Afghanistan met General Guthrie's 'just war' criteria! Sir John Keegan, military historian, thought 'orientals' prefered treachery and deceit as the best ways to overcome an enemy!
Veteran Catholic economist donning Neo-Con plummage, Michael Novak, rationalised "that a limited and carefully conducted war to bring about a change of regime in Afghanistan was morally obligatory."
2nd May 2012
Con Cohglin in the Evening Standard: With the deaths of another three British soldiers in Afghanistan this week, it is perhaps worth reflecting on the conclusions the young Winston Churchill reached about the futility of waging war there. “Financially it is ruinous. Morally it is wicked. Militarily it is an open question, and politically it is a blunder.”...his summary of the British effort in the 19th century eerily echoes the sentiments many British soldiers must now feel as they seek to wind down operations in Afghanistan... http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/con-coughlin-winston-churchills-afghanistan-torment-haunts-us-once-more-8600516.html
29th April 2013
John Quelly in CommonDreams.org: Confirming what many policy experts have known for some time, a New York Times headline in Monday's print edition describes how the most corrupting influence within the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai is not innate cronyism or tribal favoritism, but rather the suitcases full of US cash delivered to the Presidential Palace over the last decade by the CIA. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/29
27th April 2013
Fatima Manji, Channel 4: "The RAF has begun piloting drones used in Afghanistan from UK soil for the first time. This is by no means the UK's first foray into the world of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in warfare, but in the past the vehicles have been piloted offshore...Chris Nineham, vice-chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, claimed drones were being used to continue the 'deeply unpopular war on terror' with no public scrutiny." http://www.channel4.com/news/drones-protest-at-raf-base-over-behind-our-backs-war
12th April 2013
Lucy Morgan Edwards in the Guardian: ...The facts on the ground include the militias the west has set up in the countryside in a desperate attempt to shore up the barely legitimate Karzai regime. ...Using the maxim "My enemy's enemy is my friend", the US military took sides in a continuing civil war and co-opted the strongmen of the Northern Alliance. In theory, this was to reduce the need for American "boots on the ground".
They were unpopular, having committed war crimes during the civil war. But instead of sidelining them, the US and UK re-empowered them with cash and weapons and made them the allies' sole reference points..." http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/12/civil-war-price-afghans-criminals-west
11th April 2013
Richard Norton-Taylor and Sam Jones in the Guardian: "[Defence Secretary] Hammond told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the UK had intervened in Afghanistan to protect its national security and had never intended to stay for a protracted period.
'Afghanistan is an incredibly complex society; a multiethnic society that was very fragmented before we started,' he said. 'Our ability to influence outcomes is very limited'...Former British ambassadors to Afghanistan told the Commons committee that Nato's understanding of the Taliban was limited, that 'corruption and abuse of power was intrinsic in Afghan society' and that the country's economy depended heavily on the drugs trade." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/afghanistan-future-uncertain-hammond
4th April 2013
BBC: A Nato air strike in Afghanistan has killed four policemen and a civilian, officials say. The air strike took place in the eastern Ghazni province, where Nato planes had been called in for support. A spokesman for the provincial governor told the BBC the policemen were in civilian clothes and may have been mistaken for Taliban fighters. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22025551
2nd April 2013
Emma Graham-Harrrison & Julian Borger: "But as western generals and politicians who once dreamed of crushing the Taliban militarily have reconciled themselves to the idea of negotiating instead, the insurgents themselves have remained more elusive, attacking top government negotiators and refusing to publicly embrace talks." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/02/afghanistan-peace-deal-taliban-talks?cmp=wp-plugin
31st March 2013
Agencies report in the Guardian: "A Nato helicopter has reportedly killed two children during an attack on Taliban fighters.The helicopter opened fire as it supported Afghan soldiers near the town of Ghazni in south-east Afghanistan, despite president Hamid Karzai forbidding troops to call for foreign air support." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/30/nato-air-strike-children-afghanistan
25th March 2013
