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- Remembering the Forgotten War in
Afghanistan, Center for American Progress
- Changing To Meet New Challenges, P.J.
Crowley
- State of Denial in Afghanistan, Sean
Duggan
- Shutter This Death Trap, Spencer P. Boyer
- The Surge Isn't Working: Pulse on Iraq,
Center for American Progress
- New U.S. Leaders to Withdraw Troops from
Iraq to Improve Security at Home, P.J. Crowley and Andrew J. Grotto
- Bush's Budget Repeats Cybersecurity
Mistakes, Peter Swire
- Arming Iraq's Future Street Gangs?
Lawrence Korb
- Terrorism Still a Key Issue in
Presidential Race, P.J. Crowley
- Bush Defense Budget, Joseph Cirincione
- America's Long-Term Iraq Goals, Brian
Katulis
- Bush Trying to Sidestep Congress on
Permanent Bases Question, Mark Agrast
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"Remembering the Forgotten War in
Afghanistan," Center for American
Progress, January 30, 2008
An independent study of Afghanistan, co-chaired by retired Marine Corps
Gen. James Jones and former U.N. ambassador Thomas Pickering, has
concluded that the country is indeed the forgotten front in
the fight against global terrorism and risks becoming a failed state if
more is not done to stabilize the country soon. This assessment
confirms the conclusions of the Center for American Progress’ own
recent report on Afghanistan, The Forgotten Front,
which highlighted the deteriorating security situation and a failing
mission in Afghanistan and called for a dramatic shift in U.S. policy
that would result in devoting greater resources and military manpower
to Afghanistan.
Click here
to read the full article.
P.J.
Crowley, "Changing To Meet New Challenges," Center for American
Progress, February 1, 2008
If future administrations plan to use National Guard and Reserve forces
as an “operational reserve”—used on a recurring basis
to meet critical
needs at home and abroad—then the way we recruit, train,
organize,
equip, and support our citizen soldiers will need to change in
fundamental, indeed potentially radical ways. The Commission on the
National Guard and Reserves, led by Arnold L.
Punaro, issued its final report Thursday. The Commission deserves
much credit for truly
thinking “outside the box.”
Click here
to
read the full article.
Sean
Duggan, "State of Denial in Afghanistan," The Huffington Post, February 1,
2008
The overall situation in Afghanistan, like that of Iraq last year, is
grave and deteriorating. Violence is up by 27% in the country since
2006, there were a total of 140 suicide bombings throughout 2007 (as
compared to 5 between 2001 and 2005), poppy growth is at an all time
high, and 2007 marked the deadliest year for U.S. and allied troops
since 2001. Meanwhile, the Afghan government remains unable to provide
for its own people. "Afghanistan remains a failing state. It could
become a failed state," concludes a report released yesterday by the
former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General James Jones.
Click here
to
read the full article.
Spencer
P. Boyer, "Shutter This Death Trap," The
Root,
January 30, 2008
Ever since the United States started airlifting prisoners from
Afghanistan to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in January 2002,
there have been criticisms of "Gitmo." Recently, President Bush's
chief military adviser, Admiral Michael Mullen, joined ranks with
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Secretary of State Colin
Powell, Sen. John McCain, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and
President Bush himself in expressing a desire for the facility to be
shut down. Now we should be moving past the question of whether
Guantanamo should be closed and into a discussion of how and when it
should happen.
Click here
to
read the full article.
"The
Surge Isn't Working: Pulse on Iraq," Center for American Progress, February 4, 2008
As any sixth-grader could probably tell you, three out of 18 is a
failing grade on any test or report card. When the Center for American
Progress recently evaluated President Bush’s 18 benchmarks for
Iraq,
we found that only three had been met since the surge began one year
ago. But we’re not the only ones who’ve evaluated the
evidence only to
find that the surge has failed to meet its primary objective of
political progress. A sampling of other experts, politicians, and
journalists shows a widespread consensus that the surge isn’t
working
where it matters most.
Click here
to
read the full article.
"New
U.S. Leaders to Withdraw Troops from Iraq to Improve Security at Home,"
Pravda,
February 5, 2008
P.J. Crowley and Andrew J. Grotto are interviewed by Pravda about the United States'
ability to respond to a major terrorist attack or other national
catastrophe at home considering its engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Crowley said, " There are plenty of gaps in preparedness, many of them
attributable to
a lack of National Guard personnel and equipment owing to the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq. But having the right physical assets available is
one thing; having the right leadership in place is another."
Click here
to
read the full article.
Peter
Swire, "Bush's Budget Repeats Cybersecurity Mistakes" Center for
American Progress, February 4, 2008
The Bush administration wants to place more black boxes on
private-sector computer networks. The president's budget moves beyond
telcos and allocates $6 billion for a secretive system
that is designed to protect government and private computer systems
from attack. This proposal repeats the mistakes of the Federal
Intrusion Detection Network, which proposed similar monitoring of
private computer systems when it was proposed in 1999.
Click here
to
read the full article.
TIME Magazine
- Lawrence Korb talks about the formation of local Iraqi militia groups
supported by the Untied States and their possible role in the future of
Iraq. "We're paying them and training them so they're effective
... The Maliki government is not comfortable with these forces."
The Nation
- Joseph Cirincione says the president's budget proposal shows a lack
of fiscal discipline when it comes to defense. "The president's plan
shows that the military-industrial complex has
firm control of a budget now out of control. Given the growing
financial crisis gripping this country, no one believes that these
numbers are sustainable. But rather than make smart choices and begin a
process that restores fiscal discipline, President Bush is spending
like – well – like he's not going to be here next year when
the bills
come due."
Newsday - P.J. Crowley discusses
the issue of terrorism as it pertains to the 2008 presidential
campaign. "The
next president will have to make some very difficult decisions. Do you
stay on the same track that President Bush has charted? Is the
central front in the war on terror in Iraq, or is it Afghanistan and
Pakistan? The closer to November you get, the more people will demand
specific answers."
Sacramento Bee - Brian Katulis
discuses what a possible security agreement between the United States
and Iraq could mean for future U.S. involvement in the Middle East, and
says the potential agreement is "up for interpretation."
The Guardian
- Mark Agrast calls into question the legality of President Bush's
discussions of permanent military bases in Iraq. " On the merits,
for the president to assert that Congress lacks the
authority to say there shouldn't be permanent bases on foreign soil is
fanciful at best."
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State of the Americas 2008
February 12, 2008
The Merida Initiative, efforts to bridge economic
and social
inequality, burgeoning biofuel markets, hostages in Colombia--these are
only a handful of issues that define the contours of the State of the
Americas in 2008. How do these and other dynamics affect the United
States and its relationship with and place in the Americas? Please join
The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress for a lively
discussion of the evolving interconnections that increasingly define
relations in the Americas. The event will feature keynote speaker Luis
Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank,
followed by comments from and audience Q&A with panelists Leonardo
Martinez Diaz of The Brookings Institute, Adrean Rothkopf from the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, and Michael Shifter from the Inter-American
Dialogue.
Click here for more
information.
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