Despite 2009 “Surge” Taliban Remains Force to be Reckoned with in Afghanistan

Foreign Policy’s Stephen Walt highlights a chart by Belfer Center fellow Matt Waldman showing that as the US-led 2009 “Surge” in Afghanistan proceeded, US casualties increased. The pace in 2012 is also roughly similar to the toll from the previous two years: Equally important,… Continue Reading →

Broadwell Defended Petraeus’ Village Destruction Policy

via IPS News Paula Broadwell, whose affair with Gen. David Petraeus brought his career to a sudden end last week, had sought to help defend his decision in 2010 to allow village destruction in Afghanistan that not only violated his… Continue Reading →

Sanctions Continue to hit Average Iranians

The US-led sanctions regime isn’t directly targeting Iran’s healthcare system but reports continue to suggest that critically-ill Iranians are being affected. The Al Jazeera English clip above squares with Najmeh Bozorgmehr’s Financial Times article from September about how sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank are… Continue Reading →

WaPo on the “disposition matrix,” the CIA’s next-generation kill list

By Paul Mutter The Washington Post‘s Greg Miller has begun a three-part series on the future of the Obama Administration’s counterterrorism drone strike program, which will include a “next-generation targeting list” (aka “kill list”) in the form of a “dipposition matrix”. Though… Continue Reading →