Afghanistan – Page 2

A Secret History of Dissent in the All-Volunteer Military

Source July 1, 2009 2 Comments

In a study published in the Armed Forces Journal in 1971, it was reported that the U.S. military in Vietnam was at that moment at the edge of chaos.

In fact, statistics flowing back to Washington about the American war machine in Vietnam then pointed toward an unimaginable nightmare. Drug use was rampant; desertions stood at 70 per thousand, a modern high; small-scale mutinies or “combat refusals” were at critical, if untabulated, levels; incidents of racial conflict had soared; and strife between “lifers” and draftees was at unprecedented levels.

Rory Fanning ends his journey for Pat Tillman in Ocean Beach

Frank Gormlie May 18, 2009 3 Comments

On Saturday, May 16th, Rory Fanning came to the end of his journey – Ocean Beach. He had just finished his 8 month, 2700 mile walk across the USA in memory of his friend Pat Tillman.

Pat Tillman, you may remember, was a famous pro-football star, who was killed by “friendly fire” while serving in Afghanistan. But …

The Anti-War Dilemma: How To Protest A President You Trust

Source May 12, 2009 7 Comments

During the Bush era, peace protests were presupposed. If the President of the United States showed up anywhere, so did the protesters. Now that Barack Obama has taken over the helm, though, peace activists are debating and rehashing protest strategies and often not protesting at all.

Whistling Past the Afghan Graveyard – Where Empires Go to Die

Source February 5, 2009 1 Comment

It is now a commonplace — as a lead article in the New York Times’s Week in Review pointed out recently — that Afghanistan is “the graveyard of empires.” Given Barack Obama’s call for a greater focus on the Afghan War (“we took our eye off the ball when we invaded Iraq…”), and given indications that a “surge” of U.S. troops is about to get underway there, Afghanistan’s dangers have been much in the news lately. Some of the writing on this subject, including recent essays by Juan Cole at Salon.com, Robert Dreyfuss at the Nation, and John Robertson at the War in Context website, has been incisive on just how the new administration’s policy initiatives might transform Afghanistan and the increasingly unhinged Pakistani tribal borderlands into “Obama’s War.”