helping Afghan Women and Girls Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation: "As the coalition I'm working with - Get Afghanistan Right - continues to make the case that the Obama administration would be wise to rethink its plan to escalate militarily in Afghanistan, I've tried to engage the arguments made by some feminists and human rights groups who believe that such an escalation is necessary to protect Afghani women and girls. I share their horror when I read stories like this one by New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins describing an acid attack against girls and women - students and their teachers - at the Mirwais School for Girls. But how will escalation or increased US troop presence improve their security or make their lives better?"
Feb 3	Waste, Fraud in Iraq Being Repeated in Afghanistan Richard Lardner, The Associated Press: "The US has devoted more than $30 billion to rebuilding Afghanistan. Yet despite the hard lessons learned in Iraq, where the US has spent nearly $51 billion on reconstruction, the effort in Afghanistan is headed down the same path, the watchdogs told a new panel investigating wartime contracts. 'Before we go pouring more money in, we really need to know what we're trying to accomplish (in Afghanistan),' said Ginger Cruz, deputy special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. 'And at what point do you turn off the spigot so you're not pouring money into a black hole?'" Pakistan bridge blast cuts supply Suspected militants in north-west Pakistan blow up a bridge, cutting a crucial supply link to Nato forces in Afghanistan. Why Are We Still at War? Norman Solomon, Truthout: "The United States began its war in Afghanistan 88 months ago. 'The war on terror' has no sunset clause. As a perpetual emotion machine, it offers to avenge what can never heal and to fix grief that is irreparable."
Feb 2	Gunmen in Pakistan Kidnap American Head of UN Refugee Office James Rupert, Bloomberg: "Suspected Islamic militants abducted the American director of the United Nations refugee agency in southwest Pakistan, killing his driver, police said." Bomber Kills 21 Police in Southern Afghanistan Barry Newhouse, Voice of America News: "Officials in southern Afghanistan say a suicide bomber has attacked a police training center, killing at least 21 officers and wounding 20 others. A Taliban spokesman claims responsibility for the blast. Officials in Tirin Kot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan province, say the bomber entered the city's police training compound while a group of officers was exercising."

Jan 31	Obama Unlikely to Widen Afghan War Anne Gearan, The Associated Press: "President Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to redirect US troops and resources to Afghanistan from Iraq, but he has done little so far to suggest he will significantly widen the grinding war with insurgents in Afghanistan. On the contrary, Obama appears likely to streamline the US focus with an eye to the worsening economy and the cautionary example of the Iraq war that sapped political support for President George W. Bush."
Jan 30	America's Policy on Bombing Bill Moyers Journal: "On the heels of the American drone attacks on suspected terrorist compounds in Pakistan, Bill Moyers Journal takes a closer look at America's history of, and current policy on, bombing; explores the ethics behind these assaults when civilians become the victims, and asks: Does bombing work? Bill Moyers sits down with historian Marilyn Young, author of the forthcoming 'Bombing Civilians: A Twentieth Century History' and former Pentagon official Pierre Sprey, who developed military planes and helped found the military reform movement."
Jan 29	Afghan presidential vote delayed Afghanistan will delay presidential elections until 20 August, the country's election commission has announced.
Jan 28	Gates Warns of Prolonged Commitment in Afghanistan Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today signaled sharply lower expectations for the war in Afghanistan, warning the conflict will be 'a long slog' that US and allied military forces - even at higher levels - cannot win alone. Gates said the US military expects to be able to send three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan from late spring through midsummer to fill a security vacuum 'that increasingly has been filled by the Taliban.'"
Jan 27	US Missile Strikes in Pakistan Will Continue: Gates Reuters: "The United States will continue to carry out missile strikes against al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday."
Jan 26	As Vice President Biden warns of an “uptick” in casualties Afghanistan civilians killed in US military raid A US military raid in the eastern Afghanistan province of Laghman last Friday night resulted in the deaths of at least 16 civilians, including women and children, according to local residents. Several Afghan officials, as well as President Hamid Karzai, backed reports of a massacre. US military officials denied the allegations, insisting that their forces killed 15 people, all of whom were Taliban insurgents who had attacked the occupying forces. US moves to consolidate new supply routes to Afghanistan The commander of US forces in Central Asia, General David Petraeus, announced last week that he had reached an agreement with the Russian government for the transit of "non-military" supplies through its territory to the US and NATO occupation forces in Afghanistan.
Jan 25	US Probes Possible Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Jason Straziuso and Rahim Faiez, The Associated Press: "The US coalition in Afghanistan opened an investigation into an overnight raid early Saturday that American commanders say killed 15 armed militants but that two Afghan officials say killed 11 civilians."
Jan 24	New US Administration Launches Airstrikes in Pakistan R. Jeffrey Smith, Candace Rondeaux and Joby Warrick, The Washington Post: "Two remote US missile strikes that killed at least 20 people at suspected terrorist hideouts in northwestern Pakistan yesterday offered the first tangible sign of President Obama's commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups there, even though Pakistanis broadly oppose such unilateral US actions." Afghanistan raid leaves 15 dead US-led forces killed 15 militants in eastern Afghanistan, the US military says, but local officials say civilians died in the raid.
