A single American soldier in Helmand Province… causes enough money to leak to the Taliban to recruit another 10 fighters trying to kill that American. … the upshot is that the American taxpayer has become a significant source of financing for the Taliban, along with drugs and donations from Gulf Arabs. With the money they milk from the United States, the Taliban hire more fighters.
… Vast iron ore deposits [are] buried beneath. As the new century unfolds, Afghanistan’s government is hoping the trove will shape the country’s future. “It will provide jobs, opportunity,” said Mr Sediqi, who worked as a geologist in the US before returning to Afghanistan in 2007. “Once people have some bread on the table, they want to defend their income instead of turning to violence.”
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In short, one of the lessons of Oman is that one of the best and most cost-effective ways to tame extremism is to promote education for all. Many researchers have found links between rising education and reduced conflict. One study published in 2006, for example, suggested that a doubling of primary school enrollment in a poor country was associated with halving the risk of civil war. Another found that raising the average educational attainment in a country by a single grade could significantly reduce the risk of conflict.
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The training has successfully finished its second week - with students editing their first interviews and group conversations. This second week has...
On many days the sky in Kabul is full of small kites. The children here love flying kites. The reality here is that most children don’t have very...
To be effective, Jones argues that we must adopt a “bottom up” strategy rather than the conventional “top-down” approach that has worked in most Western countries. It is necessary for there be a mixture of strong central leadership and community based organizing, Jones argues. Jones explains that the Taliban used “bottom up” strategy to gain control over so much of Afghanistan (2). An editorial written July 29, 2010 in the New York Times by Nicholas D. Kristof, a regular columnist for the Times, argues that the war can be won at a microscopic fraction of the cost that has been and will continue to be spent. The U.S. has spent more in Afghanistan than “on the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War combined” (A23).
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By HELENE COOPER, NYT, October 9, 2010 IN the panoply of national security conundrums facing the Obama administration, there is one that stands...
The majority of my time I feel like I am in any typically out of control South Asian city. The streets are a chaos of every day survival activities. Of course surviving is a rough business here and not only because of the decades of instability. This is just another part of the world packed mostly with people only able to think about making it from one day and one meal to the next.
Four days and 37 interviews later and I have a fresh understanding of the Afghan experience. These candidates were selected from over 60 applicants from throughout the country. We are looking for people with a passion for storytelling, sensitivity to village life and a demonstrated interest in social and economic development. The candidates do not have to have experience with filmmaking. They can be working for example, as print or radio journalists, novelists, poets, photographers or in the theater.
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The work in Afghanistan has begun. On Wednesday I arrived in Kabul at sunrise with 6 suitcases containing five video production kits and everything...
New York Times, OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR, DANA BURDE, September 16, 2010 Americans are right to be alarmed by the rising numbers of roadside bombs and...
THE WAY FORWARD: A FIVE POINT APPROACH
Emphasize Power-Sharing and Political Reconciliation
Scale Back and Eventually Suspend Combat Operations in the South and Reduce the U.S. Military Footprint
Keep the Focus on Al Qaeda and Domestic Security
Promote Economic Development
Engage Global and Regional Stakeholders.
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