The Guardian reports: "he US secretary of state, John Kerry, has flown into Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to see Hamid Karzai amid concerns that the Afghan president may be jeopardising progress in the war against extremism with anti-American rhetoric." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/25/john-kerry-surprise-visit-afghanistan
11th March 2013
AP in NYT: "Karzai ordered U.S. special operations forces to leave Wardak province, just outside the Afghan capital, because of allegations that Afghans working with the U.S. commandos were involved in abusive behaviour. Karzai gave them two weeks to leave, and the deadline expired Sunday. On Sunday, Karzai accused U.S. forces of working with the Taliban to stage two suicide bombings over the weekend during the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. In a speech, Karzai said the Americans want to scare Afghans into allowing them to stay." http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/03/11/world/asia/ap-as-afghanistan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes
17th Feb 2013
"I will issue a decree [on Sunday] that no Afghan security forces, in any circumstances can ask for the foreigners' planes for carrying out operations on our homes and villages,'' Mr Karzai said in a speech at the Afghan National Military Academy in Kabul...Most of the 10 civilians killed in the 13 February air strike on Kunar were women and children. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21485635
14th Jan 2013
Nick Hopkins in the Guardian: "Afghanistan now has two years to run and the political will for the campaign has clearly departed stage left. The issue for the military of course is legacy, residual footprint, getting out with good grace and not being seen to have cut and run, to have sacrificed such blood and treasure to no avail." http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/13/political-support-afghan-campaign-email-leak
13th Jan 2013
Simon Jenkins in the Guardian: "Since the drone war began in earnest in 2008, there has been no decline in Taliban or al-Qaida performance attributable to it. Any let-up in recruitment is merely awaiting Nato's departure. The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has called the attacks 'in no way justifiable'. The Pakistan government, at whose territory they are increasingly directed, has withdrawn all permission". http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/10/drones-fools-gold-prolong-wars
2nd Jan 2013
Julian Borger in the Guardian: Afghan attempts to impose stricter vetting of recruits has had mixed results. Brigadier Stuart Skeates, the British deputy commander of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Helmand, believes the problem and its solution may lie deeper.
"Part of the reason why we have had a number of insider attacks, as they're called, is because the soldiers and policemen are susceptible to Taliban messaging; maybe not directly, but they hear stuff on the radio, on the TV," he said. "They hear anecdotes from home. They are susceptible to local mullahs, both at home and here, and are in many cases very suggestible." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/01/afghan-troops-taliban-nato-withdrawal
31st December 2012
Emma Graham-Harrison in the Guardian: The only clue that a base that dominated Pashengar village for years had been abandoned for good was the midnight rumble of a convoy of trucks. In the morning, locals found guards gone, buildings blown up and, scattered around what had been a forbidding military encampment, piles of detritus from years of western living in a remote, mountainous valley. Rows of air conditioning units stuck out of a damaged wall, a giant, dilapidated generator was marooned near shipping containers and twisted, dented vehicles remained. But there was no sign of a cheque for a landlord who said years of rent, running to hundreds of thousands of dollars, was owing to him.
"They stayed six years and only paid rent for one year," said Haji Najibullah Khan... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/30/afghanistan-us-military-rent-land-dispute
20th December 2012
John J Connolly in the Baltimore Sun: "The State Department revealed this month that the United States has detained more than 200 children at its military prison in Afghanistan. I represent one of them, a boy who left his parents' home in Karachi, Pakistan in July 2008, when he was 14, on a trip to his grandparents' house in western Pakistan. He was allegedly captured in Afghanistan a few weeks later and has been 'detained' at Bagram Air Force Base ever since. What frustrates me about the State Department report is not the number of children detained, but that the U.S. won't let me or other lawyers make a case that these children should be released".
10th December 2012
Peter James Spielmann in HuffingtonPost: The U.S. military has detained more than 200 Afghan teenagers who were captured in the war for about a year at a time at a military prison next to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations...
