Afghanistan Links

Afghanistan Links

Afghanistan's History

• Afghanistan: At the Crossroads of Ancient Civilizations


• Afghanistan's Agony


• Assessing Afghanistan


• Unearthing Anguish in a Troubled Land

Drugs

• Afghan farmers find alternative to opium: marijuana


• Afghan opium fight hurts poorest


• Afghanistan: Addicted to Heroin


• Canada may be drawn into drug-eradication in Afghanistan


• Canada stays out of Afghan poppy eradication


• Cannabis Thrives in an Afghan Province


• Drug war, Taliban, poppies are all in full flower


• Grow opium or die: Afghan farmers say choice is stark (scroll down for article)


• Hooked on a Failing


• In Afghan Poppy Heartland, New Crops, Growing Danger


• Let Afghanistan Grow the World's Opium Supply


• Nations vow to tackle opium problem in Afghanistan


• No alternative to opium, say farmers


• Poppy paradox in Afghanistan


• Poverty feeds Afghan drugs trade


• Ruined poppy farmers join ranks with the Taliban


• Schweich, ICG, etc.--Assume the Existence of a State in Afghanistan


• The extraordinary folly of Britain's new opium war


• The perils of trying to uproot an opium economy


• The Taliban's Opium War


• U.S. fails to reduce Afghan opium crop


• Victorious warlords set to open the opium floodgates


• War on drugs strengthens Afghan mafia


• What Are They Smoking?

Fighting the Insurgentcy

• 'How We Lost the War We Won: A Journey into Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan'


• 'If it was jihad then, it's jihad now'


• 'The Taliban Are Terrorists'


• A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan


• A Ragtag Pursuit of the Taliban


• Aaugh!


• A catalogue of errors in Afghanistan


• A heavy hand in Afghanistan


• Afghan loss equals terrorist win: ex-CIA analyst


• Afghan War Only Just Beginning, Security Group Warns


• Afghanistan: Time for Truth


• Afghanistan's insurgency spreading north


• An insurgency beyond the Taliban


• Are Theological Tensions Distancing Taliban from al-Qaida?


• As Taliban Influence Grows, 'Shadow Government' Seems an Increasingly Viable Option to Afghans


• Backlash from Afghan Civilian Deaths


• Britain's key weapon in Afghanistan: the bribe


• Britain's theatrical war against the Taliban


• British 'success' under siege in Afghanistan


• British plan to build training camp for Taliban defectors in Afghanistan


• Brutal U.S. Attack on Unarmed Afghans Captured by Photos


• Can tribes take on the Taliban?


• Civilian deaths from Western fire in Afghanistan could fuel support for Taliban


• Civilian Deaths Undermine War on Taliban


• Concerns Mounts Over Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan


• Crunch time coming in Afghanistan?


• Ex-Taliban Commander Lectures Mullah Omar About Koran


• Fatal errors in Afghanistan


• Fight Less, Win More


• Fighting a Hard, Half-Forgotten War


• For us ze war is over by tea time, ja


• From Great Game to Grand Bargain


• Hobbled in Kabul


• How COIN Generalists Fail Afghanistan


• In Afghanistan, a Do-Over Battle


• In Afghanistan, It's About Air Power, Too


• In the Land of the Taliban


• It's time to recalibrate Canada's mission


• Karzai: 'I Wish I Had the Taliban as My Soldiers'


• Majority of Afghan insurgents not Taliban


• Mistakes by Afghan Translators Endanger Lives, Hamper Western Effort


• NATO Confronts Surprisingly Fierce Taliban


• Pouring Gas on the Afghanistan Bonfire


• Pushtunwali: The Code that Governs the Lives of Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan


• Secrets of the Taliban's success


• Sending more troops to Afghanistan could backfire, experts warn


• Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south


• Taking the Fight to the Taliban


• Taliban control half of Afghanistan, says report


• Taliban Evolves into Network of Groups


• Taliban factions may be using British forces to assassinate rival commanders


• The Other War


• The Surge That Failed: Afghanistan Under the Bombs


• The Taliban Fedayeen: The World's Worst Suicide Bombers?


• Three warlords lead Afghan uprising


• Tribal militias enlisted to protect the south


• U.K. army's 'vacuum' bomb hits Taliban


• U.S. and Afghan government frustrated by Taliban's resilience


• U.S. losing the moral high ground


• U.S. Planes Bomb Afghanistan With $100 Bills and Photos of Bush


• U.S. Military Weighs Recruiting Afghan Tribes to Fight Taliban


• Why? Six years on from the invasion of Afghanistan


• Why Does the U.S. Think It Can Win in Afghanistan?


