In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam is Robert McNamara‘s contribution to the ongoing debate and discussion of the Vietnam War. It was written in 1995 at a time when the experience of Vietnam was much more vivid and it was written as a contribution to that process. Today, one reads it with an eye [...]

The Australian government recently announced that our involvement in Afghanistan is to be wound down. I think that is the right answer. But what deserves scrutiny is how our political leaders were once committed to our deployment on the basis that it was in our interests to do so yet are now, with no change [...]

From the New York Times comes more news of Pakistan’s unreliability: At a closed briefing last week, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Michael J. Morell, the deputy C.I.A. director, to rate Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations, on a scale of 1 to 10. “Three,” Mr. Morell replied, according to [...]

A curious opinion in the Australia today by Dennis Glover starts with the premise that “You can be a patriot and oppose this battle.” Some highlights: LAST week marked the beginning of the end of Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan. The reason? Two prominent political commentators published articles declaring it is time to bring the [...]

Another month, another sign that our mission in Afghanistan is deeply troubled. President Karzai continues to prove he is an unreliable partner in the process, this time in his response to the burning of a Koran by an irrelevant, unserious pastor in Florida. Rather than dismiss it on the basis of its irrelevancy, he instead [...]

The Parliamentary debate on the Afghanistan war was agreed to as part of the Labor/Greens agreement signed after the last election. So, it is fitting to read Adam Bandt’s speech to get a sense of what it is they had to say. He starts by telling a story about the Karzai’s policies towards women (which [...]

Julia Gillard’s speech is, compared to Tony Abbott’s, more methodical than visionary. It reflects the careful machinery of government, with each line  wordsmithed to reflect more of the basic policy than any grand vision for what Afghanistan can become. Like Abbott, Gillard set out the mission for the war. Attempt one: So the goal of Australia and [...]

This week’s Parliamentary debate on the war in Afghanistan has highlighted a country devoid of leadership in such an important time. What is one to expect when the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition both claim to be disinterested in foreign policy. Both made speeches this week to Parliament. Both reveal a profound lack of [...]

It’s one thing to shame one of humanities greatest achievements (Test cricket, of course), it’s another thing entirely to undermine Western hemisphere strategy in Afghanistan. This NY Times article is a must-read. It paints a very dim future for the current strategy in Afghanistan. While one may accept that it the prosecution of the war [...]