From the Afghanistan Study Group

FROM ASG
7-6-11
9/11 and One Measure of bin Laden's Success
the Atlantic by Steve Clemons
The 10th Anniversary of 9/11 will be upon us soon - and it got me to thinking what the now dead Osama bin Laden was able to achieve in terms of achieving one of his goals - getting the US to spend a lot of treasure on trying to feel more safe in an unsafe world.

7-4-11
Money, War & 2012
the Atlantic by Steve Clemons and ThomsonReuters Global Editor-at-Large Chrystia Freeland
Steve Clemons and Chrystia Freeland discuss the debt limit, jobs and economic policies, and the President’s drawdown of troops in Afghanistan.

7-8-11
Historical Counterinsurgency and Afghanistan
The Afghanistan Study Group by Edward Kenney
Two papers published recently compare historical counterinsurgency experiences to the situation in Afghanistan.  The first, authored by Christopher Paul and published by RAND Corporation compares Afghanistan to 30 historical counterinsurgencies over the last thirty years.  The second, by Douglas Ollivant and published by the New America Foundation looks at lessons learned from the Iraqi surge.

ARTICLES

7-3-11
Border strife in Afghanistan shows wider tensions
The Examiner by Rahim Faiez
Afghan government officials have accused Pakistan of launching more than 761 rockets over the border into Kunar province since May and causing the deaths of at least 40 people and injuring 51. Pakistan has denied hitting Afghanistan intentionally, but acknowledged its military has been targeting Islamic militants to halt cross-border raids and that some rockets may have strayed off course.
7-4-11
US special forces to hit Afghanistan
The Australian by Michael Evans
A mini-surge of Navy Seals, Army ''Green Beret'' Rangers and other special units is being drafted from across the world, including Iraq and the Philippines, to ensure that there is enough combat power to expand covert raids as America withdraws 33,000 troops over the next 15 months

7-5-11
5,800 Attacks Are Just The Beginning After Petraeus’ Year-Long Air War
by Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman
When Gen. David Petraeus took command of the Afghan war effort a year ago, his officers insisted that there was no way he’d go back to the bad old days of bombing the country from the sky. This was a counterinsurgency campaign, they said; winning over the population was way more important than nailing any target. Airstrikes would be solely a “tactic of last resort,” as one general told Danger Room, used only if ground troops “cannot withdraw.”

7-6-11
Afghanistan Commander IDs 3 Units to Be Part of Drawdown This Month
abc this week by Luis Martinez
The No. 2 commander in Afghanistan identified three units that will be part of the troop drawdowns that are to begin this month. The units comprise the first elements of the drawdown of 30,000 of American troops in Afghanistan to be completed next September.

7-7-11
Democrats challenge Obama's Afghan withdrawal plan
Reuters by David Alexander
Democratic lawmakers fed up with the lingering war in Afghanistan launched a new challenge to President Barack Obama's plan for a measured U.S. troop withdrawal over the next year as they resumed debate on Wednesday on a $649 billion defense spending bill.

OPINION
7/4/11
Let’s Not Linger in Afghanistan
New York Times by Jeff Merkley, Rand Paul and Tom Udall
We commend the president for sticking to the July date he had outlined for beginning the withdrawal. However, his plan would not remove all regular combat troops until 2014. We believe the United States is capable of achieving this goal by the end of 2012. America would be more secure and stronger economically if we recognized that we have largely achieved our objectives in Afghanistan and moved aggressively to bring our troops and tax dollars home.

7-6-11
Government in Afghanistan Nears Collapse
The Nation by Robert Dreyfuss
In case you haven’t been following the news: last year’s parliamentary election was so chaotic and flawed that it resulted in the near-total disenfranchisement of Afghanistan’s Pashtun ethnic minority, which makes up a healthy 40 percent of the population. Many Pashtuns either didn’t vote, because of sympathy or support for the Taliban and dislike of the Afghan government, or couldn’t vote, because of Taliban threats and violence. As a result, in some provinces in the south and east where Pashtuns dominate, not a single Pashtun was elected to parliament.