If the average age is 16, "This means it is highly likely that some children were as young as 14 or 13 years old when they were detained by U.S. forces," Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights program, said Friday. "I've represented children as young as 11 or 12 who have been at Bagram," said Tina M. Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, which represents adult and juvenile Bagram detainees... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/afghanistan-teenagers-detained_n_2267248.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
6th December 2012
Emma Graham-Harrison in the Guardian: Nato forces stormed into a clinic in central Afghanistan, damaging doors, windows and medical equipment, before using it as a jail and military command centre, in violation of the Geneva conventions, according to the aid group that runs the facility. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/06/nato-forces-attacked-afghan-health-clinic
6th December 2012
Richard Norton-Taylor and Nick Hopkins in the Guardian: The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, has been asked to launch an urgent inquiry into claims that British forces led a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan during which a 12-year-old boy and three teenagers were shot dead while they were drinking tea. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/04/british-forces-accused-killing-teenagers
16th November 2012
British forces must withdraw from Afghanistan as quickly as possible before any more troops are killed, former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown has said. In a damning assessment of the campaign in Afghanistan, he said allied forces had failed to build a sustainable state and establish a government which was untainted by corruption. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/16/troops-out-afghanistan-paddy-ashdown
6th November 2012
Emma Graham-Harrison and Mokhtar Amiri in the Guardian: "Prosecutors say Bales slipped out of a tiny, remote base that he shared with special forces troops in the early hours of 11 March. Armed with an assault rifle, he then allegedly headed into two poor villages in Kandahar province, the Taliban's heartland, and went on a murderous rampage in which six people were also injured. The atrocity was the worst committed by US forces in Afghanistan since they helped topple the Taliban government in 2001. If found guilty, Bales, a 39-year-old father of two, could be executed". http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/05/robdrt-bales-us-charged-afghan-villagers
29th October 2012
Methodist, Baptist and URC Joint Issues team: "... acting with restraint and in conformity with universally agreed legal principles, is a far surer path to security, and more likely to stem anger and resentment than acting without legal justification. The US and UK are the two largest contributors to ISAF forces in Afghanistan and cooperate closely in intelligence operations in northern Pakistan. There is evidence that the US operations in northern Pakistan encourage extremism and result in increased recruitment to terrorist groups...." http://www.jointpublicissues.org.uk/drones/Drones%20-%20Military%20Force.pdf
23rd October 2012
Reuter reports, "Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday condemned a NATO operation that he said killed four children in the country's east, a claim the coalition said was possible. The operation took place in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province on Saturday, a statement released by Karzai's office said, adding: 'It resulted in the killing of four innocent children' who were tending to livestock". http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/23/us-afghanistan-taliban-idUSBRE89M0N120121023
12th October 2012
Nick Hopkins in the Guardian: "Seven Royal Marines have been arrested on suspicion of murder after one of their colleagues came forward and claimed an insurgent had been killed in a manner that broke the military's strict rules of engagement...The incident happened in Afghanistan's Helmand province last year, but it is thought investigators only began an inquiry in recent weeks when the 'code of silence' among the marines was broken by one of those who is said to have witnessed the alleged crime.". http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/12/royal-marines-arrested-suspicion-murder
2nd October 2012
Simon Jenkins in the Guardian: "Afghanistan has become another war of the Spanish succession, its cause long forgotten by the opponents but an unending parade of pride, money, heroism and national prestige. It is no longer a war of retribution for 9/11, no longer a war of democratic nation building. It is merely a place where soldiers are sent by politicians to pretend to win, even as they die...." http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/02/why-british-soldiers-dying-in-afghanistan
1st October 2012
Ian Traynor in the Guardian: "The retreat of western forces from Afghanistan could come sooner than expected, the head of Nato has said as he conceded that the recent Taliban strategy of 'green on blue'killings had been successful in sapping morale." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/01/nato-forces-afghanistan-early-retreat
20th September 2012
