4 Items

U.S. Airmen with the 451st Expeditionary Operations Group participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Kandahar Airfield in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, May 27, 2013.

DoD Photo

Analysis & Opinions - New Yorker

Memorial Day, at War

| May 24, 2014

"For most of Kabul, it was a mundane Monday. For soldiers on a small base in the city’s center, it was another day at war, another day planning a response to the Taliban spring offensive. For the Americans in that group, it was also Memorial Day."

GHŌR, Afghanistan: May 28, 2012, Former Taliban fighters line up to handover their rifles to the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan during a reintegration ceremony at the provincial governor's compound.

DoD Photo

Analysis & Opinions - Christian Science Monitor

Pakistan's Release of Taliban Prisoners—An Empty Deal

| November 12, 2013

At the request of Afghan officials, Pakistan has reportedly released almost 40 Taliban combatants, supposedly to help spur peace negotiations. But experience shows this is wishful thinking. These prisoner releases give the Taliban something they want, while providing nothing in return.

First stage in the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, 20 October 1986.

Wikimedia Commons

Report - International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence

Talking to the Taliban: Hope over History?

| July 2013

Talking to the Taliban: Hope over History? provides a history of attempts to talk to the Taliban. The publication of the report coincides with the announcement that the United States will begin direct negotiations with the Taliban within days. The report charts the history of talks with the Taliban and their forebears. It explains that such talks are nothing new and that contacts have existed between the Taliban and the West for many years and argues that attempts to negotiate with the Taliban since 2001 have been characterised by wishful thinking, bad timing, poor management and the 'chaos of good intentions'.

President Barack Obama and moderator Bob Schieffer, right, listen to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, left, during the third presidential debate at Lynn University, Oct. 22, 2012, in Boca Raton, Fla.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - The New York Times

Shopping List Foreign Policy

| October 23, 2012

"...[T]onight's debate didn't change many (any?) voters' opinions about either candidate. And it left national security wonks I know banging their heads against the table, still wondering how the election will affect America's foreign policies in the years ahead. But at least we're now certain the military has fewer bayonets than it did in 1916."