Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 30 July 2010. | Print
Geography Archives: Afghanistan
What US Soldiers Say about Afghanistan: We’re Fucking Losing This Thing
“But we’re fucking losing this thing.” — Staff Sergeant Kennith Hicks This video was released by Brave New Films on 26 June 2010. See, also, Michael Hastings, “The Runaway General” (Rolling Stone, 22 June 2010). | Print
Afghanistan: Empire, Minerals, and Taliban
Marzieh Hashemi: American geologists say Afghanistan is filled with minerals, from iron ore, lithium, to gold and much more. The values of the minerals are said to be estimated at around a trillion dollars. . . . Would a mineral-rich Afghanistan affect the way that the United States is running its war machine there? […]
Afghanistan
Bomber Pilot: “From here they look like ants.” Newspaper Reader: “And from here, too.” Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist. This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 8 May 2009. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | […]
How Many Vets Have Been “Wounded” in Iraq and Afghanistan?
During the House debate over the Kucinich resolution calling for a timetable for military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Rep. Bob Filner, chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, pointed out that hundreds of thousands of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have gone to the VA for service-related injuries. The video of Filner’s statement […]
The Afghanistan Paradox: Evaluating Prospects for a New Antiwar Movement
The antiwar movement is all but dead and buried. Turnout at the March 20th, 7th year anniversary of the Iraq invasion in Washington D.C. was pitiful, estimated at approximately ten thousand. To make matters worse, approval of the war in Afghanistan has not fallen, but slightly increased in the last few months as U.S. marines […]
American Police Training and Political Violence: From the Philippines Conquest to the Killing Fields of Afghanistan and Iraq
“In the police you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos.” — George Orwell, Shooting An Elephant and Other Essays “. . . […]
Divided over the Afghan Issue, the Dutch Government Resigns
After fourteen hours of negotiations, the Jan Peter Balkenende government failed, on Saturday, 20 February, to agree on whether to maintain the Dutch contingent in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister announced, in the middle of the night, the resignation of his coalition, which included his party the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the (social democrat) Labor […]
Chutzpah, Inc.: “The Brave People of Iran” (versus the Disappeared People of Palestine, Honduras, Afghanistan, Etc.)
It is almost a commonplace, at least for the real — as opposed to the cruise-missile — left, that the flow of information, opinion, and moral indignation in the United States adapts well to the demands of state policy. If the state is hostile to Iran, even openly trying to engage in “regime change,” and […]
Why Are We in Afghanistan?
Take a look at the map. Afghanistan is next to or near Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan, and India. These are all countries that are vitally important to the United States as key allies or enemies, and as potential economic and political competitors. Afghanistan is also next to Turkmenistan and other Central Asian Republics that are […]
A Scandal about Afghanistan Shakes Berlin
Like the peaks of the Hindu Kusch dominating much of Afghanistan, the war in that unhappy country increasingly overshadows the political scenery in Germany. Parallels with the situation in the USA are unmistakable. On December 3rd the Bundestag voted on prolonging the use of German troops in Afghanistan for another year. But before the delegates […]
Index: The Privatized War in Afghanistan
Additional number of American troops President Obama plans to deploy to Afghanistan: 30,000 Total number of U.S. troops that will be there after the deployment: 98,000 Number of private contractors working for the U.S. in Afghanistan as of September 2009: 104,101 Percent by which that number grew between June and September: 40 Percent of […]
Military Families Respond to Announcement of Increased Troop Deployments to Afghanistan
Military Families Speak Out, an organization of over 4,000 military families opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, issued the following statement in response to last night’s speech by President Obama regarding Afghanistan. President Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by deploying another 30,000 troops has sent the message to military families […]
Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan
Is it just me, or is the pontification of Western leaders about corruption in Afghanistan growing rather tiresome? There is something very Captain Renault about it. We’re shocked, shocked that the Afghans have sullied our morally immaculate occupation of their country with their dirty corruption. How ungrateful can they be? But perhaps we should consider […]
The Democrats’ War in Afghanistan
Part 1: Eight Years and Counting The United States invasion and occupation of Afghanistan entered its ninth year in October, and the majority of Americans now tell opinion polls they want it to end. So far the war has failed to achieve U.S. objectives, and it is likely the Obama Administration’s expansion of the fighting […]
Veterans Brock McIntosh and Rick Reyes on Afghanistan
“I thought as soon as we hit the ground, we would immediately start changing things and making it better for the people, but, during the entire time I was there, we rarely did any kind of humanitarian aid missions. They have a lot of social issues that they are dealing with, like poverty and […]
The Lures and Perils of Gender Activism in Afghanistan
The Anthony Hyman Memorial Lecture, School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, 2009 I feel both honoured and gratified to be offering the 7th Anthony Hyman Memorial Lecture. This gives me the opportunity to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Tony for his unwavering support and friendship over the years. When I […]
Letter to USSR Minister of Defense on the Situation in Afghanistan, 13 August 1987
To Candidate Member of the Politburo of the CC CPSU USSR Minister of Defense Comrade Dmitry Timofeevich Yazov Moscow, USSR Ministry of Defense The Afghan problem continues to attract attention in the sphere of international affairs. It begins to cause a certain concern on the part of the Soviet people as well. This is […]
About the Results of Eduard Shevardnadze and Anatoly Dobrynin’s Visit to Afghanistan
Notes of Anatoly S. Chernyaev Shevardnadze: In the country and in the provinces they created authoritative organizations for reconciliation. They are working actively. There is a special committee for refugees. Many [rebel] bands — although they are not big — stopped armed struggle. Najib leaves a very good impression. However, not everybody supports him, […]
Regarding the Further Measures in Afghanistan
Notes of Anatoly S. Chernyaev Gorbachev: My intuition tells me — something is worrisome. I am afraid we are losing time! Everybody is getting used to it. I guess they say, well, there is a war going on, everything in its turn, such is life. “The strange war!” — soon they will attach this […]