Jan 22	Report: Afghan Unrest Killed 4,000 Civilians in 2008 Agence France-Presse: "Nearly 4,000 Afghan civilians were killed in insurgency-linked unrest in Afghanistan last year, more than two-thirds in rebel attacks and about 1,100 by foreign forces, a rights group said Tuesday. The figures released by an independent Kabul-based group called Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) are far higher than those from the United Nations and international military forces." US Accused of Killing 25 Afghan Civilians in Raid on Militants Saeed Shah, The Guardian UK: "The US military is investigating claims that more than two dozen Afghan civilians were killed during an attack on militants. The issue has badly undermined support for the international coalition and President Hamid Karzai. As Karzai seeks re-election later this year, he has used the issue of civilian deaths to try to distance himself from the west and has repeatedly called for more care to be taken by coalition troops."
Jan 21	Afghanistan Seeks Control Over NATO Deployments Jason Straziuso and Amir Shah, The Associated Press: "The Afghan government has sent NATO headquarters a draft agreement that would give Afghanistan more control over future NATO deployments in the country - including the deployment of some U.S. troops, officials said Tuesday. The draft technical agreement would put into place rules of conduct for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan and the number of additional NATO troops and their location would have to be approved by the Afghan government." Karzai blames allies for problems Hamid Karzai accuses his foreign allies of not doing enough to reduce civilian deaths or cut opium production.
Jan 19	Pakistan Militants Bomb Five Schools in Northwest Zarar Khan, The Associated Press: "Suspected Taliban militants bombed five schools in Pakistan's Swat valley Monday as part of a campaign against girls' education in the country's lawless northwest. Militants - who have blown up or burned down more than 170 schools in their campaign - had ordered all girls' schools in the area closed by Jan. 15. The school attacks are a throwback to conditions in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, when education for girls was banned and most women forced to stay home."
Jan 18	Five die in Kabul suicide attack A suicide car bomber strikes in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing four civilians and an American soldier.
Jan 17	Two die in Kabul suicide car bomb A suicide car bombing near a US military base in Kabul kills at least two people and injures more than a dozen, officials say
Jan 15	Afghan general dies in air crash A top Afghan general and 12 other soldiers are killed when their helicopter crashes in bad weather in the west of the country.
Jan 12	Eighth Australian soldier dies in Afghanistan amid calls to boost troop numbers The eighth Australian soldier lost his life in Afghanistan on January 3. Thirty-year-old Private Gregory Michael Sher, from a Melbourne-based Army Reserve company of the 1st Commando Regiment, was killed by 107mm rockets fired into an Afghan army base in the southern province of Uruzgan. He had reportedly been in the country for several months. The Afghan Scam: The Untold Story of Why the US Is Bound to Fail in Afghanistan Ann Jones, TomDispatch.com: "The Bush administration perpetrated a scam. It used the system it set up to dispense reconstruction aid to both the countries it 'liberated,' Afghanistan and Iraq, to transfer American taxpayer dollars from the national treasury directly into the pockets of private war profiteers. Think of Halliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater in Iraq; Louis Berger Group, Bearing Point and DynCorp International in Afghanistan. They're all in it together. So far, the Bush administration has bamboozled Americans about its shady aid program. Nobody talks about it. Yet the aid scam, which would be a scandal if it weren't so profitable for so many, explains far more than does troop strength about why, today, we are on the verge of watching the whole Afghan enterprise go belly up."
Jan 10	Pakistan al-Qaeda leaders 'dead' Al-Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan and another top aide are believed to have been killed, US and Pakistani sources say.
Jan 9	Millions face starvation in Afghanistan A social catastrophe is unfolding in Afghanistan. 2008 was the seventh consecutive year of drought and poor harvests and as many as 8 to 10 million people face starvation as the harsh winter sets in and snow falls isolate rural communities. The worst affected provinces are in central and northern Afghanistan where US and NATO forces have exerted almost unchallenged control since the 2001 invasion and claim to have spent billions of dollars on reconstruction and development.
Jan 7	Dozens of Afghan 'Taleban' killed Coalition forces kill 32 Taleban fighters in an operation east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, the US military says.
Jan 6	US “surge” in Afghanistan threatens wider war The US and NATO are planning to create new supply lines from the Central Asian republics to occupation forces in Afghanistan, according to recent media accounts. The move comes in preparation for an expected doubling of US military personnel in Afghanistan under the Obama administration, and in response to an increasing number of attacks on its main supply route from Pakistan.
Jan 5	'Taleban kill three for spying' Suspected Taleban militants kill three men in north-west Pakistan after accusing them of spying for the US, police say
Jan 4	Pakistan seizes Taleban spokesman A former spokesman for fugitive Taleban leader Mullah Omar is arrested in north-west Pakistan, security officials say.
Jan 3	Growing Taliban Use of Marksmen Worries US Military Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers: "Taliban fighters increasingly are deploying precision marksmen to fire on US troops at greater distances throughout opium-producing southern Afghanistan, according to the top two commanders for the southern region. The increased use of marksmen is the latest Taliban shift to asymmetrical warfare and away from confronting US troops in conventional fights, the commanders told McClatchy." Pakistan resumes Afghan supplies The main supply route for international forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan's Khyber Pass, is re-opened after three days. Afghan murder charge for Canadian Canadian military police charge a Canadian officer with murdering an unarmed Afghan man in Helmand Province.
