Afghanistan/Pakistan
NSN Cited In The Times and Democrat (SC) On Defining Victory In Afghanistan
February 5, 2012
Local unit’s departure reminder that Afghan war solution essential By The Times and Democrat Editorial Board February 5, 2012 | The Times and Democrat THE ISSUE: War in Afghanistan OUR OPINION: U.S. must press the issue in defining ‘victory’ A decade of war in Afghanistan has the United States and its allies looking for a [...]
Putting Afghans in the Lead
February 2, 2012
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the U.S. will shift its primary mission from combat to advising and training Afghan security forces next year. Defense experts have said for the last year that such a shift represents the best way to protect long-term U.S. interests at a reasonable cost. Moving from a combat to [...]
Afghan Counterinsurgency Moves to Negotiating Table
February 1, 2012
Yesterday, the administration briefed Senators on a possible transfer of Taliban detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay as part of negotiations with the Taliban. A prisoner transfer would be a standard confidence-building measure of the sort laid out by a bipartisan group of experts last year in a report on negotiating peace in Afghanistan. [...]
Heather Hurlburt Quoted In Politico On Romney Foreign Policy
January 19, 2012
“Petraeus, McChrystal, every commander has said the ultimate solution in Afghanistan is political, not military. So someone will end up talking to the Taliban, whether a President Romney acknowledges it or not,” said Heather Hurlburt, who heads the National Security Network, a Democratic group. “It’s the kind of posturing that may be effective with the primary electorate but will be quite embarrassing if he winds up in office.”
Talking to the Taliban is in America’s Interest
At tonight’s debate GOP debate in South Carolina, Mitt Romney will have another chance to explain his thoughts about how to manage the war in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Romney disagreed with the opinions of his own advisors by saying, “The right course for America is not to negotiate with the Taliban.” Such an attitude [...]
Heather Hurlburt’s “Will Romney Defend Our Turkish Allies?” Featured On RealClearWorld’s Best Of Blogs
January 18, 2012
Heather Hurlburt’s blog post “Will Romney Defend Our Turkish Allies?” on the National Security Network’s Democracy Arsenal blog was featured on RealClearWorld’s Best of Blogs list for January 18, 2012.
Civilian Tools for AfPak
December 5, 2011
Nearly 1,000 delegates from more than 100 countries, including some 60 foreign ministers, are meeting today in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future of Afghanistan. With both Pakistani and Taliban leaders absent, expectations are modest. The conference is a reminder that, as Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) writes, a successful transition in Afghanistan rests on continued political and economic engagement that focuses on building a legitimate and effective state, even as NATO military presence winds down. An acceptable solution also needs regional buy-in, first and foremost from recalcitrant Pakistan. Here, too, resources should be aimed toward empowering civilians and making clear that Pakistan’s other choice is international isolation, not just punishing the security apparatus. As former Congresswoman Jane Harman writes, “Congress should not confuse security aid to the Pakistani military with economic assistance designed to shore up civilian political capacity.”
Kabul Attacks and the Challenge of Transition
October 31, 2011
This weekend, a suicide bomber blew up an armored bus in the capital of Afghanistan, killing 17 people, including 13 Americans. That attack is one more tragic event in a mixed picture where violence in Afghanistan is trending. While the Pentagon sees fewer insurgent-initiated attacks, the UN notes a rise in civilian casualties. No attack should derail the essential process of transition to Afghan authority – on security but also in politics and the economy. The first of two international conferences aimed at coordinating the transition process begins this week in Istanbul, Turkey. That conference will focus on security, good governance and economic growth. Governance, specifically, is an area that needs strengthening for the handover to be successful. As a Pentagon report noted last week, the government of Afghanistan has made only “limited progress” towards being sustainable and accountable.
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Paul Eaton Quoted in Huffington Post on Diplomacy in Afghanistan
October 7, 2011
Major General Paul Eaton, who served in Iraq and now works for a think tank in Washington D.C., says the reason that progress is slow in Afghanistan is that our diplomatic efforts have been MIA. “We are not going to kill our way out of this problem,” Eaton says.
Eaton claims that since World War II, the U.S. has had a history of getting involved in wars where the outcome is uncertain and victory is indefinable. He points to Korea, which is still unresolved after the Korean War of the 1950′s. “We’ve agreed to the existence of North Korea and South Korea [but] a state of war persists”
Eaton says we need a more regional approach where we get everyone to the table who has a vested interest in the outcome of the war in Afghanistan: Iran, India, Pakistan, China, Turkey. He says Turkey is an especially key player that we should be talking to because they’re a Muslim country with a “western approach to doing business.”
Well, I asked him, why haven’t we been able to get those countries to the table?
He said “you’ll have to ask the secretary of state that question.”
A Decade of War
October 6, 2011
This week marks the tenth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, waged in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. America has accomplished, by and large, what we set out to do. Through the exceptional efforts of our fighting men and women, as well as their civilian counterparts, we have decimated al Qaeda, including [...]
