Back in 2001 Americans were told that the Taliban represented a threat to the freedom of not just Americans, but the Afghans themselves. Their brutal regime turned that country into a thugocracy, stripping the rights of both women and men alike, but most definitely women. So we went in and toppled the Taliban.

Yet here we are 10 years later, and though things are undoubtedly better, women still face prison time for adultery, even though they were raped. Such was the story of Gulnaz, an Afghan woman who was raped over two years ago, and produced a child from the act. She was originally given two years, which was then increased to 12, and then cut back down to three. The price for her “early” release? Marry her rapist.| MORE ›

The escape of almost 500 Taliban prisoners is just the latest blow in the effort to secure Afghanistan from insurgents. It couldn’t come at a worse time, as Afghan troops are apparently finally ready to take on the monumental task of defending their country. Umm, okay, sure.

What gets me is that the Taliban’s escape hole took five months to dig, and apparently nobody noticed the work on it.| MORE ›

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Obama’s Plan and the Key Battleground
By George Friedman

U.S. President Barack Obama announced the broad structure of his Afghanistan strategy in a speech at West Point on Tuesday evening. The strategy had three core elements.| MORE ›

By George Friedman and Reva Bhalla.

The decision over whether to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan may wait until the contested Afghan election is resolved, U.S. officials said Oct. 18. The announcement comes as U.S. President Barack Obama is approaching a decision on the war in Afghanistan.| MORE ›

This is shocking:

Escalation is a bad idea. The Democrats backed themselves into defending the idea of Afghanistan being The Good War because they felt they needed to prove their macho bonafides they called for withdrawal from Iraq. Nobody asked too many questions sat the time, including me.| MORE ›

Harvard-trained historian Richard F. Miller, author of In Words and Deeds: Battle Speeches in History, wrote a guest post for Jules Crittenden’s blog about President Barack Obama’s West Point speech. His assessment: it a “midst of war” speech, and not a good one.| MORE ›

Good news from Pakistan; after the Pakistani army captured the hometown of the Taliban’s chief in that country, the group has fallen into disarray, with many deserting its ranks.

The battle for Kotkai town was symbolically key because it is the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and one of his top deputies, Qari Hussain.| MORE ›

The American Enterprise Institute published a new report about the war in Afghanistan. Considering that the Obama administration is currently reviewing a request from the top U.S. military commander in the region to send more troops or face defeat, the timing of “Enemy Reactions to the US Strategy and Force-Sizing Options” couldn’t have been better.| MORE ›

This is a follow-up to my earlier post, “the far left’s new obsession: Afghanistan.” American Power’s Donald Douglas was kind enough to link to my article. He wrote about the growing opposition to the Iraq War among leftist activists earlier this month as well – be sure to read it.

In his post of today, Donald quotes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.| MORE ›