What will 2012 bring?

Glittering fireworks exploded as revelers in Australia and Asia welcomed 2012 and others around the world looked forward to bidding a weary adieu to a year marred by natural disasters and economic turmoil. New York’s Times Square was awash in hopeful sentiments as it prepared to welcome hordes of New Year’s Eve revelers. In London, […]

Afghanistan War ironies and uncertainties

Amazing as it sounds, NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance, may be losing the only war the 61-year old pact every fought. All its soldiers, heavy bombers, tanks, helicopter gunships, armies of mercenaries, and electronic gear are being beaten by a bunch of lightly-armed Afghan farmers and mountain tribesmen. Why? Well, 10 years into […]

Your Tax Dollars at War

The 2011 military budget is the largest in history, not just in actual dollars, but in inflation-adjusted dollars, exceeding even the spending in World War II, when the nation was on an all-out war footing. This military spending in all its myriad forms works out to represent 53% of total US federal spending. US military […]

400 US Military Bases in Afghanistan of 700 total

According to official sources, approximately 700 bases of every size dot the Afghan countryside. Colonel Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), tells TomDispatch that there are, at present, nearly 400 U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan, including camps, forward operating bases, and combat outposts.  In addition, there are at […]

All-out counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan requires 600,000 troops

McClatchy Newspapers reports that the U.S. Army’s recently revised counterinsurgency manual estimates that an all-out counterinsurgency campaign in a country with Afghanistan’s population would require about 600,000 troops. Yet President Obama’s recent escalation means we’ll “only” have 100,000 troops there. With this in mind, David Sirota writes: Therefore, either: 1) The administration believes we can […]

No withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011

President Obama’s top national security adviser, who has played a key part in designing the new Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy, has been trying to clear up some confusion about the exit strategy.  Gen James Jones said in an interview that “in no manner, shape or form” would the US withdraw from Afghanistan in 2011. This […]

Gates: U.S. forces could remain in Iraq past 2011

On a surprise visit to Baghdad, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Iraqi officials have acknowledged that they might need American military support past 2011. Gates said Tuesday that token U.S. forces could remain in Iraq past the planned total withdrawal at the end of 2011.