Nine years into a war that seems to be without end, it’s time to declare victory and go home.

The reports of a new study showing that “Pakistan’s military intelligence agency directly funds and trains the Afghan Taliban and is officially represented on its leadership council” are frustrating but, as Steve Hynd observes  shocking  “only if you hadn’t read about a Spanish report in October 2008, the WaPo’s report on what US officials knew in April [...]

There’s yet more evidence of odd behavior from Afghan President Hamid Karzai: KABUL, Afghanistan — Two senior Afghan officials were showing President Hamid Karzai the evidence of the spectacular rocket attack on a nationwide peace conference earlier this month when Mr. Karzai told them that he believed the Taliban were not responsible. “The president did [...]

Unlike Dave, I supported the invasion of Afghanistan as a response demanded by the 9/11 attacks, which had been perpetrated by al Qaeda under the auspices of the Taliban government, which had been giving them aid and comfort.   Indeed, I was outraged that the Bush Administration waited several days; I’d have ordered strikes immediately. My [...]

Faisal Shahzad apparently didn’t train with the Pakistani Taliban, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott report for McClatchy Newspapers. No credible evidence has been found so far that the Pakistani-American man accused in the Times Square bombing plot received any serious terrorist training from the Pakistani Taliban or another radical Islamic group, six U.S. officials said [...]

Two prominent Republican Congressmen have come out against reading Miranda rights to American citizens suspected of terrorism. Congressional Republicans want to know whether the Pakistani-born American arrested in the Times Square car bombing plot was read his Miranda rights, with Sen. John McCain saying it would be a “serious mistake” if the suspect was reminded [...]

It seems that National Security Advisor Jim Jones has gotten himself into trouble for retelling a very old joke at a think tank speech the other night: I’d like to begin with a story that I think is true, a Taliban militant gets lost and is wandering around the desert looking for water. He finally [...]

American special operators and intel types are teaming up with Yemeni forces to kill bad guys there, Dana Priest reports.  But Glenn Greenwald is most interested in the third paragraph: As part of the operations, Obama approved a Dec. 24 strike against a compound where a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was thought to be meeting [...]

E.D. Kain interviewed me via email yesterday for True/Slant on President Obama’s new Afghanistan strategy. Two short excerpts: Kain: Can a surge in Afghanistan work? Joyner: [I]t really depends on what we mean by “work.” And that’s not clear. If it’s defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and creating competent, non-corrupt government and security forces [...]

My first take on President Obama’s Afghanistan speech,  “Obama Announces Afghan Surge and Exit Strategy” is up at New Atlanticist.  I plan at least two more essays later in the day dissecting international reaction and other aspects.  The lede: After months of careful consideration, President Obama announced his newest Afghanistan policy last night.  He will [...]

President Obama’s speech tomorrow night, in which he finally announces his Afghan strategy and responds to General McChrystal’s September request for more troops for Afghanistan, will be closely watched by the American public, our NATO Allies, foreign leaders, and the people of Afghanistan and the region. I sat down with my Atlantic Council colleagues Damon [...]

An incredibly junior foreign service officer has resigned over disagreement with our AfPak policy, prompting a high level scramble within the administration and a long feature in the Washington Post. As I wrote in “While Obama Dithers,” a piece for New Atlanticist, They’ve brought this on themselves.  Granted, President Obama inherited this war and his [...]

When Thomas Friedman loses faith in a war, it’s time to give up. It would be one thing if the people we were fighting with and for represented everything the Taliban did not: decency, respect for women’s rights and education, respect for the rule of law and democratic values and rejection of drug-dealing. But they [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“[I]f Pakistan collapses, the U.S. military is primed to enter the country and secure as many of those weapons as it can, according to U.S. officials,” report’s TIME’s Mark Thompson burying his lede three paragraphs into a story whose headline asks, “Does Pakistan’s Taliban Surge Raise a Nuclear Threat?” As I explain in my New [...]

Germany is concerned about the Taliban fighters nearing Pakistan’s Islamabad capital: BERLIN, April 24 (Reuters) – Germany expressed concern on Friday at the advance of Taliban fighters towards Pakistan’s capital and urged the government in Islamabad to take decisive action to ensure the security situation did not deteriorate. Taliban militants have pushed closer to the [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

On Tuesday, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud responded to a $5 million reward for his arrest by threatening terrorist attacks in America.  “You can’t imagine how we could avenge this threat inside Washington, inside the White House,” Reuters quoted him as saying.  Today, he’s claiming responsibility for yesterday’s shooting spree in Binghamton, New York. The [...]