• Why the Neo-Taliban is Winning

Foreign Aid in Afghanistan

• Afghans Find Key Promises Unfulfilled


• Poorly-directed aid increases Afghanistan's woes


• U.N. to urge revamp of Afghan aid


• U.S. aid to Afghanistan falls short


• U.S. paid for media firm Afghans didn't want

Growing Support for the Taliban and Antipathy Toward the Foreigners

• Anti-Western feeling seen rising in Afghanistan (scroll down for article)


• As Crime Increases in Kabul, So Does Nostalgia for Taliban


• Hearts, Minds, and Body Bags: NATO Battles Rising Hostility in Afghanistan


• Poll: Afghans' Criticism of U.S. Efforts Rises; In the Southwest, Taliban Support Grows


• Taliban still a force in Afghanistan


• Taliban support rising in Afghanistan: study


• We want the Taliban back, say ordinary Afghans

Iran and Afghanistan

• Tensions mount between Iran, Afghanistan's Taliban in 1998


• The impact of U.S.-Iran enmity on Afghanistan

Pakistan-India-Afghanistan

• A Line Not to Be Crossed: The Afghan-Pakistan Border


• Ahmed Rashid on How the U.S. Aid to Ally Pakistan is Aiding the Taliban


• At Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge


• Embassy Attack in Kabul Highlights Pakistan-India Rivalry


• From Pakistan, with jihad


• How the Taliban keep their coffers full


• In the Hiding Zone


• Inside the Pakistan-Taliban Relationship: Six Questions for Ahmed Rashid


• Insurgencies spreading in Pakistan and Afghanistan


• International strength of Taliban and al-Qaida threatens allied efforts


• ISI-Sponsored Attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul Boomerangs


• Killing ourselves in Afghanistan


• Losing Afghanistan


• Obama and the Taliban


• Obama is saying the wrong things about Afghanistan


• Pakistan, the Taliban, and the U.S.


• Pakistan cuts supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan


• Pakistan provided military aid, troops to Taliban


• Pakistan reopens supply lines to Western forces


• Pakistanis Aided Attack in Kabul, U.S. Officials Say


• Pashtuns and Taliban in Two States


• Secret documents reveal U.S. concern about Pakistan's backing of Taliban before 9/11


• Side-Effects of the War in Afghanistan on the Pakistani State


• Taliban stage a coup of their own


• The 'War on Terrorism' Licenses a New Stupidity in Geopolitics


• The Getaway: Questions surround a secret Pakistani airlift


• U.S. Afghan supply lines depend on Islamist militant


• U.S. documents show Pakistan gave Taliban military aid


• What's Really Going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan


• Why Pakistan is unlikely to crack down on Islamic militants, despite U.S. pressure

Situation of Women and Children

• Afghan Girls, Back in the Shadows


• Afghan women seek death by fire


• Afghan Women Still in Chains Under Karzai


• Afghan women suffer daily violence


• Afghanistan: Behind the burqas


• Bush fails women in Afghanistan


• Don't look, don't tell, Canadian troops told


• Generation lost as Taliban target vulnerable schools in bandit region


• In Afghanistan, Rape Victims Begin To Break The Silence


• Interview with Female Afghan Parliamentarian Malalai Joya


• Marriage practice victimizes young girls, society


• Shh, It's an Open Secret: Warlords and Pedophilia


• The Afghan women jailed for being victims of rape


• The Schools the Taliban Won't Torch


• Women's lives worse than ever in Afghanistan


• Women Back Under Wraps with Taliban-Style Vice Squad

Talking to and Engaging with the Taliban?

• Afghan opposition courts Taliban


• Afghanistan pushes reconciliation effort


• European diplomats expelled 'at behest of the US'


• Karzai offers government role to Taliban


• Peace Talks Could be Win-Win for Afghan Government, Taliban


• Saudis Held Talks Between Taliban, Afghan Government


• Secret Taliban peace bid


• Taliban spokesman rejects Karzai's offer of talks


• Talk to Mullah Omar, if it saves British soldiers' lives


• The Afghanistan Advantage


• Time to talk peace with the Taliban?


• We can persuade Taliban to be peaceful, says expelled EU man


• Why it's so hard to negotiate with the Taliban


• Why the West thinks it is time to talk to the Taliban

The 'New Afghanistan'

• Afghan Absurdities


• Afghan Autopsy


• Afghan government failure reopens door to the Taliban


• Afghan lawmakers push cultural bans of Taliban era


• Afghanistan: Five Years Later


• Afghanistan: Just Another Bush Success Story


• Afghans' Uneasy Peace With Democracy


• Afghans Fed Up With Government and U.S.


• Afghans to Karzai: You failed us


• After U.S. $6 Billion, Where's an Afghan Cop When You Need One?


