NewsTrust - Department of Defense - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

Should Obama Fire Gen. McChrystal?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern - Nov. 20 (Opinion) - Facing military pressure to escalate in Afghanistan, President Obama may need an inner Harry Truman.

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Healing our troubled vets

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - Nov. 11 (Editorial) - The public is kinder to its veterans today than it was during the Vietnam War, when soldiers risked their lives overseas only to face scorn from antiwar activists when they got home. Yet veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan may be having a harder time readjusting to civilian life than previous generations of warriors.

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Shinseki: Veterans' Mental Health a Priority

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CBS News - By Daniel Carty - Nov. 11 (Interview) - Eric Shinseki, the retired four-star general who currently heads the Department of Veterans Affairs, said his agency is "working diligently" to better aid veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues.

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Former Marine captain resigns in protest of Afghanistan war

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, resigned last month from his position with the Foreign Service, where he was the the senior U.S. civilian in the Taliban-dominated Southern Afghanistan province of Zabul, because he became convinced that our war in that country will not only inevitably fail, but is fueling the very insurgency we are trying to defeat. Hoh's resignation is remarkable because it entails the sort of career sacrifice in the name of principle that has been so rare over the last decade, but even more so because of the extraordinary four-page letter (.pdf) he wrote explaining his reasoning.

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Afghanistan: Former Marine at State Resigns

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Taylor Marsh - By Taylor Marsh - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - His name is Matthew Hoh and this could turn into a story that will haunt Pres. Obama’s decision on Afghanistan every day until the strategy is announced. I’m sure it is already. Hoh simply doesn’t believe in where the U.S. mission has been and where Obama is about to take the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. No doubt it will fuel people who want to withdraw, even as I continue to believe from all information I’ve gathered that no more troops is step one, with many complicated issues to address more important than sending in more U.S. soldiers. So, when Hoh says, “But you have to draw the line somewhere, and say this is their problem to solve,” I absolutely agree. But as it now stands, the Afghan women are worse off today than they were when the Taliban reigned. We cannot leave it at that or Afghanistan will be more than a corrupt mess; it will revert to a failed state, because no country can stabilize with the women of that country being gang raped, reduced as property and held under lock and key. After all, it was Carter who authorized the first funding that begat Reagan’s partnership with Zia that begat the mujahadeen that begat William Casey’s obsessions that begat, and on and on, until Bush invaded after 9/11, that became the mess he dropped in Obama’s lap.

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Zakaria on a Third Surge in Afghanistan

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Fareed Zakaria - Oct. 26 (Opinion) - The real question we should be asking in Afghanistan is not "Do we need a surge?" but rather "Do we need a third surge?" The number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in January 2008 was 26,607. Over the next six months, the Bush administration raised the total to 48,250. President Bush described this policy as "the quiet surge," and he made the standard arguments about the need for a counterinsurgency capacity—the troops had to not only fight the Taliban but protect the Afghan population, strengthen and train the Afghan Army and police, and assist in development.

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