South Asia

Petraeus the Next Eisenhower?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

U.S. President Barack Obama has scaled back the scope of the Afghan war, now about to enter its ninth year, to a limited military objective: deny al-Qaida a safe haven. And since we are now told there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan — the rest are in Pakistan’s tribal areas — a […]

Tempering Afghan Optimism

By Don Snow

The recent announcements and statements of support for President Obama’s “surge” in Afghanistan have left me a bit confused, and I wonder if readers can help me out here. Something just does not compute.

Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy Panel Transcript

Afghanistan Panel Event Speakers: Kimberly Kagan, President, Institute for the Study of War LtCol Gregory Lemons, Atlantic Council Marine Corps Senior Fellow; veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq wars David Sedney, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia Damon Wilson, Vice President and Director, International Security Program, Atlantic Council

Afghanistan Deadline: What Happens in July 2011?

By James Joyner

Most of the postmortems of President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy speech focused on the announcement of an 18 month timetable after which a drawdown and handover to local forces would begin. Opposition Republicans took the president at his word and warned about signaling weakness, whereas critics in his own party saw the deadline as a cynical […]

Afghanistan Debate Over, Now Time to Execute

By James Cook

Although perhaps delivered with less emotion than some would like from such a gifted orator, President Obama delivered his Afghanistan strategy.  We can expect additional strategic and operational details to emerge in the coming weeks but the speech outlined some broad guidelines that military and other planners can use as strategic direction. 

Obama Afghan Plan: A Wing and A Prayer

By Don Snow

On Tuesday night, President Obama announced his new “strategy” for Afghanistan. It held few surprises, just disappointments. The President’s rhetoric soared, as usual. The content did not. Instead, he sent the country down the road with a series of assumptions and plans that can be called, at best, a wing and a prayer.

Behind Obama’s Afghanistan Decision

By Kurt Volker

All of Washington – and much of the world – was waiting to hear President Obama’s Tuesday night speech about the war in Afghanistan.

Who’s Really Running Pakistan?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

From his former incarnation as strategic adviser to Pakistan’s politico-religious parties, the one-time Pakistani intelligence chief Hamid Gul has resurfaced as de facto minister of propaganda and disinformation for the Taliban insurgents. In a dramatic reincarnation for the “meray mutabiq” (“my opinion”) program on Geo television, Gul said the Taliban has 88,000 troops and 35,000 […]

Missing Tools for the Afghan Job

By Harlan Ullman

U.S. President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan speech Tuesday, well advertised in advance and delivered at West Point for added effect, provoked predictable criticism from both the left and right.

Obama Faces Ghost of LBJ in Tonight’s Speech

By Don Snow

President Obama has apparently reached his decision on Afghanistan, which he will explain to the public on Tuesday night. If early leaks intended to get us more used to–and presumably comfortable with–the content are correct, he is going to give General McChrystal most of what he wants, although with some time constraints (the “off ramps”) […]