Afghanistan - Miscellaneous

Afghanistan: Rethinking Reconstruction - The Bush administration reportedly is considering major adjustments in its approach on Afghanistan’s reconstruction, a reflection of the surge in Islamic militant activity in the country , Richard Weitz - EurasiaNet

Winning in Afghanistan - A military analyst on what's wrong with U.S. strategy , by Dan Ephron - Newsweek

The ‘kid’ in Kabul - This is Amrullah Saleh, the thirty-six-year-old director of Karzai’s spy agency, known as NDS, who probably became the world’s youngest intelligence chief in 1994, at age 32. Mr Saleh is also a central figure in the undeclared, low-intensity war against Pakistan, although he is more of a good executioner than an original thinker. Since 2005, NDS has emerged as a major source of strategic instability in the region , by Ahmed Quraishi - The News

The Smart Money in Afghanistan - This is the chaos that is foreign aid in Afghanistan, a place where every mistake ever made in an underdeveloped economy is being repeated. This is a country in which all the best people are being hired away from the national government by the alphabet soup of aid agencies , by Anne Applebaum - WP

As Crime Increases in Kabul, So Does Nostalgia for Taliban - While Taliban insurgents stage increasing attacks in the Afghan countryside, equally fast-expanding violent crime -- kidnappings, carjackings, drug-related killings and highway robberies -- is plaguing the capital of 5 million and the vital truck and bus routes that connect the country's major cities. It is making some Afghans nostalgic for the low-crime days before 2001, when the Taliban sternly ruled most of the country , by Pamela Constable - WP

US told it must hold talks with Taliban's Mullah Omar - The US must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region, the Governor of Pakistan's lawless border areas has said , by Isambard Wilkinson - Telegraph

NATO Hopes to Undercut Taliban With 'Surge' of Projects - NATO alliance troops facing ever more aggressive Taliban insurgents are planning a winter "development surge" of civil works projects in eastern Afghanistan designed to win over tribes in regions near the Pakistan border and to prevent their sons from joining the Taliban's ranks , by Pamela Constable - WP

Revealed: secret Taliban peace bid - Saudis are sponsoring a peace dialogue involving a former senior member of the hardline group , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Why the West thinks it is time to talk to the Taliban - Negotiations have begun in secret with the enemy in Afghanistan. Jason Burke reveals the back channels of diplomacy that led to the controversial talks - Guardian

Interview with Hamid Karzai - With the security situation in his country steadily deteriorating and Taliban attacks on the rise, Afghan President Hamid Karzai sat down in New York last week with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth to discuss the future of Afghanistan - WP

Weak government allows Taleban to prosper in Afghanistan - The collapse of security in Helmand owes as much to government failings as to any military action , by Tom Coghlan - The Times

Trio of warlords blamed for surge in Afghanistan violence - The three men, who sometimes cooperate with one another, work largely unhindered from bases in Pakistan. U.S. strikes against them have proved futile , by Greg Miller - LAT

Afghanistan's Very Careful Tour Guides - The lines between the Afghanistan at war and the Afghanistan at peace alter daily. Cities accessible by road today may only be reached by plane — or not at all — tomorrow. And so follow the boundaries of the nation's tiny tourism industry , by Don Duncan - TIME

A Karzai for Iraq or a Maliki for Afghanistan? - Until a couple of years ago, whenever I discussed Iraq in Washington, I always ended up being asked one question: how to find an Iraqi Karzai? The reference, of course, was to Hamid Karzai who has led the Afghan government since the fall of the Taliban in 2002. More recently, however, that question has been replaced by another. This time, I am asked: How to find a Maliki for Afghanistan? , by Amir Taheri - Asharq Alawsat

British envoy says mission in Afghanistan is doomed, according to leaked memo - Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan has stoked opposition to the allied operation there by reportedly saying that the campaign against the Taleban insurgents would fail and that the best hope was to install an acceptable dictator in Kabul , by Charles Bremner and Michael Evans - The Times

Afghan ‘Dictator’ Proposed in Leaked Cable - A coded French diplomatic cable leaked to a French newspaper quotes the British ambassador in Afghanistan as predicting that the NATO-led military campaign against the Taliban will fail. That was not all. The best solution for the country, the ambassador said, would be installing an “acceptable dictator” , Elaine Sciolino - NYT