By Justin Podur - July 14, 2008

Most societies seem to combine both irrationality and hypocrisy in their drug policies. These serve those who profit from the drug war, the monies, the weapons, and the pretexts that it provides. They do not serve addicts, users, or farmers. An end to prohibition and an end to the drug war would take a powerful weapon away from the war on terror.

By RON JACOBS; July 19/20, 2008 - Counterpunch

It's the perennial thorn in the colonialist's side. It's the war that won't go away. It's a wasp sting that swells, slowly choking the life out of the sting's recipient. It is the nearly seven-year old occupation of Afghanistan by the United States and various NATO allies. Nearly forgotten by most Americans, the situation in that country has taken headlines away from the occupation of Iraq because of the resurgence of the anti-occupation forces. Nine US troops were killed in one day, easily topping any recent US fatality figures coming out of Iraq in recent months.

By Pervez Hoodbhoy - July 02, 2008

There is, of course, reason for people in Pakistan and across the world to feel negatively about America...[T]he United States has for decades waged illegal wars, bribed, bullied and overthrown governments, supported tyrants, undermined movements for progressive change...American hypocrisy has played into the hands of Islamic militants. They have been vigorously promoting the notion that this is a bipolar conflict of Islam...versus imperialism. Many Pakistanis, who desperately want someone to stand up to the Americans, buy into this...This is a fatal mistake...A Taliban victory would transport us into the darkest of dark ages.

July 16, 2008 - The Australian

The US's ability to defeat insurgents in Afghanistan has been thrown further into doubt after Sunday's deadly Taliban attack on a US outpost in the east of the country - an area recently touted as a counter-insurgency success...Increasingly bold attacks on US and NATO forces have forced them on to the defensive and analysts say coalition forces are now stretched to deal with deteriorating fronts both in the south and the east.

by GRAEME SMITH - July 16, 2008

More districts of Kandahar are controlled by the Taliban than by the Afghan government, according to a U.S. assessment that casts doubt on Canada's upbeat view of the war...A detailed analysis by U.S. security officials shows that foreign troops and their local allies hold sway over the core, highly populated districts of Kandahar, but the zone of government control remains a small part of the vast territory assigned to Canadian responsibility two years ago.

By JASON STRAZIUSO AND GLEN JOHNSON - Monday, July 14, 2008

A multipronged militant assault on a small, remote U.S. base close to the Pakistan border killed nine American soldiers and wounded 15 yesterday in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years, officials said...The attack on the American troops began around 4:30 a.m. local time and lasted throughout the day. Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar...

by GRAEME SMITH - Globe and Mail

...[T]he Afghan forces stationed nearby [the prison] did not consider themselves capable of standing up to the Taliban that evening, as police in three outposts around the prison hunkered down behind their fortifications and refused to intervene...Local and foreign intelligence agencies also failed to understand glaring signs of trouble at the jail in the weeks before the attack, including a mass poisoning of prison guards just eight days beforehand. Taliban fighters warned local shopkeepers about an impending battle in the hours before they struck, but nobody passed the warning to the...authorities.

by Michael Byers - Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The steady stream of maimed or killed soldiers is but one of many increasingly disturbing parallels between Afghanistan and the Vietnam War.

FROM Ruthless Criticism [Translated from Gegenargumente Vienna 20 July 2004]

The leading powers of the democratic world are on the way in a humanitarian mission with their troops from around the world: They export democracy.

By: Ian Sinclair | Winnipeg Free Press

[W]hile the United States is seen as a bellicose, aggressive superpower, many Canadians view their nation as the leading peacekeeping force in the world...This quaint picture of nation-building and development work sits uneasily with the cold facts of the Canadian deployment...

In reality...Canadian troops (in Afghanistan) fired an incredible 4.7 million bullets between April 2006 and December 2007...

By FAHEEM HUSSAIN - June 6, 2008

What is NATO doing in Afghanistan? What are the true aims of NATO intervention in the region? These are the questions that I mean to address in this article. To understand what is happening in Afghanistan one has to go back to the attack on Yugoslavia by NATO forces in February 1999.

by Michael Skinner

On 29 May 2009, the delegates at the national convention of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), representing more than three million workers from every region of Canada and Quebec, voted overwhelmingly to demand that the Government of Canada immediately end its participation in the illegal war in Afghanistan...Now that the workers of Canada and Quebec have officially declared our solidarity with Afghan workers, it is time to begin building bridges to join our struggles against the new authoritarianism and theocracy in Afghanistan and Western and Canadian imperialism.

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - CBC News

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said his country has the right to send troops into Pakistan to fight Taliban insurgents who launch cross-border attacks...Karzai has previously pleaded to international forces to confront militants in Pakistan, but this was the first time he has threatened to send Afghan troops across the border.

By ERIC WALBERG - June 4, 2008

The insurgency is spread not by fear alone: a weak central government and the country’s declining socioeconomic situation point to the Taliban as the only feasible force to control the situation. “The population of Afghanistan is becoming disillusioned with the government,” says Halim Kousary, of the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies in Kabul. “People in the north believe there hasn’t been enough reconstruction.”

by DOUG SAUNDERS - The Globe & Mail

"Last week, I saw a man sitting next to his poppy crop and crying,"..."He told me that he'd been paid in advance for his poppy, and how can he possibly pay it back now that it's been eradicated? He told me, 'I have no choice, but I have a 14-year-old daughter who I have to give to a smuggler as payment' "...[K]illing a poor farmer's crop can have nasty consequences.