Jan 2	Pakistan resumes Afghan supplies The supply route for international forces in Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass is reopened, Pakistani officials say. New US drone attack 'kills three' Suspected US missile strikes have killed at least three Pakistani militants close to the Afghan border, officials say.
Jan 1	Taleban ambush kills 20 policemen Twenty Afghan policemen are killed in a Taleban ambush on a politician's home in Helmand, officials say. 'US drone kills trio' in Pakistan Three people have died in a suspected US drone attack in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, reports say.

2008
Dec 31	'Militants die' in Afghan attacks International military forces in Afghanistan say they have killed 17 militants in two separate operations. Canada’s ‘newspaper of record’ calls for Canada to wage Afghan war beyond 2011 The Globe and Mail, Canada's newspaper of record, is mounting a campaign for the country's political elite to once again defy public sentiment and extend the Canadian Armed Forces' intervention in Afghanistan beyond the current deadline of December 2011.
Dec 30	Pakistan suspends Afghan supplies Pakistan suspends a key supply route to US and Nato forces in Afghanistan to begin an offensive against militants, officials say.
Dec 29	Afghan suicide bombing kills two Two people are killed and 20 wounded, including two US soldiers, in a suicide attack in north Afghanistan, officials say.
Dec 28	Children killed in Afghan attack A suicide bombing at an Afghan government building near a school kill at least seven people including children, police say.
Dec 26	Coalition Kills 11 Suspected Taliban Militants Darah Hansen, Canwest News Service: "Coalition forces killed 11 men and detained two others following an early-morning gun battle that broke out Friday in the Maiwand district, west of Kandahar City. All those killed in the operation were suspected Taliban militants believed to be responsible for multiple deadly attacks on both coalition soldiers and Afghan civilians using improvised explosive devices, according to US army spokesman, Col. Jerry O'Hara." 'Viagra lure' for Afghan warlords America's CIA has found a novel way to gain information from fickle Afghan warlords - supplying sex-enhancing drug Viagra, a US media report says.
Dec 25	Nato help sought to guard graves Afghanistan seeks Nato's help in guarding mass graves which are believed to contain the remains of over 2,000 Taleban prisoners.
Dec 24	UK marine killed on Christmas Eve A Royal Marine was killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, the Ministry of Defence says. Instability, Violence Threaten Upcoming Afghan Elections Anand Gopal, The Christian Science Monitor: "Evidence of fraud and poor security conditions are raising concerns that Afghanistan's presidential elections next fall could be compromised. With Afghans scheduled to go to the polls in less than a year, the country's Independent Elections Commission (IEC) is in the midst of a massive voter registration drive that will continue until early February. Election officials are watching registration numbers closely because low registration could delay or derail the presidential polls." Local Defense Militias Planned for Afghanistan Yochi J. Dreazen, The Wall Street Journal: "The Afghan government will formally start a US-funded effort to recruit armed local militias in the battle against the Taliban in remote parts of the country, exporting the tactic to Afghanistan from Iraq."
Dec 22	US to double military forces in Afghanistan US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen announced Saturday that the Pentagon will nearly double the number of US troops engaged in the occupation and colonial-style war in Afghanistan. The announcement is in line with the policy advanced by Democratic President-elect Barack Obama to shift American military resources to the “real front” in the “global war on terrorism.”
Dec 20	Corruption Destroys Afghanistan Michael Winship, Truthout: "Just when you've finally gotten your mind around the enormous $700 billion financial bailout - even if none of us are really sure where all that money's going - there comes an even greater, breathtaking price tag." Afghan blast kills Danish troops Three Danish soldiers are killed, and one injured, in Afghanistan when their vehicle is hit by a roadside bomb or mine.
Dec 19	Pentagon Seeks Private Firm to Oversee Contractors Walter Pincus, The Washington Post: "Shortly after an inspector general questioned the practice of the Pentagon issuing contracts to administer contracts, the US Army began advertising this week for an American firm to manage oversight of private security companies in Afghanistan."
Dec 18	US Military to Launch Pilot Program to Recruit New Local Afghan Militias Anna Mulrine, US News & World Report: "The U.S. military will soon launch a pilot program to raise local militias, paid by the Pentagon, in an effort to improve security throughout the country. The plan is modeled in part on a similar program in Iraq to build up Sunni neighborhood militias. But officials warn that the forces must be carefully vetted to avoid repeating the mistakes of Afghanistan's past, notably bolstering local warlords."
Dec 17	What's Next for Afghanistan? Friday on Bill Moyers Journal: "As a new administration is set to take over in the White House, Bill Moyers checks in with author Sarah Chayes on the state of affairs in America's other war in Afghanistan. An author and former journalist, Chayes has lived the last seven years in Afghanistan, helping to rebuild the country."
