Sardar / Xinhua / LANDOV
+Mitt Romney | 40 days ago

Romney’s Radical Position on Afghanistan

By Michael Crowley

In its story today about Mitt Romney’s rather opaque views about Afghanistan, the New York Times mentions, almost in passing, something important that has drawn strangely little attention: Romney opposes talking to the Taliban.

That’s a relatively extreme position. For some time now, it’s been widely accepted within the foreign policy establishment that any realistic endgame in Afghanistan will involve some kind of negotiated peace deal with our enemies in Afghanistan. (Hillary Clinton has called the approach, “Fight, talk and build.”) Talks have been underway for months, and while they have been halting, superficial, and at times tragicomic, they’re not very controversial anymore, as this 2011 RAND paper explains: 

Afghanistan | 87 days ago

“Green-on-Blue” Violence Could Alter U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan

By Mark Thompson

Pentagon officials won’t concede it, but privately defense officials say the spate of “green-on-blue” killings by Afghans of their purported U.S. allies over the past two weeks could lead to major changes in U.S. strategy. If they continue, the U.S. will face a brutal choice: pull out, or double down.

In the Arena
In the Arena+Afghanistan | 88 days ago

Afghan Reality

By Joe Klein

Two more Americans were killed today in Afghanistan–in Zhari district, just outside Kandahar, a place I know well, having embedded twice with U.S. units there. This has become business as usual in Afghanistan, especially since U.S. troops accidentally burned some Qurans a few weeks ago. It is, of course, infuriating. And it raises a larger [...]

+Libya | 339 days ago

The Libya Conundrum

By Jay Newton-Small
(l to r): Pete Marovich / Zuma Press, Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images

The House of Representatives on Friday is expected to hold two votes on U.S. action in Libya. One will fail and one will pass. House GOP leaders are hoping that the Democratic-controlled Senate will take up the one that passes. Unfortunately for them, the Senate is fixated on the one that will fail. All of [...]

+Crime | 362 days ago

Three Reasons Mladic’s Trial Matters

By Massimo Calabresi

Why should you care that former Serbian military commander Ratko Mladic has been extradited to The Hague, Netherlands, to be tried for war crimes that he and his troops allegedly committed more than 15 years ago? First, the slaughter. As they arrived at a refugee camp in northern Bosnia in July 1995, Muslim survivors of [...]

+Democratic Party | 810 days ago

Why God Invented C-SPAN

By Jay Newton-Small

Retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, is clearly upset with the media’s morbid fascination with Tickle-Me-Massa. He feels that this episode is robbing newspaper inches and front-page real estate from the coverage our brave colleagues are producing out of Afghanistan. And when I say upset, I mean really, really, really, really upset. Like [...]

+Republican Party | 818 days ago

Withdrawal from Afghanistan?

By Jay Newton-Small

Meanwhile, on the other side of Capitol Hill, Dennis Kucinich introduces legislation to end the war in Afghanistan:

+Senate | 987 days ago

The Afghanistan Paradox

By Jay Newton-Small

This war has come to be inexorably linked to this President. He likes to say that he’s “taking the fight” to the terrorists because it’s “fundamental to the defense of our people.” His strong supporters include Karl Rove, John McCain and Sarah Palin. In Congress, Democratic leaders grate at the idea of granting him more [...]