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By E.J. Dionne
$18.95
By Adrienne Mayor
$19.77
$13
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By Ruth Marcus — In his speech Monday night to a public thoroughly, and understandably, befuddled about U.S. policy in Libya, President Obama began to fill in some important blanks.
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White House / Pete Souza
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President Obama continued with his Convince America About Libya Tour on Tuesday, granting interviews to CBS, ABC and NBC to discuss U.S. intervention in the North African nation while pointing out that “each country in this region is different.”
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CIA World Factbook
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Coalition jets appear to have given the Libyan rebels a big assist by bombing the birthplace of Moammar Gadhafi, a city called Sirte that is about halfway between Benghazi and Tripoli. Not to tell NATO its business, but how exactly does clearing a path for the rebels advancing toward Libya’s capital fit the U.N. mandate to protect civilians?
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Mary Matalin steps in as a guest panelist on this week’s “Left, Right & Center,” in which Libya and Japan are dominant conversation points, of course, as well as Rep. Michele Bachmann, who may or may not have her eye on the White House prize.
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U.S. Navy / MC2 Mark R. Alvarez
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NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says his organization is still debating how much of the military assault on Moammar Gadhafi’s regime to take on, but in the meantime member states have agreed to assume command of the no-fly zone.
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Wikimedia Commons / The White House
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Come July, foreign forces will begin withdrawing from Afghanistan, coinciding with President Hamid Karzai’s plan to begin returning seven regions of his country back to local control.
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White House / Pete Souza
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The U.S. appears to be losing a game of hot potato with respect to military action in Libya. President Obama says he will hand over control of the mission to NATO “within days,” but the BBC reports, “Turkey and Germany have been reluctant for NATO to assume control, and France is not keen.” (more)
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AP / Jerome Delay
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wasn’t thrilled with the U.N. Security Council’s go-ahead to let U.S. and European forces fire on Moammar Gadhafi’s troops in Libya, and he said so Monday. He wasn’t alone in his criticism of what began as ...
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Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes
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The U.K., France, various Arab states and NATO representatives are all working on plans to prevent besieged Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from launching airstrikes against his people. Gadhafi’s forces continue to clash with rebels, who now control much of the country.
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Thursday’s edition of “Democracy Now!” featured two prominent journalists (well, three, including host Amy Goodman), Rick Rowley and Glenn Greenwald, commenting on two timely and pressing news stories. By way of a preview, here’s a quote from Rowley ...
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Flickr.com / mindfrieze
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The Obama administration is working on cutting back defense spending to levels the U.S. hasn’t seen since before Sept. 11, 2001, but the proposed changes have more to do with economic reasons than any big strategic change from within military ranks.
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez
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A White House review of the mess in Afghanistan will reportedly declare that some modest progress has been made toward the administration’s goals (vague and illogical though they may be), despite widespread skepticism and the most allied casualties since the start of the war in 2001.
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U.S. Marine Corps / Chief Warrant Officer 3 Philippe E. Chasse
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Hamid Karzai and NATO would like Afghan forces to take over the country’s security by 2014, a goal Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell calls “aspirational,” as in “There may very well be the need for forces to remain in-country ... ” (more jibber-jabber after the jump)
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By William Pfaff — To adapt to secular use a phrase from medieval mysticism, “the cloud of unknowing” deepens as the war-waging countries of North America and Western Europe approach their NATO “summit.”
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Stanley Kutler — Enter President Karzai. Like Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam, he has held power as a result of corrupt elections, featuring the not-so-invisible hands of his American backers. Once again, we have bet the mortgage on one leader, no matter how inept and corrupt he might be.
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AP / Dmitry Lovetsky
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Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev knows a thing or two about warfare in Afghanistan, having ordered Soviet troops out of the country two decades ago, and Wednesday he passed on a little advice to the NATO troops and allied forces fighting there now ... (continued)
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Wikimedia Commons / The White House
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On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s administration had been secretly accepting millions of dollars in cash from the Iranian government. Sketchy! And on Monday, Karzai owned up to his part in the clandestine funding program ... (continued)
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AP / Riccardo De Luca
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An Iranian representative is now included in a league of international envoys from the EU, NATO, the U.S. and elsewhere—aka the International Contact Group on Afghanistan—that is engaging in an ongoing conversation about Afghanistan’s future.
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AP / Carolyn Kaster, pool
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Nothing is certain on this front yet, but the U.S. is reportedly considering opening up some channels of communication to the Taliban in Afghanistan, and between the Taliban and the Afghan government, in the interest of long-term peace goals.
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By William Pfaff — No one attending the New Policy Forum in Sofia was very interested in Washington’s present military and geostrategic preoccupations.
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AP / Mohammad Sajjad
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After back-and-forth bickering between NATO and Pakistan—and a stream of militant attacks on supply tankers stopped at the border—Pakistan has said it will reopen a key border crossing for NATO supplies entering Afghanistan.
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The Obama administration has seen another key player out the door. This time, it’s national security adviser James Jones, whom Obama thanked for his “sacrifices” in his announcement in the White House’s Rose Garden on Friday. Who’s next?
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AP / Mohammad Sajjad
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The Sept. 30 incident in which NATO aircraft fired across the border of Pakistan, killing two Pakistani soldiers, has not been forgotten in that country, and the fiery retaliatory strikes that have ensued compelled the American ambassador ... (continued)
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Officials believe as many as 15 gunmen armed with rocket launchers have attacked a supply convoy and destroyed at least 27 tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan. The attacks, which occurred in the southern Sindh providence of Pakistan, may be a response to Thursday’s cross-border NATO airstrike into Pakistan.