Dec 16	Afghanistan: A Way Forward Maya Schenwar: Truthout: "Last week, with President-elect Obama's blessing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the beginning of a troop 'surge' in Afghanistan. As the US embarks on a slow redeployment of troops away from the widely condemned occupation of Iraq - though that occupation is not by any means ending - it is easy to frame Afghanistan as a milder war, a war that can even, perhaps, be 'won.' However, sending more American forces to Afghanistan is a peculiar first project for a supposedly peacemaking president-elect, according to Stephen Kinzer, a former New York Times correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents, and has written extensively on US interventionism around the world."
Dec 15	Taliban Tax: Allied Convoys Pay Enemies for Safe Passage Tom Coghlan, The Times Online UK: "The West is indirectly funding the insurgency in Afghanistan thanks to a system of payoffs to Taleban commanders who charge protection money to allow convoys of military supplies to reach Nato bases in the south of the country." Bush hails Afghan 'hopeful gains' US President George W Bush speaks of "hopeful gains" in Afghanistan, as he makes his last visit before leaving office.
Dec 13	UN Confirms Afghan Mass Grave Site Disturbed Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press: "The UN confirmed Friday that a mass grave in northern Afghanistan has been disturbed, raising the possibility that evidence supporting allegations of a massacre seven years ago may have been removed. The Dasht-e-Leili grave site holds as many as 2,000 bodies of Taliban prisoners who died in transit after surrendering during one of the regime's last stands in November 2001, according to a State Department report from 2002." Brown in tribute to dead marines Gordon Brown in Afghanistan to visit troops, pays tribute to four Royal Marines killed in two explosions. US military prepares for Obama’s expansion of Afghan war The US military and allied forces in Afghanistan are making feverish preparations for an influx of tens of thousands more American troops during the first months of the Obama presidency. Most of the reinforcements will be in place by the end of the harsh Afghan winter, in anticipation of a "spring offensive" in March and April by the burgeoning anti-occupation insurgency led by the Islamist Taliban movement.
Dec 12	Washington urges Canada to wage war in Afghanistan beyond 2011 US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged Canada to continue its leading role in the Afghan war beyond 2011. Canada has deployed close to 3,000 troops, tanks, and, in recent weeks, an air wing, comprised of combat helicopters and drones, to the south Afghan province of Kandahar, which is a center of the insurgency against the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan. Suspected US Strike Kills Six in Pakistan The Associated Press: "A suspected US strike killed six people Thursday on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, a lawless region believed to be a stronghold of al-Qaeda, two intelligence officials said.
Dec 11	US to Increase Troops in Afghanistan Elisabeth Bumiller, The New York Times: "Defense secretary Robert M. Gates said here on Thursday that the Pentagon, which plans to send 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, was trying to get thousands of the additional combat forces into the country as soon as next spring, a sign of the seriousness of the threat facing the United States against the Taliban. The soldiers were requested by Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top commander in Afghanistan. The first of them, about 3,500 to 4,000 troops from the Third Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, N.Y., are scheduled to arrive next month." US details Afghan reinforcements The US hopes to get three combat brigades into Afghanistan by the summer, Defence Secretary Robert Gates says US details Afghan reinforcements The US hopes to get three combat brigades into Afghanistan by the summer, Defence Secretary Robert Gates says.
Dec 10	US Forces Mistakenly Kill Six Afghan Police Kirk Semple, The New York Times: "American forces killed six Afghan police officers and one civilian Wednesday during an assault on the hideout of a suspected Taliban commander, in what a senior military spokesman called a 'tragic case of mistaken identity,' the authorities said. Thirteen Afghan security officers were wounded in the incident. A statement issued jointly by the American and Afghan military commands said a contingent of police officers fired on American forces after the Americans had successfully overrun the hideout, killing the suspected Taliban commander and detaining another man."
Dec 8	Suspected Taliban Militants Destroy 160 NATO Vehicles in Pakistan Riaz Khan, The Associated Press: "Militants blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line, officials said. The US military said its losses in the raid near the northwestern city of Peshawar would have only a 'minimal' impact on its operations against resurgent Taliban-led militants in Afghanistan." Presence of Taleban 'spreading' The Taleban has a permanent presence in nearly 75% of Afghanistan, a report says, findings the government rejects. Insurgent attacks on NATO trucks highlight US military crisis in Afghanistan A series of attacks on US and NATO military equipment depots in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Sunday and Monday have underscored the increasingly dire security situation facing American and allied forces conducting the counterinsurgency war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Dec 7	Militants torch Afghan supplies More than 90 lorries supplying Western forces in Afghanistan are set on fire in a suspected militant attack in Pakistan, police say.
Dec 6	Afghanistan: A rise in civilian deaths and foreign troop fatalities During the month of November, a further seven British soldiers—including two Ghurkhas—were killed in fighting resulting from the US-led military occupation of Afghanistan.
Dec 5	Afghan Women Leaders Face Growing Taliban Threats Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press: "The women gave a news conference but requested that no one take pictures of their faces. The office of one of them asked reporters not to publish her name. It was a lot of secrecy for a media event, but it is a dangerous time to be a powerful woman in Afghanistan."
