In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

07/24/08: Strategy and Leadership Needed —Lt. Gen. (Ret.) David W. Barno, U.S. Army; commander, Combined Forces Command Afghanistan (2003-2005); director, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, Natl Defense University. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.
07/22/08: What the U.S. Should Do —Andrew Exum, former Army captain, led U.S. Army Rangers in Iraq and Afghanistan; Ph.D student, War Studies, King's College London. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
07/08/08: Planning the Transition —Ghaith al-Omari, director of advocacy, American Task Force on Palestine; former foreign policy adviser to Palestinian President Abbas. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Neglecting Afghanistan

“[W]e're fighting two wars at once, three wars at once. We're fighting the global war on terror, we're fighting a war in Iraq, and we're fighting a war in Afghanistan. There are multiple demands on our forces. That's the reality of life at this point. The focus of our efforts clearly has been in Iraq, the battleground which Osama bin Laden identified as the central front in their war against us, the place in which they sought to set up a foothold for their caliphate that would reach into Europe.”
—Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, DoD News Briefing, July 23, 2008

“The most dangerous area of the world … representing the most significant U.S. national security threat … is not Iraq but the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. … [W]e still lack relevant, long-term strategies to achieve sustainable security and stability in both Iraq and Afghanistan.”
—Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), speech, Brookings Institution, June 26, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Afghanistan: Not Lost, But Needs More Attention —Mohammad M. Stanekzai, Jennings Randolph Senior Afghanistan Fellow, United States Institute of Peace
Back to the Future —Karl F. Inderfurth, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asia, and Wendy Chamberlin, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan; president, Middle East Institute (Khaleej Times)
Afghanistan: Government Formation and Performance —Kenneth Katzman, specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division, CRS Report for Congress

Bush Needs to Dissuade Israel on New Settlement Plan

Newsday, Editorial

December 14, 2007

The revived Israeli-Palestinian peace process could get derailed at the starting gate unless President George W. Bush acts quickly to put it back on track. Bush, who pledged to become actively involved in the process after a seven-year hiatus, must persuade Israel to give up its wrongheaded plan to enlarge a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. …

At a summit last month in Annapolis, Md., Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to resume the peace process. They also agreed to implement the key provisions of the 2003 road map. That blueprint for peace called on Israel to freeze the construction of Jewish settlements and for Palestinians to impose law and order in the occupied territories.

As a goodwill gesture after Annapolis, Abbas deployed hundreds of members of security forces in the northern West Bank cities of Nablus and Tulkarem, in an attempt to curb militant factions. Israel also must do its part.

And so must Washington. Bush should use whatever pressure is necessary to get Israel to rescind its settlement-enlarging plan. If the scheme was devised as a way for Israeli hard-liners to kill the peace process at its rebirth, they would succeed - and prove skeptics right once again. If Bush is serious about making Mideast peace a priority, he cannot allow that to happen. Access the full article>>