French defense minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday that “We should accept the result of the forthcoming elections whatever it is,” adding, “If nationalist-minded Taliban come to power through the ballot-box and respect the constitution, that is the Afghans’ business.” To be sure, he added an important caveat: “What we reject is support for international jihad.”  [...]

In my New Atlanticist piece “Who Are the ‘Moderate’ Taliban?,” I round up the reactions to President Obama’s weekend promise to “reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban” and note that they’re almost uniformly negative. On the surface, “moderate Taliban” sounds as nonsensical are “nonviolent terrorist” or “tolerant Nazi.” Still, as Steve Hynd recently [...]

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 [...]

My New Atlanticist post “Beating Al Qaeda But Losing in Afghanistan?” rounds up several major reports coming out today, the gist of which are: Our military strikes against al Qaeda have been so successful that a “complete al Qaeda defeat” is on the horizon. We’re finally killing their leaders faster than they can replace them. [...]

My New Atlanticist essay “Obama Orders Pakistan Drone Attacks” notes that, While President Obama has sent some major signals in his first days in office that his foreign policy will differ from President Bush’s, he sent one yesterday demonstrating continuity on a very key issue: targeting al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas. [...]

In the comments to my “Taliban Retaking Afghanistan” post, commenter King Politics asked, “Can anyone answer why we didn’t embark on a Marshall Plan-style rebuilding effort of Afghanistan in 2003-04?”  In today’s Independent, former Afghan finance minister Ashraf Ghani makes a similar call. My New Atlanticist essay “A Marshall Plan for Afghanistan?” I argue that [...]

The Taliban shadow government is expanding to just outside Kabul and its commanders essentially run a growing number of provinces, AP reports. In those areas, we’re seeing the re-imposition of the most brutal forms of Sharia law, the takeover of schools by religious extremists, impressment into the military, and the confiscation of wealth. Eleven months [...]

Yesterday, Dave Schuler did an excellent job outlining the brewing mess on the subcontinent in Tensions Rising Between Pakistan and India. I’ve been blogging on the subject at New Atlanticist as well. My most recent posts on the subject are Pakistan Scales Down Anti-Terrorist Operations and Pakistan Readies for War with India. The upshot is [...]

The CIA has figured out a way to use sex as an interrogation tool in a way that’s likely to elicit chuckles rather than horror. WaPo’s Joby Warrick begins with a story about giving an Afghan chieftain for Viagra tablets. The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an [...]

Over the weekend, Dave Schuler closed his post “Winning in Afghanistan” with three very good questions: What are our strategic objectives in Afghanistan? What tactics will effect those objectives? What are the logistical requirements of implementing the objectives? Today in New Atlanticist, my former graduate advisor, Don Snow, gives an extensive response with “Are We [...]

I must confess some amusement over the YahooNews headline “Officials say Taliban mad over alleged US strike.” The lede is also encouraging. The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, a sign a top militant may have died in the attack, officials and residents said Sunday amid reports the [...]

Michael J. Totten takes exception to the frequently expressed view that “the war on terrorism started in Afghanistan and it needs to end there.”  In my New Atlanticist essay “Afghanistan: Necessary But Not Sufficient,” I explain why he’s right.   My conclusion: Defeating the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies there and in neighboring Pakistan is [...]

Juan Cole had an interesting post on yesterday’s seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in which he made a bold declaration: “The original al-Qaeda is defeated.”   No, he’s not saying there aren’t Muslim terrorists calling themselves “al Qaeda” ready and able to kill us. I mean the original al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda as a historical, concrete movement [...]

Coalition forces based in Afghanistan have launched a raid across the Afghan-Pakistani border into South Waziristan where Taliban and Al Qaeda forces are believed to have taken refuge: North West Frontier Province Governor Owais Ghani says three helicopter gunships and commandos based in Afghanistan raided homes in the Birmal area of South Waziristan, Wednesday morning. [...]