Dec 4	Who Are the Taliban? Anand Gopal, TomDispatch.com: "If there is an exact location marking the West's failures in Afghanistan, it is the modest police checkpoint that sits on the main highway 20 minutes south of Kabul. The post signals the edge of the capital, a city of spectacular tension, blast walls, and standstill traffic. Beyond this point, Kabul's gritty, low-slung buildings and narrow streets give way to a vast plain of serene farmland hemmed in by sandy mountains. In this valley in Logar province, the American-backed government of Afghanistan no longer exists." Afghan suicide blasts 'kill four' A double suicide attack leaves at least four people dead in the south-eastern Afghan town of Khost, officials say.
Dec 2	Fallout Will Hit Obama's Afghan Plan Maleeha Lodhi, The Independent UK: "The terrorist attacks in Mumbai have dramatised how the urgent will often take precedence over the important for the incoming Obama administration. The attacks have plunged relations between Pakistan and India into unpredictable territory just when a series of policy reviews in Washington are focussed on overhauling strategy in Afghanistan. With Afghanistan in a 'downward spiral' Washington is groping for a new strategy."
Dec 1	Gen. Jim Jones: What Kool-Aid Will He Offer Obama? Steve Weissman, Truthout: "'We believe that success in Afghanistan remains a critical national security imperative for the United States and the international community.' That's quite a mouthful, I know, and the awkward syntax should alert readers to what a gargantuan task General Jones has in mind for the incoming administration." Al-Qaeda Succeeding in Pakistan Sara Daniel, Le Nouvel Observateur: "At Washington's request, the Pakistani army has grudgingly undertaken to reestablish its authority in the tribal regions where Afghan Taliban and bin Laden's fighters move around freely. But the multiple blunders of American bombing are not helping Islamabad to fight against jihadists' growing influence ..." Pakistan May Move Troops From Afghan to Indian Border Saed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers: "Pakistan has warned that it will divert troops fighting the Taliban and al Qaida on its western border with Afghanistan to its eastern frontier with India, as tensions over the terror attacks in Mumbai push India and Pakistan towards military confrontation. Washington may be forced to mediate as Indian officials declared that their country was being put on a virtual war footing. Indian officials have squarely blamed Pakistan while its media have reported detailed but unconfirmed accounts from unnamed security officials, that last week's assault on the commercial capital Mumbai was planned and launched from Pakistan."

Nov 30	Taleban's ex-spokesman shot dead Former high-profile spokesman for the Taleban, Mohammad Hanif, is shot dead in eastern Afghanistan, officials say.
Nov 28	Afghan Leader Demands Plan for NATO Withdrawal Candace Rondeaux, The Washington Post: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sharply criticized the United States and NATO, demanding a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces. Karzai's comments came late Tuesday in a speech to a U.N. Security Council delegation visiting Kabul, the capital, this week. He accused the international community of failing 'to fight the Taliban properly' since the U.S.-led war in the country began in 2001." Sharp drop in Afghan poppy crop There is a sharp decrease in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, according to the latest report by UN.
Nov 27	Afghan Police: Four Dead in Blast Near US Embassy Amir Shah and Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press: "A suicide car bomber targeting an American convoy exploded about 200 yards (meters) outside the US Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least four Afghan bystanders as people entered the compound for a Thanksgiving Day race." Kabul 'bomb attack' on US embassy A suspected suicide bomber strikes near the entrance to the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, reports say.
Nov 26	Pakistan 'mulls US drone action' Pakistan's PM Yousuf Raza Gilani says his government is 'considering various options' to counter attacks by US drones inside its territory.
Nov 25	Arrests after Afghan acid attack The authorities in southern Afghanistan arrest 10 men accused of spraying acid in the faces of a group of schoolgirls.
Nov 24	Top UN team assesses Afghanistan A top-level UN delegation arrives in Afghanistan to assess security and discuss how to use $20bn pledged from donors.
Nov 22	Once More Fear Stalks the Streets of Kandahar Robert Fisk, The Independent: "Obama wants to send 7,000 more American troops to this disaster zone. Does he have the slightest idea what is going on in Afghanistan? For if he did, he would send 7,000 doctors." Suspected US Drone Kills 4 in Pakistan CNN: "A suspected missile strike from a US Predator drone killed at least four people at a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan region early Saturday."
Nov 19	Suspected US Missiles Strike Deep Inside Pakistan Munir Ahmad, The Associated Press: "A suspected American missile bombarded a village deep inside Pakistani territory Wednesday, officials said, marking what appears to be the first time the U.S. has struck beyond the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan."
Nov 18	Taleban reject Karzai peace plan Taleban militants in Afghanistan reject an offer of peace talks from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Nov 17	Operation Enduring Disaster: Breaking With Afghan Policy Tariq Ali, TomDispatch.com: "Afghanistan has been almost continuously at war for 30 years, longer than both World Wars and the American war in Vietnam combined. Each occupation of the country has mimicked its predecessor. A tiny interval between wars saw the imposition of a malignant social order, the Taliban, with the help of the Pakistani military and the late Benazir Bhutto, the prime minister who approved the Taliban takeover in Kabul. Over the last two years, the US/NATO occupation of that country has run into serious military problems." Pakistani military launches new offensive in border areas Since August, a Pakistani military offensive against Islamist militants of the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban, has laid waste to the tribal agency of Bajaur and the adjoining Swat Valley region of North West Frontier Province (NWFP)
Nov 16	UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier from the Royal Ghurkha Rifles dies after his patrol hits an explosive device in southern Afghanistan.
