Afghanistan Weekly Reader: Reported Drop in Taliban Attacks Proves Incorrect
The International Security Assistance Force is correcting a data error that showed a 7 percent drop in Taliban attacks over the past year. The number of attacks did not decline, officials said. The announcement coincides with an insurgent attack that left 17 dead and an ongoing dispute over U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
From ASG
2/26/13
Cut Wasteful Pentagon Spending, Starting with the War Budget
Afghanistan Study Group by Mary Kaszynski
Eliminating wasteful spending in the war budget and developing a more cost-effective strategy for our future engagement with Afghanistan is a good way to start reining in the Pentagon budget.
ARTICLES
2/27/13
Taliban attacks in Afghanistan not down after all
Christian Science Monitor by Dan Murphy
On Tuesday, NATO said there was no decline in Taliban attacks, the final year of President Obama’s “surge” in Afghanistan, after all.
2/25/13
Talk of Inquiry, but Not Much Is Sure After Afghan Ban on U.S. Troops
New York Times by Matthew Rosenberg
A day after President Hamid Karzai ordered elite American forces out of a strategic province near the capital, very little was clear other than his increasing assertiveness in dictating the Western military role in Afghanistan.
2/25/13
Afghan officials say NATO ignored complaints of abuses by U.S. Special Operations forces
Washington Post by Richard Leiby
Afghan officials said Monday they demanded the pullout of U.S. Special Operations forces from an insurgency-wracked province because the U.S.-backed NATO command here for months has ignored residents’ allegations of severe abuses committed by the elite American troops and armed Afghan irregulars working with them.
OPINION
2/26/13
How Not to Withdraw from Afghanistan
Foreign Policy by Jim McDermott and Lawrence Wilkerson
Eleven years of costly war have confirmed that there is no military solution in Afghanistan. As one U.S. commander in Afghanistan retires and another takes his place, it’s time to focus on a political and economic transition to Afghan rule. It’s time to finally bring U.S. troops home.
2/25/13
Involving the Taliban in Afghanistan Solution
The Atlantic by William R. Polk
Over time: Afghanistan can evolve into a relatively peaceful society in which citizens will have a chance for a considerably improved standard of living and, in the context of Afghan cultural norms, will come to share an acceptable form of participatory democracy.
