Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, who died earlier this week, met with President Obama and Vice President Biden in the Oval Office on May 6, 2009. Official White House photo by Pete Souza.Why Are We Sacrificing Two Soldiers a Day in Afghanistan? -- Henry Rollins, Vanity Fair
“You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan.” — Richard Holbrooke (1941–2010)
A few days ago, I read that a suicide bombing in front of a NATO base in Zhari, Afghanistan—a district in Kandahar, in the southeast of the country—killed six NATO soldiers and two Afghan soldiers. I also read that more than 670 international soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year.
Sec. Def. Robert Gates says that the environment in Afghanistan is improving and he hopes to realize the goal of pulling American forces out of major combat there by 2014. What exactly does that mean?
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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials
Afghanistan experts ask Barack Obama to end the war. But they've called this one wrong -- Praveen Swami, The Telegraph
Failure in Afghanistan not an option: NATO credibility and American lives at stake -- Shaida M. Abdali, Washington Times
Vietnam syndrome: Obama must negotiate in order to avoid a similar outcome -- Arnaud de Borchgrave, Washington Times
The Afghan money pit -- Mike Honda, L.A. Times
In region he oversaw, a mixed review for Holbrooke -- Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times
The Taliban on Richard Holbrooke -- Christopher Dickey, The Daily Beast
Another chance for progress in the Middle East -- Washington Post editorial
Iraq's war on Christians -- Tim Rutten, L.A. Times
Asia’s Fragile Special Relationship -- Jaswant Singh, Project Syndicate
Time to reset the India-China relationship -- Siddharth Varadarajan, The Hindu
The Kremlin resets Russian foreign policy -- Tina Burrett, Japan Times
From Bad to Worse in Russia -- Kim Zigfeld, American Thinker
Australian Blindsides Israel on Nukes -- Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary Magazine
Government Has Botched Airline Security, So Why Not Let The Airlines Do The Job? -- Michael T. Belongia and William F. Shughart II, Investors.com
Euro Trashed: Europe’s rendezvous with monetary destiny -- Christopher Caldwell, Weekly Standard
WikiLeaks and the Specter of Cyber War -- Harlan Ullman, New Atlanticist
What WikiLeaks Cables Really Reveal -- Vasko Kohlmayer, American Thinker