Stay Informed

Sign up to receive the Middle East Bulletin!

Support Middle East Progress

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  versus
  • “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

    The Settlements are the Biggest Impediment to Security

    Yossi Alpher, coeditor, bitterlemons family of internet publications, former director, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University
    April 11, 2008

    Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)

    On the occasion of Rice’s visit, Defense Minister Ehud Barak yielded to U.S. pressure and offered a series of modest security concessions. These included the deployment of 25 Palestinian security force APCs in the West Bank and of some 700 Palestinian policemen in Jenin, the removal of a checkpoint near Rimonim east of Ramallah and the opening of 50 earth roadblocks preventing transportation between villages and main roads. These represent the minimum that Barak apparently believes the IDF can implement without risking security damage.

    Looked at in terms of the security status quo, Barak’s and the IDF’s hesitations are understandable. Take Nablus (biblical Shechem), a city of close to 200,000 that is controlled largely by Hamas and is considered the West Bank’s biggest terrorism base, with bomb factories rooted deep in the subterranean warrens of the old Roman city and the city’s four refugee camps. … So high is the terrorist alert around Nablus that even every pedestrian leaving town is checked for ID and by a metal detector–whereas pedestrians leaving Qalqilya, another Hamas-controlled city that borders on the green line, are not checked. The IDF officers in charge of the checkpoints around Nablus and other Palestinian towns in the West Bank … realistically recognize that the checkpoint system is so demoralizing to the population that it creates new terrorists. But they believe it helps eliminate an even larger number. …

    But the biggest impediment to removing or streamlining the checkpoints and roadblocks has nothing to do with the IDF. The settlements are far and away the primary factor keeping all those checkpoints and roadblocks in existence and hindering the Palestinian and international effort to develop a viable West Bank economy and polity. …

    In other words, removal of the settlements beyond the security fence and completion of that fence (which has been delayed precisely because of settlements) would make the IDF’s security task dramatically easier and render many of the checkpoints and roadblocks superfluous. Until that happens, Barak and the IDF establishment will fight tooth and nail to maintain the present West Bank security network in place. Access the full article>>