Most Popular War and Peace Posts
The Afghanistan War in 140 Characters
Published October 29, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
“Anyone with a [mobile] phone can be Christiane f***ing Amanpour now,” an aidworker friend of mine remarked when I brought up the subject of Twitter and the Afghanistan war. While my friend’s statement may be an exaggeration, there’s some truth to it.
Before January this year, I mocked Twitter and its users. Tweets, tweeters, Twitterers —whatever. Even the terminology screamed social media fad and time-waster. No thanks, I thought. I'm, you know, an adult. I blog. Then, someone told me Twitter was replete with interesting tidbits from and about Afghanistan. My interest piqued. I gave in and set up an account.
Ten months on, I cannot. pry. myself. away.
Afghan Refugees in "Nightmare Neverland" Europe
Published October 29, 2009 @ 10:45AM PT
It’s difficult to keep up with all the reports of European governments abusing, detaining, and forcibly returning refugees, but I’m sure going to try. Let’s start with the mistreatment of Afghan refugees.
Last month, French authorities razed an Afghan refugee camp known as “the jungle” in the town of Calais. Yes, you read that correctly: an Afghan refugee camp in France. Hundreds of mostly adolescent boys and young men living in the Calais woods were driven from their shanties during an early-morning police raid. Some were placed in detention, others scattered.
Now, Deutsche Welle reports: "The result is that downtown Calais has become a kind of nightmarish Neverland - with mostly under-age Afghan migrants, some as young as 12, taking refuge under its bridges and in its parks."
How Would You Triage the Latest Crises Clinton Faces?
Published October 29, 2009 @ 09:18AM PT
Take a moment to imagine you are US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (or insert your own Foreign Secretary here). Your week is action packed. War in Afghanistan and Iraq, proxy conflict in Pakistan, and the traditional challenges of Israel / Palestine, Sudan, Somalia, Korea, and so on.
You've got meetings on Capitol Hill. Cabinet meetings at the White House. On Sunday, you barely have energy left to watch re-runs of the West Wing; Gossip Girl.
And every spare moment your staff is adding new crises to the pile. You figure you can cut out a couple games of racketball to catch up on your over-packed inbox. Which of these very real crises which lit up this week would you tackle first?
A Twitter Timeline of Wednesday's Attacks in Kabul
Published October 29, 2009 @ 05:50AM PT
Just before 6 a.m. Afghanistan time on Wednesday, gunmen stormed a United Nations-approved guesthouse in a Kabul neighborhood filled with foreign aidworkers. Terrified guests, many of them in Afghanistan to monitor the upcoming presidential runoff election, jumped out windows and off the roof, fleeing in pajamas and bare feet as the gunmen began shooting and guards returned fire. The Afghan National Army (ANA) quickly arrived on the scene and began fighting the gunmen.
The siege lasted two horrifying hours. (My field colleagues spent the duration of the attack in a safe room just down the street.) At some point during the standoff, one of the gunmen detonated his explosive-rigged vest, killing himself and at least one UN employee. According to the most recent news reports, five UN employees, one guard, and three attackers were killed. In a separate attack, rockets were fired at the Serena Hotel, but did only structural damage.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the carnage.
I was cracking jokes on Twitter two nights ago when the attacks began and I suddenly noticed alarming tweets about gunfire from Kabul-based aidworkers I follow.
The wires had nothing on what was happening in Kabul, so I stayed glued to Twitter for the next several hours, reading one of the deadliest attacks on UN employees since the 2003 Baghdad Canal Hotel bombing unfold on my computer screen 140 characters at a time.
Below is a condensed timeline of tweets.
Only Thing Worse Than a Prolonged Afghan War is a Taliban Victory
Published October 28, 2009 @ 11:24AM PT
Let's start with the hottest debate on the US political scene. Today gunmen attacked a UN compound in Kabul, killing six, and screaming through a bullhorn how volatile the situation is in Afghanistan.
The progressive community appears to be divided, perplexed perhaps, over how to advocate for US strategy in Afghanistan. Dove progressives like Rory Stewart, the Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard, as well as a handful of cautious liberal Democratic politicians, are advocating for the US to withdraw and remain focused only on development and precise counter-terrorism. They argue that every time the coalition crosses through a village, it leaves a crater-sized footprint which angers the locals. Most of us agree, but... Meanwhile, rule-of-law progressives argue that the only thing worse than the US-led coalition prolonging the war would be a Taliban win.
Here's a video from the last time the Taliban were poised to take over. An old friend of mine was an advisor to former socialist President Najibullah. When the Taliban arrived, they hung Najibullah from a tank turret. My friend's wife was shot in an attempt to murder him and he fled to India with their children. Thousands were killed or expelled simply for being part of the cultural elite. All females were forbidden from attending school or working. Some fear that if the US withdrew, Afghanistan would face a precipice ten times as deep as that of Srebrenica in 1995, which is being re-examined this fall at the Karadzic trial in The Hague. And if that doesn't persuade, which gang of misanthropes do you think are going to be the guest of honor at the victory table?
Is there a well-thought, unified approach for those of us who are both opposed to a Taliban win and opposed to a prolonged US-led war to stand behind given that ranking US generals do not believe that the Afghan Army is ready to survive without the US? What would you recommend? I'll follow up with some of your answers.
[Photo UNAMA, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 2009.]
Welcome to the new War and Peace Blog!
Published October 28, 2009 @ 09:08AM PT
Come on in to our new War and Peace blog space! Don't be shy. Grab some tea or coffee, hummus, pita, or kabuli pilau. Pull up a chair or a couch, or a floor. Meet and get to know one another. You may notice Michael Bear's excellent posts are merging here from the Humanitarian Relief blog. Michael is now joined by the sharp global writer, Una Vera, and by yours truly here on War and Peace.
We'll be tackling some tough issues here, discussing how to face infernos on the horizon as well as help those drowning in shadows. At the core we aim to highlight how people survive extreme adversity, and even more importantly, how we can rally collective global heroism to protect people threatened by political violence.
And whenever possible we will offer the darkest humor. As Kurt Vonnegut said, sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying...Disarm them with a joke, I say. Then move in for the quill.
To supplement this witty, powerful team of bloggers on war and peace issues as we move forward, try also following comprehensive breaking crisis news at Reuters Alertnet, detailed humanitarian updates at ReliefWeb, getting local views from the Institute of War and Peace Reporting and the Guardian Weekly, and clarifying the politics via the International Crisis Group.
[Photo: Daniel J Gerstle, Erbil/Hewler, Iraq, 2008.]
Your Chance to Tell The IASC What You Think
Published October 16, 2009 @ 04:02AM PT
Or, at least, to tell the Inter-Agency Standing Committee -- or, as I like to think of it, the Bilderberg group of the humanitarian world -- what you think about their various publications. IASC has just launched a survey to determine how many people within the humanitarian community know about their various policy statements, guidelines and manuals, whether they're useful, and how they can be made more accessible.
(Because, admit it, you loved reading the IASC report on humanitarian action and older persons.)
The survey takes about five minutes, and is available here in English, French and Spanish.