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AP / Shah Khalid
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In an incident that could lead to even more tension between the U.S. and Pakistan, NATO has confirmed that one of its aircraft engaged in an attack across the Pakistani border, purportedly to fire on suspected militants.
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U.S. Army / Sgt. Derec Pierson
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By William Pfaff — “Transformation” is the new military buzzword, meaning reorienting the military institution for “the complex insurgencies” that “planners say will dominate the 21st century.” Robert Gates, the U.S. secretary of defense, was quoted as saying that Afghanistan provides the “laboratory” for this change.
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Photo illustration based on image from Wikimedia Commons / Vardion
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Were they election campaign workers peacefully going about their business in a convoy in northern Afghanistan, or were some 10 people reported killed Thursday in a NATO-led airstrike actually insurgents? In this case, both versions are being claimed as fact.
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The final weekend of August was a costly one for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with seven Americans killed. Also, five campaign workers for a candidate in upcoming parliamentary elections were found slain, and a candidate for parliament was shot to death.
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bbc.co.uk
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Having assumed the position of the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus offers his guarded assessment of the status of the war in Afghanistan in this BBC interview, and he apparently believes ... (continued)
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U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Angelita Lawrence
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Responding to a U.N. report that found that most of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by Taliban attacks, the insurgent group released a statement calling for the creation of a joint committee to investigate the deaths of noncombatants. The U.N. and NATO are considering the proposal. (continued)
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Flickr.com / mindfrieze
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It doesn’t look like WikiLeaks is going to heed the Pentagon’s request to “do the right thing” and refrain from releasing 15,000 documents about the war in Afghanistan that the site has yet to share with the world.
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. JT May III
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The whistle-blower website just dropped 91,000 secret documents, which were simultaneously published by The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. There are many revelations and more to come, but we already know that NATO forces appear to be responsible for hundreds of unclaimed civilian deaths and injuries ... continued.
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Flickr / U.S. Army
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It’s been a long while since Afghans have had anything resembling autonomy when it comes to protecting their own interests, not to mention their own people. Well, it’s going to be a while longer, too, but on Tuesday ... (continued)
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By William Pfaff — The European Union deliberately has chosen not to challenge the United States as a military or political superpower. This is convenient for most and saves Europe a great deal of money. It is prudent, since no one knows what the U.S. would do if the Europeans undertook a role that challenged American primacy.
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Lorie L. Jewell
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Here we have a man whose job nobody should envy: Gen. David Petraeus was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday to take over the top U.S. command post in Afghanistan ... (continued)
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If you missed Robert Scheer discussing his latest column and Gen. McChrystal with readers or you just want to relive the excitement, you can read the full transcript here.
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Army Sgt. David Alvarado
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Even in the face of increased military deployment and the fact that 2010 is on course to be one of the deadliest years for foreign troops in Afghanistan, the number of civilians killed there by U.S. and NATO forces has reportedly decreased due to stricter rules of engagement.
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Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE —
Posted on Jun 9, 2010
READ MORE 
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AP / Mikhail Metzel
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By Ivo Mijnssen and Philipp Casula —
Russia has come a long way, but geopolitics in Eastern Europe are still overshadowed by a mutual distrust rooted in World War II.
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Monday was the deadliest day so far in 2010 for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. According to the Los Angeles Times, five American soldiers died in a bombing in the east and two in the country’s southern region.
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Wikimedia Commons / www.kremlin.ru
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With a nod to the Kremlin, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych proposed a bill to his parliament, which it approved Thursday, to keep their nation from joining NATO’s ranks. Take that, hegemonic Western policymakers!
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AP / Amr Nabil
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Relations between Israel and friends like Turkey and the U.S. went south following Monday’s raid on a flotilla en route to Gaza, as differing reports emerged to challenge Israel’s account ... (continued)
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Eight years ago President George W. Bush went to West Point to declare a new, bomb-a-holic course for American security. Now, President Barack Obama has used the same platform to declare a revised doctrine, one that roots security in diplomatic engagement and international alliances.
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By William Pfaff — The European Union doesn’t know where it stands at this moment. NATO thinks it knows and is gambling.
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The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Tuesday that targeted a U.S. convoy in Kabul, killing 19 people and marking the deadliest day so far this year for American troops in Afghanistan. In additional to the bomber, the dead included five Americans. Tuesday was also the day ... (continued)
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By William Pfaff — Large and firmly implanted bureaucratic organizations are almost impossible to kill, even when they have no reason to continue to exist, as NATO has not since the Soviet Union, communism and the Warsaw Pact all collapsed.
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Wikimedia Commons / Steele C.G. Britton, U.S. Air Force
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Although he fled the capital city of Bishkek on Wednesday, Kyrgyzstan’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced Thursday from an unknown locale that he wasn’t stepping down, despite the apparent takeover of the Krgyz government by opposition politicians, according to The New York Times.
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Wikimedia Commons / The White House
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Relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan were further strained over the weekend after the White House caught wind of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s musings that he might join the Taliban as a reaction to pressure from the West to make some changes in his country.
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AP / Richard Vogel
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By Robert Fisk — It’s sleek, it’s glossy, it’s in eloquent Arabic, Pashto and Dari, and it pours derision on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan; it is the brand new propaganda wing of the Taliban: not just Internet video of attacks on the Western armies in Helmand and Kandahar, but professionally produced magazines.
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