Nov 15	'US raid kills eight' in Pakistan Missiles fired by a suspected US drone kill at least eight militants in a Pakistani tribal region, local officials say.
Nov 14	Missiles Hit Pakistan, Chaos Continues Simon Cameron-Moore, Reuters: "Militants shot and wounded two foreign journalists on the outskirts of Peshawar on Friday, and U.S. missiles killed 12 people in a strike on a Pakistani Taliban commander's stronghold in tribal lands bordering Afghanistan."
Nov 13	Twenty-One Killed in Attack on US Convoy in Afghanistan Rahim Faiez, The Associated Press: "A suicide bomber rammed his car into a U.S. military convoy as it was passing through a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 20 civilians and an American soldier, officials said. The attack outside Jalalabad, the capital of the eastern Nangarhar province, also wounded 74 civilians, said Ajmal Pardes, a provincial health official." UK marines killed in Afghan blast Two Royal Marines have been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says. Journalist details Afghan kidnap A Canadian journalist held hostage for 28 days in Afghanistan gives her first interview since she was freed.
Nov 12	Don't Let Barack Obama Break Your Heart Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "On the day that Americans turned out in near record numbers to vote, a record was set halfway around the world. In Afghanistan, a US Air Force strike wiped out about 40 people in a wedding party. This represented at least the sixth wedding party eradicated by American air power in Afghanistan and Iraq since December 2001." US aid worker killed in Pakistan Gunmen kill an American aid worker and his driver in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say. 'Three dead' in Afghan bomb blast At least three people are killed and 30 wounded in a bomb blast in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, police say.
Nov 10	Afghan transport minister sacked Afghan President Hamid Karzai fires his transport minister "for carrying out suspicious activities", his office says.
Nov 8	Pakistan releases Taleban in swap Pakistan sets free three Taleban militants, including an important Taleban commander, officials say.
Nov 7	Another US massacre in Afghanistan An Afghan government investigation into US air strikes carried out on Monday in the province of Kandahar has found that at least 37 civilians taking part in a wedding celebration were massacred. Another 30 people or more—men, women and children—were injured. The investigation also claimed that 26 insurgents fighting for the former Islamist Taliban regime were killed. Afghanistan bans street begging The government in Afghanistan bans begging on the country's streets, saying beggars are vulnerable to crime.
Nov 6	First Gurkha dies in Afghanistan A British Army soldier killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan is named as Yubraj Rai by defence officials.
Nov 5	US Airstrike Reported to Hit Afghan Wedding Abdul Waheed Wafa and Mark McDonald, The New York Times: "An airstrike by United States-led forces killed 40 civilians and wounded 28 others at a wedding party in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Wednesday. The casualties included women and children, the officials said." 'Many dead' in Afghan air strike American officials in Afghanistan confirm that a number of civilians have been killed and injured in an air strike in the south.
Nov 3	Gunmen seize French man in Kabul A French aid worker is kidnapped and a driver who intervened is killed, in the Afghan capital, Kabul, police say.
Nov 2	Minister 'horrified' by SAS claim A minister rejects an SAS commander's complaints UK troops in Afghanistan have not been given proper equipment.

Oct 31	Suspected US Missile Strikes Kill 27 in Pakistan Ishtiaq Mashud, The Associated Press: "Intelligence officials say suspected US missiles have hit two houses in northwest Pakistan, killing 27 people. "
Oct 30	Suicide attack at Afghan ministry A suicide bomber blows himself up at a ministry in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing himself and four others, police say.
Oct 27	Australia probes Afghan killings Australia investigates a report that up to 20 deported Afghan asylum seekers were killed by the Taleban after returning home.
Oct 25	Three shot dead in Afghan capital Gunmen kill three people in the Afghan capital, Kabul, including two foreigners, days after an aid worker was shot dead.
Oct 24	The Case Against the Escalation of the War in Afghanistan Camillo "Mac" Bica, Truthout: "Despite some subtle nuances regarding a timetable for the phased withdrawal of at least a portion of the combat troops from Iraq, the positions of both John McCain and Barack Obama regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are quite similar. Under both their plans, American young men and women, despite their eventually being withdrawn from Iraq - 'with honor' for McCain, 'responsibly' for Obama - will not be returning home but, rather, redeployed to another battlefield upon which to continue to kill or be killed. Both candidates have promised a surge in Afghanistan, and a commitment to continue the 'war on terrorism' until our enemies, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, perhaps Iran, are defeated and Osama Bin Laden is killed or captured."
Oct 23	Officials: Suspected US Strike Kills 11 in Pakistan Agence France-Presse: "Suspected US spy drones fired missiles early Thursday into a school set up by a top Taliban commander in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing 11 people, security officials said. The air strike apparently targeting veteran militant Jalaluddin Haqqani, a major target for US forces, was the latest in a string of attacks on Pakistani soil that have raised tensions between Islamabad and Washington." 'US missiles' hit Pakistan school A suspected US missile strike kills at least eight students at a religious school in north-western Pakistan, witnesses say.
