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  • War in Afghanistan

    Taliban Prisoner Release A Premature, Dangerously Naive Move

    The British newspaper The Guardian has reported that the U.S. has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantanamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents’ agreement to open a political office in Qatar. If true, this would demonstrate that the Obama Administration is dangerously naïve about the … More

    Morning Bell: Biden Says Taliban Is Not Our Enemy

    On a Saturday in late October in Kabul, Afghanistan, a car carrying explosives rammed into an armored U.S. military bus, killing 13 Americans, including five soldiers and eight civilian staff. In August, a Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans. Who was responsible? The Taliban. And who … More

    Morning Bell: The Debate over the War in Afghanistan

    The killing of Osama bin Laden was a hard-won victory for the United States, but the gains made in pursuit of that day of justice and in waging the war in Afghanistan–including putting al-Qaeda on its heels–could be squandered if the Obama Administration continues its plotted course. When Republican presidential candidates … More

    Hold Pakistan Accountable in Afghanistan

    With the 2014 Afghan troop withdrawal quickly approaching, a recent House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia hearing stressed the need to press Pakistan to fight terrorists who find sanctuary on its soil. In this most recent hearing, the four witnesses, including former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay … More

    Senator Lieberman Grades President Obama on His Foreign Policy

    Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) visited Heritage this week to give the annual B.C. Lee lecture, focusing on the importance of American leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. After his speech, he sat down with us for a wide-ranging interview. When asked about President Obama’s handling of foreign policy, Lieberman described his … More

    Azerbaijan’s Afghan Contribution

    Late on Tuesday, July 5, an Azerbaijani tanker plane crashed in Afghanistan en route to U.S./NATO Bagram Air Base with a load of fuel. The United States and NATO should mourn the nine crew members who were killed on board, yet this accident should serve as a reminder of the invaluable … More

    Training Afghanistan Security Forces Essential for Peace

    President Obama’s announced plan for accelerated troop reductions in Afghanistan puts at risk the hard-earned battlefield gains made by the coalition forces over the last 10 months, but he rightly highlighted significant progress in training Afghan security forces: Afghan security forces have grown by over 100,000 troops, and in some … More

    Obama’s Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan Jeopardizes Hard-Won Gains

    President Obama’s plan for a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan risks squandering the hard-won gains made on the battlefield in southern Afghanistan over the last ten months. U.S. military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan had reportedly requested a slower pace of withdrawal to afford them the opportunity … More

    Grumbling on Capitol Hill About Administration’s Timeline for Afghanistan

    Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Senate Republicans last week that he would try to fix the problem caused by the Obama Administration’s mixed messages about its commitment to the war in Afghanistan. Alex Bolton Friday reported in The Hill that Gates told a group of Republican Senators in a … More

    Afghanistan: Time to Rethink the Timeline

    President Obama has stated that his decision to relieve Gen. Stanley McChrystal and replace him with Gen. David Petraeus is a change of personnel, but not of policy.  But many analysts believe that a change of policy is also in order. Daniel Serwer, Vice President of the Centers for Peacebuilding … More