Alissa J. Rubin. New York Times. 31 October 2009.
http://defensealt.org/HKHukc
Monthly Archives: October 2009
Chimera of Victory
Gian P. Gentile. New York Times, 31 October 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/opinion/31iht-edgentile.html?_r=1
Excerpt:
History shows that occupation by foreign armies with the intent of changing occupied societies does not work and ends up costing considerable blood and treasure.
The notion that if only an army gets a few more troops, with different and better generals, then within a few years it can defeat a multi-faceted insurgency set in the middle of civil war, is not supported by an honest reading of history.
Algeria, Vietnam and Iraq show this to be the case.
Support Grows for Pursuit of Peace Deals With the Taliban
Yaroslav Trofimov. Wall Street Journal, 30 October 2009.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125686434305817635.html
Another crack in the foundation: the maturity of the government’s debt
Fabius Maximus, 30 October 2009.
http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/maturity/
RAND Forum on U.S. Policy Afghanistan
C-Span.org, 29 October 2009.
http://defensealt.org/HaFRA1
AfPak-Iraq: Wrong War, Wrong Thinking. The United States faces mounting problems in the three leading conflict-zones of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
Paul Rogers. Open Democracy, 29 October 2009. Hosted on the Commondreams website.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/03-6
Excerpt:
If there is a way ahead, it rests not on short-term calculations about troop numbers but on a larger reassessment by the Barack Obama administration of the entire US security posture in the middle east and southwest Asia. This will have to do more than crisis-manage the dire problems inherited from George W Bush; what is needed is no less than a move beyond military-led thinking to an integrated understanding of what security in the 21st century actually is.