Oct 22	Foreign Troops Kill Nine Afghan Soldiers: Ministry Elyas Wahdat, Reuters: "Foreign troops killed nine Afghan soldiers in a mistaken air strike in the southeast of the country overnight, the Afghan Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. The US military confirmed Afghan soldiers may have been killed and wounded in a case of mistaken identity but said it did not have any casualty figures."
Oct 21	Pakistan: Meeting With the Uzbin Taliban Sara Daniel, Le Nouvel Observateur: "Our special envoy Sara Daniel met up with the Taliban leaders responsible for the ambush two months ago in which the French soldiers fell not in Kunar's rough mountains, but in their comfortable residences in a great Pakistani city. Their remarks show that the 'students of religion' have entered the era of global communication and their freedom of movement confirms the spread of their belligerent Islam all the way into the heart of the Pakistani administration."
Oct 20	Taliban Kill Dozens in Brazen Bus Hijacking Jessica Leeder, The Globe and Mail: "Police and government officials in Kandahar are accusing the Taliban of slaughtering nearly 30 civilians - some of whom were decapitated - in a brazen bus attack staged outside the city. The attacks happened as the group was traveling west in a two-bus convoy in Maywand district, along the dangerous highway that connects Kandahar and Helmand provinces. The area is known as a hotbed for militants." Afghanistan's Emerging Antiwar Movement Anand Gopal, The Christian Science Monitor: "In a musty room near the edge of town, a group of bearded men sit on the floor and heatedly discuss strategy. The men are in the planning stages of an event that they hope will impact Afghan politics - a peace jirga, or assembly, that will agitate for the end of the war between the Taliban and Afghan government by asking the two sides to come to a settlement. 'People are growing tired of the fighting,' says Bakhtar Aminzai of the National Peace Jirga of Afghanistan, an association of students, professors, lawyers, clerics, and others. 'We need to pressure the Afghan government and the international community to find a solution without using guns.'" UK charity worker killed in Kabul A female aid worker with British and South African citizenship is shot dead in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Oct 15	Taleban raid on key Afghan town At least 18 Taleban militants are killed in a second major attack on a southern Afghan town this week, officials say.
Oct 14	Three NATO Soldiers, 16 Afghans Killed in Bomb Blasts Amir Shah, The Associated Press: "In a demonstration of the increasingly deadly attacks [in Afghanistan], a roadside blast in the east where U.S. soldiers operate killed three NATO troops, while two separate roadside bombs in the south killed 16 Afghan civilians, officials said. In Afghanistan, militant attacks have turned deadlier and more sophisticated this year, part of the reason more U.S. and NATO troops have died there in 2008 than in any year since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion."
Oct 12	Taleban killed in Afghan battles Dozens of Taleban militants are killed by security forces in fighting in southern Afghanistan, local and British officials say. 'US missiles' hit Pakistan town At least four people die in a missile attack on a town in a Pakistani tribal region near Afghanistan, officials say.
Oct 10	Nato to target Afghan drugs trade Nato allows its troops to attack opium factories for the first time in Afghanistan to help stem the flow of funds to the Taleban.
Oct 9	The Surge That Failed: Afghanistan Under the Bombs Anand Gopal, TomDispatch.com: "A bit past midnight on a balmy night in late August, Hedayatullah awoke to a deafening blast. He stumbled out of bed and heard angry voices drawing closer. Suddenly, his bedroom doors banged open and dozens of silhouetted figures burst in, some shouting in a strange language." US Study Is Said to Warn of Crisis in Afghanistan Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt, The New York Times: "A draft report by American intelligence agencies concludes that Afghanistan is in a 'downward spiral' and casts serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban's influence there, according to American officials familiar with the document." US admits higher Afghan raid toll A US military inquiry finds that an air strike in Afghanistan in August killed many more civilians than first acknowledged.
Oct 8	Military Admits Killing 30 Afghan Civilians Eric Schmitt, The New York Times: "An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to two American military officials. The military investigator’s report found that more than 30 civilians - not 5 to 7 as the military has long insisted - died in the airstrikes against a suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad." Karzai's brother 'met ex-Taleban' The Afghan president's brother met former Taleban leaders at a religious meal hosted by the Saudi king, the BBC learns.
Oct 7	UN Agrees Afghan War Cannot Be Won Militarily Jonathon Burch, Reuters: "The war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and success is only possible through political means including dialogue among all relevant parties, the United Nation's top official in the country said on Monday. His comments come after Britain's military commander in Afghanistan said the war could not be won and that the goal was to reduce the insurgency to a level where it was no longer a strategic threat and could be dealt with by the Afghan army. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said if the Taliban were willing to talk, that might be 'precisely the sort of progress' needed to end the insurgency." US renounces Afghan 'defeatism' US Defence Secretary Robert Gates rejects as 'defeatist' a comment by a top British commander that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won.
