Afghanistan

Key figures and rationales by the Obama administration regarding the war in Libya.

The Haqqani Network: Sirajuddin Haqqani,Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani and the al-Qaeda-Haqqani Network in Pakistan and Afghanistan: a challenge to American efforts.

Opposition to the mosque at ground zero in New York is grounded in false fears and shameless chauvinism by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.

Definition and brief history of Peshawar, Pakistani capital of Northwest Frontier Province.

Mujahideen insurgent Gulbuddin Hikmetyar, or Hekmatyar: a brief profile/biography of the Taliban-affiliated Afghan insurgent.

A review of Ahmed Rashid's "Taliban" (2000), still the best book on the origins, history and ideology of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Summary analysts of the secret memos by US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry on the Obama administration's troop surge strategy.

Rory Stewart's testimony on what and how to win in Afghanistan, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Sept. 2009)

Brief biography of Afghanistan and Iraq expert Rory Stewart.

How the U.S. Army and Stanley6 McChrystal covered up the death of NFL star-to-be Pat Tillman by "friendly fire."

Profile of Abdel Rashid Dostum, Uzbek warlord of Afghanistan and the brutal general responsible for the massacre of Dasht-e Leili.

Afghanistan, once a stable, proud and peaceful nation, has been at war since 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded. The Soviet Union left in defeat, after losing 15,000 soldiers, in 1989. Civil war set in, followed by the take-over of Afghanistan by the ruthless Taliban. In 2001, after al-Qaeda had used Afghanistan as a base …

There's no winning way in, or out, of Afghanistan.

The debate over more troops for Afghanistan is dividing the Obama administration while the outcome may redefine America's role in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Conservative columnist George Will said in September 2001 that it's time for US forces to leave Afghanistan. Is he right?

There's still a hole at Ground Zero in Manhattan, but an even bigger hole Americans are digging in Afghanistan. Why it's long past time to get out of Afghanistan.

Results, fraud, ballot-stuffing and analysis of the 2009 Afghanistan elections for president and councilors.

Afghanistan is known as the graveyard of empires, for good reason: From Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union, and now the United States and NATO forces, no foreign power has ever controlled Afghanistan. The country is also a graveyard of logic: it's difficult to understand who's who, who's in charge and to what ends. Here's a guide to understanding Afghanistan.

A who's who of minor candidates in Afghanistan's 2009 presidential election.

What's your opinion? Should Hamid Karzai Go? Share your thoughts.

A Who's Who and summary analysis of Afghanistan's 2009 presidential and provincial elections.

History and platform of the United Front (UF), the main opposition political group in Afghanistan.

Profile of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president and Pushtun leader of the Popolzai tribe.

In 1978, Osama bin Laden, a young newlywed, visited the United States with his wife. They stayed in Indiana. He went to Los Angeles.

How the torture memos came to be: a book review of Jane Mayer's "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals."

Afghanistan's "Rape Law": a defensible local customs or barbaric regression for women's rights?

What Afghanistan's rape law says and how women got stoned protesting it in Kabul.

Blasphemy after blasphemy of human rights, women's rights and civil rights show why Afghanistan is the wrong war. Yet Barack Obama persists in escalating American troops and staking his future on protecting Afghanistan. Why?

Analysis: Barack Obama's Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategy is a scaled-down, more narrowly focused version of the Bush version.

The full text of Obama's March 27, 2009 speech on his new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria argues that learning to live with radical Islam is the only way to neutralize its deadlier mutant, bin Ladenism and terrorism. Is Zakaria right?

Pakistan--not Palestine-Israel, not Iran, not Iraq--is Barack Obama's biggest Middle East (and foreign policy) challenge. Here is why, and how Obama could go about addressing it.

Ayman al Zawahiri's evolution from the comforts of middle class life in Cairo to the crags of Afghanistan and Pakistan as Osama bin Laden's and Al Qaeda's ideological compass: A profile of Ayman al Zawahiri

A definition and brief profile of Blackwater Worldwide, the private security contractor and trainer of police and mercenary personnel that gained notoriety from incidents involving abuse of power in the Iraq war.

American strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan is confused and counter-productive to the point of ensuring that it will lose the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The concentration camp on Guantanamo Bay, an illegal shame, should be an indictment of national drift from constitutional principles and international law.

Contrary to John McCain's and Sarah Palin's claims, there's no question that American and NATO forces are air-raiding civilians and causing heavy civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

After seven years of war in Afghanistan, the failures outnumber the successes, with no end of further disintegration in sight as the Taliban and al-Qaeda are resurgent and NATO and the United States are on the defensive.

Speaking to the nation from the White House Treaty Room at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, on Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush announced the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban regime and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The joint U,.S.-British air assault would be followed within days by a ground assault, which involved mostly Afghan forces. Bush's remarks follow.

Brief history of the rise and fall (and rise again) of the Taliban in Afghanistan, its relationship with al-Qaeda, Pakistan and the United States, and its designs on Islam through Mullah Omar Muhammad

Understanding why Pakistan is such a fertile ground for the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The Taliban in its own words on why it does not believe in a deliberative political process, least of all in democracy.

Complete, updated statistical chart of NATO and US Troops deployments and casualties in Afghanistan, country by country breakdown.

Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, the United States led a 61-nation boycott of the Summer Olympics held in Moscow in 1980.

Your Guide to the 2008 Beijing Olympics for Afghanistan: AfghanistanÂ’s Olympic history and country profile, and AfghanistanÂ’s athletes at the 2008 Olympics by name and by sport, or game.

A definiteion of Pashtun, or Pakhtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Definition of Loya Jirga, or "grand assembly," a century-old, consensus-building Afghan tradition.

Afghanistan has been retreating back into chaos and repression in 2006 and 2007. The decision to delay the release of 'The Kite Runner" illustrates to what extent the country's situation has become precarious.

A profile of Afghanistan, the structure of its government since 2001, the challenges of its weak economy and infrastructure, the burden of a history of fracture and foreign occupations.

The life and aims of the world's most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's journey from Saudi Arabia to the Sudan to Afghanistan to the mountains of Western Pakistan.

Breakdown of numbers, command structure, political ramifications.

A detailed tally and breakdown of American and NATO casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

The Taliban is resurgent, reconstruction is faltering, and opium poppy cultivation at an all-time high. Afghanistan is at risk of collapsing into chaos. Washington must increase its commitment to the area and rethink its strategy, argues Barnett R. Rubin in Foreign Affairs.

One of the seminal works of reporting from Afghanistan under the Taliban that earned John F. Burns a Pulitzer Prize in 1997. The article illustrates with brutal immediacy the character of Taliban rule.

Obama had no choice but to fire Stanley McChrystal. But that was a diversion from a war in Afghanistan that's gone from bad to worse. Obama still has no plan to fix that error.

The letter by David Petraeus followed on the heels of Obama's firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Afghanistan's 2010 parliamentary elections were beset by violence, low turnout and the kind of fraud Afghan elections have become synonymous with.