James Jeffrey in the Guardian: "I was minutes from ordering a drone strike on a Taliban insurgent – until I realised I was watching an Afghan child at play...Political theorist Hannah Arendt described the history of warfare in the 20th century as the growing incapacity of the army to fulfil its basic function: defending the civilian population. My experiences in Afghanistan brought this issue to a head, leaving me unable to avoid the realization that my role as a soldier had changed, in Arendt's words, from 'that of protector into that of a belated and essentially futile avenger'. Our collective actions in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 were, and remain, futile vengeance – with drones the latest technological advance to empower that flawed strategy." http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/19/drone-warfare-deadly-civilian-toll
18th September 2012
Chris McGreal, Emma Graham-Harrison and Haroon Siddique in the Guardian: "The Nato-led military strategy in Afghanistan has been thrown into disarray after joint on-the-ground operations were suspended because of a collapse in trust over the killings of Americans and other Nato soldiers by Afghan government forces...The decision, which was announced in Washington, took the UK government by surprise, coming just a day after the defence secretary, Philip Hammond, spoke in defence of Nato's continued work with Afghan troops in parliament. Whitehall sources said British commanders were unaware the announcement was going to be made." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/18/nato-scales-back-operations-afghans
13th September 2012
Nick Hopkins in the Guardian: "The UK has closed 52 of its military bases and checkpoints in Helmand province over the last six months, leaving 34 still operating, he [Defence Secretary Hammond] revealed...Britons would have to 'get used to the idea' that any peace in Afghanistan will need to involve 'reaching out Northern Ireland-style to at least the moderate part of the insurgency, to try to bring it inside through reconciliation and integration'...Accommodating the Taliban in the peace and reconciliation process was vital, he said'." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/13/afghanistan-military-plans-early-withdrawal
12th September 2012
Emma Graham-Harrison in the Guardian: Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, has condemned the film that sparked violence in Libya and Egypt as an abhorrence and insult to all Muslims, warning that it would damage inter-faith relations. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/12/afghan-karzai-film-ridiculing-muhammad
10th September 2012
RUSI News: "The discussions revealed for the first time the emerging consensus of the Taliban leadership, a far more pragmatic picture of the Taliban than has previously been made public, with the Taliban willing to take part in peace negotiations in exchange for political leverage after 2014..." http://www.rusi.org/news/ref:N504D96AB64CE9/#.UE-1JVF5ft0
3rd September 2012
Patrick Coburn in the Independent: "
The British media likewise gives little sense of the extent of Britain's military failure in Afghanistan. The problem about denying that a disaster has happened is that it becomes difficult to stop it happening again". http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-*censored*burn-the-day-a-*censored*burn-set-the-white-house-aflame-8100581.html
2nd September 2012
Reuters reports: US Forces in Afghanistan said on Sunday they have suspended training new recruits to the Afghan Local Police (ALP) amid a spike in the number of insider attacks which are damaging trust between Afghans and their allies. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/02/us-suspends-training-afghan-police
24th August 2012
A US drone attack has killed at least 16 suspected militants in Pakistan's north-western tribal area, Pakistani security officials have said....The attacks came a day after Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned a senior US diplomat in protest at such strikes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19368433
18th June 2012
Nick Hopkins in the Guardian: "The British military is increasingly relying on unmanned drones to wage war against the Taliban, and has fired more than 280 laser-guided Hellfire missiles and bombs at suspected insurgents, new figures reveal..." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/18/british-drones-afghanistan-taliban
9th June 2012
Matt Williams in the Guardian: "The Afghan government has hit out at the US for failing to consult with local forces ahead of an airstrike that killed 18 civilians, suggesting future such raids would be viewed as a breach of its pact with Washington...investigators told the president Afghan forces had surrounded the house prior to the airstrike. But the US troops decided not to wait for them to try and flush out the militants, opting instead for aerial bombardment. It was only later that they discovered that women, children and old men were inside the house. On Friday, the senior American commander in Afghanistan apologised over the incident. " http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/09/afghan-government-warns-us-airstrike
3rd June 2012
AP report in the Guardian: "Ten more people have been killed by a US drone strike against suspected militants in Pakistan, with the aircraft firing its missiles into a gathering mourning one of two fighters killed in a similar atttack the previous day." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/03/american-drones-kill-12-pakistan
27th May 2012
Emma Graham-Harrison in the Guardian: "A Nato air strike has killed eight members of one family at their home in a part of eastern Afghanistan ...[President Karzai] warned earlier this month that the deaths could undermine a deal laying the framework for ties with the US after 2014, when most foreign combat forces will have left Afghanistan". http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/27/afghan-family-killed-nato-strike