Oct 6	Afghan victory hopes played down Britain's military commander in Helmand has warned that there will be no "decisive victory" in Afghanistan. Pakistanis bury 'US strike' dead Pakistani villagers gather the remains of at least 20 people killed by a reported US air strike, including suspected Arab militants.
Oct 3	Talking to the Taliban? Le Monde's editorialist considers the implications of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's overtures to the Taliban.
Oct 1	Leaked Memo Questions War Strategy in Afghanistan Charles Bremner and Richard Beeston, The Times UK: "The official version of the US-led campaign in Afghanistan received a blow today with a leaked report that the British Ambassador in Kabul believes that US strategy is wrong and the war is as good as lost. The potentially explosive views were published by Le Canard Enchaîné, a respected French weekly, which said that they were direct quotations from a diplomatic cable written by François Fitou, the French Deputy Ambassador in Kabul." US drone 'kills six' in Pakistan Pakistani security officials say at least six people were killed by missiles fired from a US drone in a north-west border region.

Sep 25	Pakistani Military Probes US Drone Crash Agence France-Presse: "Pakistan's army said Wednesday that it was investigating the crash of a suspected unmanned US spy plane amid claims by tribesmen they had shot it down near the Afghan border. The crash late Tuesday in the tribal zone of South Waziristan, a safe haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, came as tensions grew between Washington and Islamabad over US missile strikes and incursions on Pakistani soil." Pakistan and US Troops Exchange Fire Fisnik Abrashi, The Associated Press: "Pakistani troops fired at American reconnaissance helicopters near the Afghan-Pakistan border Thursday, and ground troops then exchanged fire, the US military said."
Sep 22	A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan Pamela Constable, The Washington Post: "Just one year ago, the Taliban insurgency was a furtive, loosely organized guerrilla force that carried out hit-and-run ambushes, burned empty schools, left warning letters at night and concentrated attacks in the southern rural regions of its ethnic and religious heartland. Today it is a larger, better armed and more confident militia, capable of mounting sustained military assaults. Its forces operate in virtually every province and control many districts in areas ringing the capital. Its fighters have bombed embassies and prisons, nearly assassinated the president, executed foreign aid workers and hanged or beheaded dozens of Afghans." Pakistani Troops Fire at US Choppers as Tensions Rise Augustine Anthony, Reuters: "Pakistani troops fired on two U.S. helicopters that intruded into Pakistani airspace on Sunday night, forcing them to turn back to Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani security official said on Monday. It was the second such incident in a week, and reflects frayed relations with the United States over Pakistan's failure to act more forcibly against Islamist fighters in the tribal lands bordering Afghanistan. The number of missile attacks by U.S. drone aircraft in the remote tribal areas has multiplied in recent weeks." Pakistan troops 'repel US raid' Pakistani troops fire shots into the air to stop US helicopters crossing the border from Afghanistan, local officials say
Sep 16	Bush's War Widens Dangerously Tariq Ali, TomDispatch.com: "The decision to make public a presidential order of last July authorizing American strikes inside Pakistan without seeking the approval of the Pakistani government ends a long debate within, and on the periphery of, the Bush administration."
Sep 15	Pakistan Says US Forces Repulsed by Military Reuters: "Firing by Pakistani troops forced two US military helicopters to turn back to Afghanistan after they crossed into Pakistani territory early on Monday, Pakistani security officials said."
Sep 14	UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A soldier has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
Sep 13	Afghan provincial governor killed The governor of the Afghan province of Logar is killed in bomb attack near Kabul, officials say. 'Another US strike' hits Pakistan Five civilians and seven militants are killed in Pakistan in a suspected US missile attack, local officials say.
Sep 12	US strike 'hits Pakistan Taleban' At least 12 people - mostly Taleban - are killed in a suspected US missile strike in Pakistan, officials say. Bush 'approved' Pakistan attacks President Bush approved US military raids on militants inside Pakistan without Islamabad's agreement, the BBC learns.
Sep 11	UK soldier killed in Afghanistan A British soldier is killed in an explosion in southern Helmand province in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says.
Sep 10	Terror of a Different Kind Nushin Arbabzadah, The Guardian UK: An examination of why many Afghan women are engaging in self-immolation.
Sep 9	Video Contradicts US Casualty Reports of Airstrike Fisnik Abrashi, The Associated Press: "The bodies of at least 10 children and many more adults covered in blankets and white shrouds appear in videos obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, lending weight to Afghan and U.N. allegations that a U.S.-led raid last month killed more civilians than the U.S. reported." The Afghan Impasse and How to Get Out of It Christophe Jaffrelot, Le Monde: The French political scientist identifies the failures of the West's strategy in Afghanistan and suggests Western candor with regard to its objectives in the country and a sharp revision of military strategy accompanied by a new diplomatic component. Bush to Decrease Troops in Iraq, Increase in Afghanistan Agence France-Presse: "US President George W. Bush was to say Tuesday he will bring home 8,000 of the 144,000 US troops now in Iraq over the coming months, with abou

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As US, NATO causalities mount Pentagon to press for more troops in Afghan war After the deadliest month since the Afghan war began, US military commanders are planning to press for more troops in order to mount a counterinsurgency campaign in the Central Asian country.

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