September 17, 2010

"The Taliban are winning, we are losing."
- Robert Blackwill, former U.S. National Security Adviser
"Nato urged to allow partition of Afghanistan",
Daily Telegraph, September 13, 2010

"But the Western coalition is in a quagmire in the south and the Taliban are winning in the north, consolidating their grip in the east, and slowly encircling Kabul...Worse, the lack of local reform and a toothless anti-corruption policy leaves the coalition fighting for a corrupt government with no popular support."
- Gilles Dorronsoro, "Face Reality:  Talk to the Taliban",
International Herald Tribune, September 15, 2010

Robert Blackwill, deputy National Security Adviser under Condolezza Rice in 2003 to 2004, said that there had been a decade of 'innumerable errors' in the Western approach to Afghanistan and  called for drastic changes during a speech at the International Institute of Strategic Studies think tank in London on September 13, 2010.


U.S. casualties:  5,700 killed, 40,000 wounded
(official numbers, the real toll is actually much higher)

Nearly twice as many Americans have died fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than were lost in the 9/11 attacks. The total cost of these long wars will be in the trillions of dollars...The entire national security system has suffered as a result of the wrong-headed actions of the Bush administration in Iraq and the Obama administration in Afghanistan.

Sources and Recommended Reading: 

Bollyn, Christopher, "Afghanistan - Obama's War for Israel", July 6, 2010
http://www.bollyn.com/afghanistan-the-war-for-israel

Bollyn, "Dying in Vain - Why Afghanistan?", February 8, 2010
http://www.bollyn.com/11438

Bollyn, "Obama's Deception - 9/11 and Afghanistan", June 5, 2009
http://www.bollyn.com/obamas-deception-9-11-and-afghanistan

Bollyn, "The Spoils of War: The Minerals of Afghanistan", January 7, 2002
http://www.bollyn.com/the-spoils-of-war-the-minerals-of-afghanistan

Dorronsoro, Gilles, "Worsening Outlook in Afghanistan", Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 9, 2010
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=41531#strategy

Dorronsoro, Gilles, "Face Reality: Talk to the Taliban", International Herald Tribune, September 15, 2010
http://www.hmforces.co.uk/news/articles/3828-face-reality-talk-to-the-taliban

Goodman, Melvin A., "The Self-Inflicted Wounds of 9/11", September 11, 2010
http://www.hamsayeh.net/hamsayehnet_iran-international%20news1658.htm