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Drugs and Insurgency in Afghanistan

[Am I the only one who blogs anymore? Didn't I retire?]

The Guardian has a pretty good "Afghanistan" page, where both the news and the commentary are "bad" in two different senses of the word. Clancy Chassay and Ghaith Abdul Ahad -- both of whom I've shared many an Almaza with in Beirut over the years -- have contributed some worthy reporting that highlights just how difficult "winning" in Afghanistan will be.

There is also some commentary, which can be summed up as such:

"We are losing in Afghanistan the Americans just don't get it Our Brave Boys are dying we can never win in Afghanistan don't you know this is just like 1842 why are the Americans so stupid the surge in Iraq didn't work we're doomed to fail in Afghanistan you can never defeat the Pashtun our cynicism proves we're smarter than the Americans HP Flashman the End."

Yeah. And that's pretty much every op-ed you've ever read in the Guardian on Afghanistan since September 2001.

In other news, here is a very useful clarification of terms.

Okay, back to work.
Afghanistan, terminology

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CNAS retains the right to delete comments that include words that incite violence; are predatory, hateful, or intended to intimidate or harass; or degrade people on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. In summary, don't be a jerk.
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