Archive for 'Afghanistan' Category
Another Interview
2009 September 15 by Evil ConservativeI am finishing up some edits on a back-and-forth with a gentleman I met as a result of the Philalawyer back-and-forth last month.
He is a Harvard-educated counterterrorism analyst. His site is Tremble the Devil – named after his highly entertaining and informative book of the same name that is published in its entirety on the [...]
Quick, Random Thoughts
2009 August 26 by lloydLesson of the Day:
It is better to be snickered at by your allies and feared by your enemies than to be feared by your allies and snickered at by your enemies.
Q: How do you define a ‘moderate’ Taliban?
2009 March 12 by Gary M. MillerA: He uses a local anesthetic before performing a clidorectomy on his daughter.
Headline: Biden considers talks with moderate Taliban
Go Figure
2009 January 14 by Mr. DThe Pentagon is reporting that 61 prisoners previously held at Guantanamo Bay are now back on the battlefield. From the AP (via Don Surber):
Sixty-one detainees who have been released from the U.S. Navy base prison in Cuba are believed to have rejoined the fight, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. That’s up from 37 previously, Morrell [...]
News from Deutschland I: WWII Hangover
2008 May 19 by SD63The bulk of my family heritage comes from Germany (yeah, I know, Plagge who would have thought it to be German?), for this reason my family has a strong interest in it, both past and present. In fact, I almost moved to Berlin back in 2001, all I needed to do was sign this [...]
The Hazaras
2008 January 28 by Jeff KoubaThe February 2008 issue of National Geographic has a good article on the Hazaras, a people living in central Afghanistan. Included are the magazine’s trademark photographs.
The Hazaras are probably of Mongol descent. They are Shiites, living in predominatly Sunni Afghanistan. They live in the Bamian region, where in 2001 the Taliban destroyed large Buddhas carved [...]
Long Hard Road
2007 November 28 by Jeff Kouba The US Army Sergeants Major Academy has produced a book entitled Long Hard Road: NCO Experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq.
(There is a link to it off the USASMA website, but it requires an AKO login/password.)
It’s fascinating reading, and much of it is not about combat. This collection of NCO experiences capture the hard work [...]
The 173rd in Kunar Province
2007 November 19 by Jeff KoubaABC’s Nightline did an excellent story on the 173rd Airborne, fighting in and around the Korengal Valley in Kunar Province of Afghanistan. You can watch the video clips at the following links. The footage illustrates the nature of the work in this kind of terrain.
The Other War, Part I
The Other War, Part II
The Other War, [...]
Airpower in Afghanistan
2007 November 7 by Jeff KoubaI made the following graphic by marking on a map the places mentioned in the airpower summaries found at DVIDS.
This graphic covers the two week period from Oct 24 to Nov 7. Each instance may be an airstrike, or just a display of force.
You’ll see they tend to cluster around places like Sangin, Garmsir, and [...]
Obama: Oops I meant to say the US troops are the murdering warlords
2007 August 14 by Jeff KoubaFrom the the Nashua Telegragph’s NH Primary (from Memeorandum):
Obama defended his push to prosecute a tougher military effort to root out al-Qaida on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which drew criticism from primary rivals for sounding too bellicose.
“Now you have narco drug lords who are helping to finance the Taliban, so we’ve got to get the job done [...]
Religion of Pieces update
2007 August 3 by Jeff KoubaFrom MNF-Iraq:
Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces, working with tips from local citizens, discovered the site of a mass grave near the village of al-Muhbabiyah, located in Diyala province, July 31.
Iraqi citizens reported to the CF and ISF that on 28 July, terrorists linked to al-Qaida in Iraq murdered 17 Iraqi citizens, including women, children and [...]
Yer basic snafu
2007 July 10 by Jeff KoubaFrom Afghanistan…
It is a war
2007 July 5 by Jeff KoubaWhile NATO and US forces endeavor to build a new Afghanistan through humanitarian efforts, tough fighting against an enemy determined to kill continues. (And let’s recall, Democrats are ready to throw up their hands and leave and abandon the field.)
Sadly, yesterday when we here in this country celebrate our freedoms so many have died to [...]
Meet the enemy
2007 July 5 by Jeff KoubaWriting at The Jamestown Foundation, Michael Scheuer has a profile of Al-Qaeda’s new leader in Afghanistan, Abu al-Yazid.
Al-Qaeda’s late-May naming of Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu al-Yazid as the “general leader” of the group’s activities in Afghanistan shows that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri believe that helping the Taliban win the Afghan war is [...]
Opium in Afghanistan
2007 June 28 by Jeff KoubaOn Tuesday, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime released its 2007 World Drug Report. (This link is to a PDF file 7 Meg in size.) Here are some excerpts from the report on the exploding growth of opium production in Afghanistan.
* Opium production, while significant, is now highly concentrated in Afghanistan’s southern provinces. Indeed, [...]
Taliban behead local police chief’s son
2007 June 24 by Jeff KoubaIn Afghanistan:
The 18-year-old was captured while travelling through the southern province of Hemland after visiting his father, Sangin district police chief Ghulam Wali said.
Mr Wali said he had been telephoned by the group who captured his son, Mohammad Ikhlas, and that he had pleaded for the young man’s life.
“He’s an innocent young boy and your [...]












