Afghanistan
April 1, 2013 — Scott Johnson
When USMC General John Allen’s retirement was announced in February, our friend Hugh Hewitt called on Victor Davis Hanson to answer the question whether such a drain of military talent — the retirements of Generals McChrystal, Petraeus, Mattis and Allen, in that order — had ever previously occurred in our country’s history over so short a period of time (30 months) because of retirement. “That they occurred during wartime,” Hugh
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February 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Claremont Institute continues its American Mind series with host Charles Kesler, editor of the Claremont Review of Books, and guest Mark Helprin. Helprin is the acclaimed novelist and observer of the contemporary scene. He has been a ferocious critic of our response to 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq. The institute posts the interview in segments on a weekly basis here. We are pleased to post the interview in its
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February 17, 2013 — Scott Johnson
It’s hard to understand our lives without seeing that the human virtues are real and that they exist pretty much as Aristotle described them in The Nichomachaean Ethics. Aristotle’s understanding imprinted itself on the Founders of the United States. When progressive politicians, historians and social scientists denigrated the virtues in order to undermine the Founders’ handiwork, as they continue to do in our own day, John Ford sought to save
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February 11, 2013 — John Hinderaker
This afternoon, President Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Staff Sgt. Clint Romesha at the White House. Sgt. Romesha received the medal for his heroism in helping to fight off an attack in 2009 by more than 300 Taliban who threatened to overrun Combat Outpost Keating, in northeastern Afghanistan. For some reason, the Daily Mail web site seems to have the most complete account of the ceremony, and the
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January 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Over the holidays my daughter Eliana was home poring over an advance copy of General McChrystal’s memoir, My Share of the Task, officially published this week. She found it absorbing and read it closely. On Monday she followed up with an interview of General McChrstyal. NRO has posted her column “McChrystal’s Share of the Task.” Her take on the book makes points I haven’t seen made elsewhere. I want to
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December 14, 2012 — Scott Johnson
A reader writes in response to John’s post “Don’t criticize the Taliban!” What is to be said about that mind-boggling Army manual that John discusses in the post? The reader comments: I am an active duty Army officer and a military history major with two deployments under my belt. I read this article in the Wall Street Journal when it was first published a day or two ago and have
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December 12, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The Wall Street Journal obtained a copy of a new Army handbook for soldiers destined for Afghanistan. The draft handbook has not yet been put into use, but is described as a “final coordinating draft” that was sent out for review in November. The manual instructs soldiers on how to get along with their counterparts in the Afghan Army. It reflects the view, held by some officers but generally deemed
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November 22, 2012 — John Hinderaker
I’m only half way through it, but with our readers starting to think about Christmas shopping, I want to join the chorus of praise for Jake Tapper and his new book about the war in Afghanistan, The Outpost. Tapper is well-known as one of the few real journalists in the Washington press corps, but The Outpost is an achievement of a whole different order of magnitude. It tells the story
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November 4, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Tom Brown is the father-in-law of Dartmouth alum and ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper. I admire Jake’s work; he seems to me to be a straight shooter. He’s not toeing anybody’s line. Mr. Brown draws attention to Tapper’s new book, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, to be published on November 13. He writes: Jake details life for our soldiers as they build, man, support and
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November 3, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Today’s Wall Street Journal contains “closing argument” statements by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. President Obama mentions Afghanistan once in part of a sentence that talks about “ending” – not winning – “the wars.” Romney says nothing about Afghanistan. A friend writes: Think about this for a second: America has been at war in Afghanistan for 11 years; Americans are currently fighting and dying there; and neither candidate for president
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September 18, 2012 — Steven Hayward
The American media continues to neglect or deflect the Obama Administration’s negligence in the Middle East, at least the New York Times saw fit to put on page 1 yesterday the news of the latest successful Taliban attack in Afghanistan. Like the Benghazi consulate attack, it seems to have involved a serious security breach. (Hat tip to my old drinking pal and loyal Power Line reader JB in Texas for
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July 6, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Dexter Filkins has lengthy article in the New Yorker about what likely is in store for Afghanistan once the U.S. completes the withdrawal of its combat troops. He writes: After eleven years, nearly two thousand Americans killed, sixteen thousand Americans wounded, nearly four hundred billion dollars spent, and more than twelve thousand Afghan civilians dead since 2007, the war in Afghanistan has come to this: the United States is leaving,
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July 3, 2012 — John Hinderaker
I tend to think of Afghanistan as a place that time forgot, but it is actually worse than that–sadder, anyway. Before the political upheavals of the 1970s that culminated in the Soviet invasion, the country, or portions of it, had made considerable progress. Retronaut has an extraordinary collection of photos from the 1950s and 1960s; the pictures come from a book that was produced by Afghanistan’s planning ministry and salvaged
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May 8, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
In response to news that the Obama adminstration is releasing prisoners who fought against us in Afghanistan, Max Boot presents a thoughtful defense of “tactical” prisoner releases of insurgent fighters. Boot makes the valid point that during the Iraq surge, we released Sunni fighters who vowed to turn against al Qaeda. This policy arguably helped advanced the “Sunni awakening” in Anbar province which, in turn, helped make the Iraq surge
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May 7, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Congressional Democrats and their Republican counterparts don’t agree about much these days, but there is bipartisan consensus when it comes to the results of President Obama’s Afghan policy. After visiting Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission last week, Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Republican Rep. Mike Rogers – leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees, respectively – both concluded that the Taliban has grown stronger since Obama sent 33,000 troops
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May 3, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The conventional wisdom is that President Obama has the advantage in this year’s presidential campaign when it comes to foreign policy. I agree. His signature accomplishments — the killing of bin Laden, the end of our military involvement in Iraq, and the promise to wind down our involvement in Afghanistan — are likely to be deemed good enough for government work. But then, so was Bill Clinton’s foreign policy, until
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May 2, 2012 — Scott Johnson
President Obama addresses the nation from Afghanistan after signing a historic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that defined a new kind of relationship between our countries – a future in which Afghans are responsible for the security of their nation, we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states, and a future in which the war ends, and a new chapter begins. That’s how the White House itself
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