Jonathan Kolieb is upset that Americans don’t pronounce foreign names in the other country’s mother tongue. I was flipping through the cable news channels the other night, and there were several segments on developments in Iraq.  I found myself getting irritated, then angry:  Why, five years after occupying a country, do we still not know [...]

Al Qaeda number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri was severely wounded in a US predator strike earlier this week, CBS is reporting. Ayman al-Zawahiri – the second most powerful leader in al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden’s No. 2 – may be critically wounded and possibly dead, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports exclusively. [...]

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped plan and provided logistical support for last month’s bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan according to U.S. intelligence reports leaked to the press by various “officials.” Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt report for the NYT that, The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and [...]

Commenting on a recentish NYT report on foreign fighters flooding into Pakistan to support al Qaeda and Taliban militants, Thomas Barnett observes, Spray one apartment and the bugs move over to the next. Wherever there’s the least resistance or the most opportunity, you find them clustered. The Anbar awakening ruins al Qaeda’s long-term chances in [...]

William Arkin contends that recent political maneuvering has put Barack Obama and President Bush in almost identical positions vis-à-vis Iraq: The Bush administration’s potential Iraq withdrawal plan, floated in The New York Times over the weekend, to draw down brigades further before September of this year and to accelerate withdrawals in 2009, has collided with [...]

Barack Obama takes to the op-ed pages of the NYT to present his new plan for Iraq which is conveniently his old plan for Iraq.   He sees Nuri al-Maliki’s proposal for a a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq as “an enormous opportunity.” Only by redeploying our troops can we press the [...]

Seeing the headline “10 Taliban killed while planting bomb” on YahooNews, I was expecting a feel-good story. Alas, not so much. In addition to the fact that this occurred on the same day that parliament member and former military commander Habibullah Jan was murdered, the fitting demise of the would-be bombers is mitigated considerably by [...]

Fareed Zakaria contends that, President Bush’s attempts to brand himself as a “war president,” the United States isn’t really at war. America (and before it, Britain) has felt it was “at war” when the conflict threatened the country’s basic security—not merely its interests or its allies abroad. This is the common-sense way in which we [...]

The Taliban have freed “as many as 1,000″ prisoners being held by the Afghan government in Kandahar. Hundreds of prisoners escaped from a jail in southern Afghanistan on Friday after Taliban fighters blew off the gates in a suicide attack that killed several police officers, according to a U.S. military official. Many of those freed [...]

H.E. Husain Haqqani, who presented his credentials as Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States a mere nine days ago, delivered his first public address since taking office this evening at the Atlantic Council. Following is a summary of his remarks. While our two countries have been allies since the 1950s, neither side has viewed [...]

Terrorist suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay (and presumably, anyplace else under American jurisdiction) have the right to file habeus corpus petitions in U.S. civilian courts the Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision. Further, Congress could not pass a law waiving these protections absent rebellion or invasion. Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in [...]

Pakistan is condemning a U.S. air strike which allegedly killed 11 Pakistani paramilitaries as a “completely unprovoked and cowardly act.” U.S.-led forces killed Pakistani troops in an airstrike along the volatile Afghan border that Pakistan’s army condemned on Wednesday as “completely unprovoked and cowardly.” U.S. officials confirmed that three aircraft launched about a dozen bombs [...]

That’s the central claim of David Ignatius’s column in the Washington Post this morning: So imagine that you are Qassem Soleimani, commander of a covert Iranian army deployed across the Middle East: You doubt the Bush administration would run the risk of a military strike against Iran, but you can’t be sure. You think America [...]

Bernard Finel argues that we have done a poor job of formalizing rules to deal with the fight against international terrorists. Few, even today, question the legitimacy of the U.S. campaign to remove the Taliban. But has this case set a broader precedent? And if so, what are the parameters of this precedent. Does any [...]

MG Jay Hood’s appointment as the top U.S. military officer in Pakistan has been pulled owing to Pakistani complaints about a previous stop in his career as commander at Guantánamo. When the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, it reflected the military’s [...]

David Ignatius notes that al Qaeda has “all but disappeared” from Afghanistan and “is on the run” in Iraq and thinks we can draw lessons from these facts. First, al-Qaeda isn’t a permanent boogeyman; it’s losing ground in Iraq and Afghanistan because of U.S. counterinsurgency tactics, especially the alliances we have built with tribal leaders [...]