Biden Right on AfPak
Ariana Huffington has generated quite a bit of buzz for her unlikely-to-be-taken suggestion that Vice President Biden resign in protest if President Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan. The cuteness of the suggestion has unfortunately overshadowed the opening paragraph in Holly Bailey and Evan Thomas' Newsweek piece on "A Day in the Life of Joe Biden" (HTML title: "Joe Biden, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 15, 2009 16:24
Bacevich: A New Cold War?
Andrew Bacevich in an op-ed in the Washington Post proposes an alternative to conventional war or global counter-insurgency, an approach evocative of the Cold War policy of containment: Containment implies turning to the old Cold War playbook. When confronting the Soviet threat, the United States and its allies erected robust defenses, such as NATO, and cooperated in denying the communist ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 27, 2009 10:08
Why “Befuddled”?
Leslie Gelb, distinguished diplomat, journalist, and scholar, professes befuddlement over President Obama's strategy with respect to Afghanistan: I'm lost on President Barack Obama's Afghanistan policy—along with most of Congress and the U.S. military. Not quite eight months ago, Mr. Obama pledged to "defeat" al Qaeda in Afghanistan by transforming that country's political and economic infrastructure, training Afghan forces and adding 21,000 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 22, 2009 11:11
Commemorating Anniversaries
Today, as you've doubtless realized, is the 8th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and the thwarted attack on a destination we'll likely never know. It is, for those of us too young to recall the JFK assassination or Pearl Harbor, the most significant public event of our lifetimes. We'll all remember "where ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 11, 2009 09:04
Catching Terrorists Not DHS’ Job?
Chris Battle is surprised how often he hears the question "How many terrorists has the Department of Homeland Security caught?" He argues that DHS' job is prevention, not apprehension; that's what the FBI does. The implication of the question – usually the questioner already knows the answer – is that the failure to catch members of al Qaeda during the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 4, 2009 09:41
The Limits of Afghanization (Updated)
Add Chuck Hagel to the chorus of voices rising in opposition to the escalation of our military commitment to Afghanistan: No country today has the power to impose its will and values on other nations. As the new world order takes shape, America must lead by building coalitions of common interests, as we did after World War II. Then, international organizations ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 3, 2009 10:15
What Are Our Strategic Objectives in Afghanistan?
Since reading the interview with Anthony Cordesman in the Times of London this morning I've been doing the mental equivalent of sputtering. I honestly don't know how to respond. I'm generally favorably disposed to Mr. Cordesman but I'm having some difficulty in relating the numbers that are being tossed out, the political realities in the United States and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 10, 2009 15:44
Guardian: No Nation-Building in Afghanistan!
The Guardian has come out against the current conduct of the war in Afghanistan: The empty rhetoric has to stop. State-building from the ramp of a Chinook is a fantasy, a folie de grandeur. The war against militants will not be won by expanding the battle-space. The resolution to this "good war'' will not come from Kabul alone, but will be ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 23, 2009 12:01
Preventative Detention
Hilzoy pronounces herself "happy as a clam" with President Obama's speech yesterday on national security issues, with one glaring exception: But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence may be tainted, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 22, 2009 08:20
What To Do About Pakistan?
This morning Bill Roggio is reporting that the Pakistani government has moved paramilitary forces, potentially to oppose Taliban forces should they advance on the capital: Islamabad officials have moved paramilitary forces to block a potential Taliban advance into the nation's capital as US officials question Pakistan’s ability to stop the creeping insurgency. Islamabad's deputy commissioner and its senior police official said they ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 24, 2009 09:01
Torture Worked! Foiled Los Angeles Attack! Yay Torture!
After several days of inflamed public debate following official confirmation that the United States government tortured suspected terrorists under specific authorization from the Bush administration, the inevitable pushback has begun. Several reports now suggest that these extreme interrogation techniques had the desired effect, yielding valuable intelligence that saved lives. The most interesting of these, alas, comes from CNS and is headlined ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 22, 2009 07:42
Multinational Law Enforcement Is Complicated
There's an interesting news article from the Associated Press that highlights the complexity of dealing with Somali piracy: MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages on Saturday and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a "mother ship" attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said. In a separate incident, gunmen from Somalia seized ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 18, 2009 12:44
Obama: Focus on Al Qaeda (Just Like Bush)
President Obama told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the Bush administration had lost its focus in Afghanistan and that his team will "refocus attention on al Qaeda." He additionally promised that "we now have resourced properly this strategy. It's not going to be an open-ended commitment of infinite resources. We've just got to make sure that we are focused on ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 30, 2009 11:12
California Arrests al Qaeda Suspect Ahmadullah Sais Niazi
Rusty Shackleford is hot on the trail of an Afghani arrested in California for lying about his lack of association with terrorists. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges [34 year old Ahmadullah Sais] Niazi hid associations with "Specially Designated Global Terrorists," groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he completed nationalization papers five years ago. During one visit, the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 20, 2009 16:55
Obama Continues Indefinite Detention of Terrorism Suspects
Rusty Shackleford: Bush-Hitler: Holding terrorists indefinitely without charge in Gitmo. Hope-Change: Holding terrorists indefinitely without charge somewhere else. As Jacob Sullum notes in much more thorough post, it's a natural consequence of the Obama administration's continuing the Bush perspective that we're at war with terrorists. In Holder's view, then, we are engaged in a war that started years before we noticed it and may ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 20, 2009 06:50
