taliban

Petraeus On Afghanistan

The last time I heard Gen. David Petraeus, commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia, talk about Afghanistan, he was endorsing the Karzai government’s efforts to explore negotiations with reconcilable elements of the Taliban. Now the Central Command chief is putting together a massive strategy review for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, [...]

Pakistani Forces Moving From Afghan Border to Indian Border

Via Matthew Yglesias, the post-Mumbai climate of increased Indo-Pakistani tensions is causing the Pakistani military to redeploy forces from the northwest frontier province, where the task is allegedly combatting Pakistani militants and preventing exfiltration to Afghanistan, to the Indian border. Whether or not the Mumbai attacks were planned in the Pakistani tribal areas by Pakistani [...]

Nir Rosen on Private Security Contractors in Iraq

Great Daphne piece, right? For more on private security contractors in Iraq, check out The National in Abu Dhabi, where my friend Nir Rosen recounts his time with the new wave of mercenaries:

But like the jihadists, security contractors are also setting their sights on the new frontier in Afghanistan, where the resurgent Taliban and the [...]

Viagra as Counterinsurgency Asset

The portrait of 2009’s passel of counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan is becoming clearer. Bolster troop levels. Recruit tribal militias to battle extremists, in a second-time-as-farce version of Iraq’s Anbar Awakening. Mitigate increasing distance with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in advance of elections. Work with the Big-T Taliban’s rejection of peace talks by pursuing negotiations with [...]

Mullah Omar: No Talks With Karzai, Period

Is that your opening negotiation position, Mullah Omar?
From the BBC:

Taleban leader Mullah Omar has denied there are any talks under way to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, a statement from the organisation says.
He rejected reports he had written to the king of Saudi Arabia or the Afghan government about ending the conflict, the statement in [...]

‘Salar Is the New Falluja’

A friend of mine in Basra emails me a fantastic story in Sunday’s Guardian by Ghaith Abdul Ahad, a truly fearless reporter who, if I recall correctly, was the only reporter to embed with insurgent forces in Fallujah when the Marines took the city in November 2004. This time Abdul Ahad is in Afghanistan’s Wardak [...]

OH NOES! Negotiating With the Taliban!!!1

In the course of a spittle-inflected Small Wars Journal diatribe against my friend Nir Rosen for the alleged moral failing of embedding with the Taliban, Atlantic correspondent Bing West — whose recent book I preliminarily praised in TWI — offers this bit of dubious moral outrage:
Having told the reader what his intent was, Rosen described [...]

Afghanistan/Pakistan Forms Committees for Taliban Peace Talks

Just how fast are those prospective Karzai-Taliban peace talks advancing?
According to this Voice of America report, a “mini-jirga” meeting of Afghan and Pakistan officials in Islamabad has put together committees in Afghanistan and Pakistan to send feelers out to the Taliban:

Afghans React to Prospect of Taliban Negotiations

Slowly but surely, momentum is building for peace talks with the Taliban. Following on yesterday’s item, The Los Angeles Times runs an interesting tour d’horizon of Afghan sentiment about the prospect of negotiations, and generally comes down on the side of hopefulness.
As an aide to Karzai tells The LAT’s Laura King:

U.S. to Negotiate With the Taliban?

We might be on the verge of a major breakthrough with the Taliban. As I’ve been noting, the Karzai government in Afghanistan has been putting out feelers to the Taliban for negotiating an end to its insurgency in exchange for some sort of power-sharing deal. According to David Ignatius of The Washington Post, Taliban leader [...]