• Chaos in Afghanistan


• Consider Afghanistan Democratized


• Corruption, bribes and trafficking: a cancer that is engulfing Afghanistan


• Corruption eats away at Afghan government


• Disillusioned Afghans Seen Turning on Karzai


• Fear, Disillusion, and Despair


• Grim reality of life beyond Helmand


• Hopes and fears of Afghan Christians


• How Taliban sprang 450 insurgents from Kandahar's Sarposa prison in Afghanistan


• Hunkering Down in Afghanistan


• In Afghanistan, Anger in Parliament Grows as President Defies Majority's Wishes


• International Occupation Isn't Helping Afghanistan


• Kajaki dam: Contentious, costly, and a failure


• On the brink


• Post-Taliban Free Speech Blocked by Courts, Clerics


• Rahman in Retrospect


• Saving Afghanistan


• The day that changed Afghanistan


• The President Who Would Be King


• Where does Karzai go from here?


• Winning the Battle, Losing the Faith


• Women who took on the Taliban--and lost

The Dim Prospects for a NATO Victory

• Afghan war is unwinnable


• Afghanistan: A River Running Backward


• Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die


• Ashes of Empire


• British envoy says mission in Afghanistan is doomed, according to leaked memo


• Brits Say: West Can't Win in Afghanistan


• Could NATO lose in Afghanistan?


• Dear Jim


• Downhill in Afghanistan: The most remote place on Earth is now the most dangerous


• Europeans see what Americans cannot


• Fear battles hope on the road to Kandahar


• Fiddling While Afghanistan Slides Away


• How to Save Afghanistan


• Is NATO Losing the Real Battle in Afghanistan?


• Memo to Canada: Might won't win in Afghanistan


• NATO's Lost Cause


• NATO Needs an Exit Strategy in Afghanistan


• Rockets, guile, and the lessons of history: the Taliban besiege Kabul


• Russian veterans on Afghanistan war: 'impossible to win'


• Surging in Afghanistan: Too Much, Too Late?


• Taliban ambushes threaten Nato's vital logistics route into Afghanistan


• Taliban at Kabul's doorstep


• Taliban conflict 'cannot be won' in Afghanistan


• Taliban Gains in Afghanistan Due to U.S.-Led Policy, Study Says


• The Afghan fire looks set to spread, but there is a way out


• The Afghan mission: lessons from the past


• The Reality of War in Afghanistan


• The steady stream of maimed or killed soldiers is but one of many increasingly disturbing parallels between Afghanistan and the Vietnam War


• The Taliban's Baghdad Strategy


• The war that can bring neither peace nor freedom


• There is never going to be a NATO victory in Afghanistan


• Time to Face Facts in Afghanistan


• U.S. studies fear Afghanistan decline into terrorist haven


• We're losing in Afghanistan too


• Who are the Taliban? The question that is snaring NATO in tribal wars


• Why 'Victory' in First Phase of War on Terror Unravelled


• Why NATO cannot win the Afghan war


• Why NATO Troops Can't Deliver Peace in Afghanistan


• Will Military Rule Return to Pakistan--and Afghanistan--in a Year?

The Humanitarian-Economic Situation

• 'The new Afghanistan is a myth. It's time to go and get a job abroad'


• Afghan border province angry Kabul 'doesn't bother'


• Afghan Capital Mostly in the Dark


• Afghanistan Spiralling Back to Days of Taliban, Say Charities


• Campaign Against Taliban 'Causes Misery and Hunger'


• Gap between rich and poor widens in Afghanistan


• Harsh Winter Overwhelms Afghans


• In Kabul, Stark Gulf Between Wealthy Few and the Poor


• Severe drought and food price increases cause malnutrition and disease


• Unemployment slowly returns to Afghanistan

The Warlords

• Afghan amnesty shows warlord's clout


• Afghan Warlords, Formerly Backed By the CIA, Now Turn Their Guns On U.S. Troops


• Big fish among the Afghan warlords


• In Afghanistan, yesterday's warlords are today's bureaucrats


• In the shadow of the warlords


• Prosecutor Suggests 'Some People' Cannot Be Tried


• Rashid Dostum: The treacherous general

Treatment of Journalists and the Media

• A Young Life Hangs in the Balance in Afghanistan's Cultural War


• Afghan council wants soap operas off TV


• Afghan CTV journalist declared enemy combatant


• Afghan evils ignored at our peril


• Afghan journalism student sentenced to 20 years for insulting Islam


• Afghan journalist jailed for distributing Koran


• Afghan News Media Finds Foes on All Sides


• Afghan officials clamp down on the press


• Afghan reporter shocked by trial


• Afghan reporters: Between a rock and a hard place


• Freed Afghan journalist reunited with family


• Iranian Blogger Claims Article That Led to Death Sentence


• Journalist detained for reporting


• Lifeline for Pervez: Afghan Senate withdraws demand for death sentence


• Sentenced to Death: Afghan Who Dared to Read About Women's Rights

Treatment of Prisoners

• 'One huge U.S. jail'


• 'Worse' Than Guantanamo: U.S. Expands Secretive Prison Inside Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan


• Canada quietly halted transfer of Afghan detainees


• Secrets in the Mountains of Afghanistan


• See no evil?


• U.S.-run jail in Afghanistan 'worse than Guantanamo

(Broken links fixed 28-29 April 2010.)