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Original Commentaries
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
April 7, 2008
“The growth of anti-Iranian sentiment in both Sunni and Shiite Arab communities in Iraq holds out the possibility that Iraq can become a bulwark against Iranian aims in the region, and that Iraq can, with American support, return to its former role of balancing Iranian power without being the regional threat it had become under Saddam Hussein.”
--Frederick W. Kagan, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, “Iraq: The Way Ahead," March 24, 2008 
“It is critical, in my view, that we establish a process that gets Iraq’s neighbors and the world’s major powers much more actively involved in helping Iraqis arrive at a political accommodation. Our influence in Iraq is a waning asset. The influence of Iraq’s neighbors and the major powers is a wasted asset.”
--Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE), chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hearing on “Iraq 2012: What Can It Look Like, How Do We Get There?” April 3, 2008