Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 6 hours ago
By Steve Hynd Today, the UK prime minister Gordon Brown pledged 500 extra British troops for Afghanistan. But as the Spectator's Peter Hoskin notes, Brown seems to be jumping the gun on his own promises to the British people. Brown seems to be using this announcement to tell a story of progress in Afghanistan. Last month, he said that he...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 30/11/2009
By Steve Hynd While we're talking about Afghanistan and humanitarian considerations, how about this? Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he was wary of strict benchmarks that put both sides in an untenable situation if they're not met. But he said an early test of success will be whether Afghan forces can...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 30/11/2009
By Steve Hynd Ben Smith at Politico is responsible for a piece that really ticked me off today. As President Barack Obama prepares to make the case for sending more troops to Afghanistan, some allies are urging him to return to a line of argument little heard since the Bush years: the United States has a moral obligation to protect...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 28/11/2009
By Steve Hynd It's rare for me to agree with Kathleen Parker. Even her criticism of Sarah Palin as "out of her league" didn't go far enough - Parker should have said "out of her mind". But when it comes to the GOP's new "purity test", she isn't entirely wrong. some conservative members of the party have come up with...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 27/11/2009
By Steve Hynd With any Iranian nuclear fuel swap deal seemingly DOA, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency has swiftly passed a vote condemning Iran for not being forthcoming enough in answering charges derived from the dodgy Laptop of Death and has called upon Iraq to close the Qom "hole in a mountain" before it can become an...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 27/11/2009
By Steve Hynd We've already covered some of the news on Afghanistan readers might have missed over Thanksgiving. Now, what about its neighbour Pakistan? Well, the big pre-Turkey story was Jeremy Scahill's expose of the involvement of a Blackwater subsiduary in gathering intelligence, drone operation and covert operations there. The U.S. and Pakistani governments have both carefully denied...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 27/11/2009
By Steve Hynd We hope all our American readers had a good Thanksgiving. But the news keeps rolling on despite holidays, so it's time to play catch-up with foreign policy and affairs. Let's start with Afghanistan and the ongoing U.S.-led occupation there. With Obama's speech on his new Afghanistan strategy due on Tuesday, we already know pretty well what's going...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
By Steve Hynd Another year, another Thanksgiving, eh? It's been quite a year, too. Last year we were all wondering if Obama's campaign rhetoric would translate into reality. This year we're just thankful he's not George W. Bush, but rather the American version of Tony Blair. But this is to be a positive post. Among many of the things I...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 24/11/2009
By Steve Hynd Our good friend Jeremy Scahill broke a truly massive story yesterday at The Nation. At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 24/11/2009
By Steve Hynd McClatchy has the scoop - President Obama will announce on Dec 1 that he will order 34,000 additional troops sent to Afghanistan. As it now stands, the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 10th Mountain Division...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
By Steve Hynd The BBC reports on the property bubble in Kabul. According to local estate agents, prices in some parts of Kabul have risen by 75% in the past year. Part of this increase is due to the prices that international agencies are willing to pay to acquire properties in the best locations. But wealthy Afghans, who have seen...
Newshoggers (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
By Steve Hynd The scariest domestic political story of the day is this one: "Matters of faith, politics on table as Palin visits Graham" "He's followed her career and likes her strong stand on faith," said son Franklin Graham, who was present for the 2 1/2-hour get-together. "Daddy feels God was using her to wake America up." The former Alaska...
