Is Afghanistan Ready?

Obama s Failed Afghan Peace Strategy

Consider Afghanistan, which ratified the convention in 2009.

Afghanistan Watch reviews a New York Times report, in which it is said that the secretive American detention center at Bagram base in Afghanistan now holds more than twice as many prisoners as Guantanamo Bay.

Some now argue that large scale engagement in Afghanistan was a mistake.

Several NATO allies hope to be home by then, but a residual ISAF seems very likely. After all, the rationale for the original US intervention was to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for the next Bin Laden.

My travels to Afghanistan began many, many years ago on the eastern border of my country, my homeland, Poland.

Afghanistan and Iran both changed their national anthems several times in the course of the 20th century.

When I first came to Afghanistan in 2005 as a foreign minister, I met the commander of ISAF, the international troops.

India is not a member of the United States led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a largely NATO operation to which it was not invited to contribute, given Pakistani sensitivities about a possible Indian military presence in Afghanistan.

Second, we must encourage a true regional dialogue that prevents Afghanistan from becoming a battleground for devastating proxy wars.

Finally, for reasons of history, geography, and culture, Iran s role in Afghanistan cannot and should not be ignored.

Indications are that the US will maintain about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, even in the most modest scenario.

It was historical. Could it work in Afghanistan with UNAMA and WHO and civil society, etc., etc., etc.?

Conflict grew ever bloodier in Syria, continued to grind on in Afghanistan, and flared up periodically in West, Central, and East Africa.

The first place this vaccine was used was in southern Afghanistan, because it's in places like that where kids are going to benefit the most from technologies like this.

No one in India s government really expects US forces to disappear overnight from Afghanistan, despite the elimination of Osama bin Laden. The plan is to withdraw only 10,000 US troops by year s end.

70 percent of the kids couldn't find Afghanistan or Iraq on a map 60 percent couldn't find India 30 percent couldn't find the Pacific Ocean.

What we must do now is create the framework for a more stable Afghanistan, and for sustained international engagement in a region that is crucial for global stability.

And one young Ranger in the back his hair's tousled and his face is red and windblown from being in combat in the cold Afghan wind he said, Sir, I was in the sixth grade.

Afghanistan's national unity government was set up in 2014 in the wake of a disputed election result in an attempt to unite Afghans for the purpose of a stable and peaceful Afghanistan.

Some now argue that large scale engagement in Afghanistan was a mistake. But, in the mirror of history, we can see that the greater mistake has been to abandon the country altogether.

Photographer Monika Bulaj shares powerful, intimate images of Afghanistan of home life, of ritual, of men and women. Behind the headlines, what does the world truly know about this place?

And then there was this other statement that came out from the U.N. Department of Security and Safety saying that, in Afghanistan, because of this work, the violence was down by 70 percent.

Yet instead of grasping this opportunity, local and international leaders soon disengaged and became distracted by the second Intifada, the events of 9 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And she had turned it down, she said, because she was going to start her next business, an entrepreneurship consultancy that would teach business skills to men and women all around Afghanistan.

They proceed to tell me a story which comes down to basically the following. We have used such advanced technologies now and made them available in the most remote places that we put soldiers hills of Afghanistan, Iraq ...

Despite the relatively costless overthrow of the Qaddafi regime, America s prolonged interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have severely strained the public s tolerance for an active foreign policy.

India has no troops in Afghanistan, but it has invested roughly 1.5 billion to help reconstruct the country, with projects ranging from maternity hospitals to Kabul s electricity grid.

STOCKHOLM On a recent visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, I could not fail to notice the increasingly frequent international calls for an endgame in Afghanistan. But an endgame for that country is a dangerous illusion the game will not end, and neither will history.

First, we must focus on what is most important a transition to a post Karzai system that is seen as reasonably legitimate by all parts of Afghanistan.

This is by far India s largest foreign aid program, because Afghanistan separated from India only by its hostile neighbor Pakistan remains a country of vital strategic significance for India.

Afghanistan connects Central and South Asia, and a breakdown of order there would pose grave risks in both directions. Moreover, the world not just the West, but Russia and China as well would risk global proliferation of drugs, weapons, and terror.

NEW DELHI US President Barack Obama s announcement of the start of American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, and his administration s increasing emphasis on reconciliation with the Taliban, have been studied attentively in one capital that has a large stake in the outcome New Delhi.

So, what does the looming US withdrawal mean for India s role in Afghanistan? India has largely focused its aid efforts on building institutional capacity and developing human resources, so that Afghans can stand on their own feet before long.

Indians have every reason to be relieved. An Afghanistan without ISAF will be prey to the machinations of Pakistan s notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which created, trained, financed, and directed the Afghan Taliban in the 1990 s.

The bottom line for India remains the Afghan people s right to decide their own destiny. It views the international community s role as being to help Afghans accomplish that.

How could it justify spying on a leader who is among America s closest allies in NATO and in the Afghanistan mission a leader whom he invited to the Rose Garden to bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that America can give to a foreigner?

My belief is that there is another, far more critical challenge facing Afghanistan in 2014 the election of a new president.

I went to Afghanistan in 2005 to work on a Financial Times piece, and there I met Kamila, a young women who told me she had just turned down a job with the international community that would have paid her nearly 2,000 a month an astronomical sum in that context.

My belief is that there is another, far more critical challenge facing Afghanistan in 2014 the election of a new president. In a system where so much power open and hidden, constitutional and traditional is centered around the president, the election could well turn into an all out battle for the country s future.

So America s military intervention in Afghanistan is now open ended and the fighting is not subsiding. On the contrary, the recent escalation of Taliban attacks indicates that the approaching summer fighting season will be among the most intense since the war began.

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was followed by a long term decline in oil prices. The recent price slide to 50 60 per barrel, halving the value of Russia s oil production suggests that history is about to repeat itself.

The book is not finished we are merely entering a new chapter. What we must do now is create the framework for a more stable Afghanistan, and for sustained international engagement in a region that is crucial for global stability.

Ecologist Eric Berlow doesn't feel overwhelmed when faced with complex systems. He knows that more information can lead to a better, simpler solution. Illustrating the tips and tricks for breaking down big issues, he distills an overwhelming infographic on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan to a few elementary points.