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After Evaluations, Bush Shifts Afghanistan ‘CT’ Strategy to COIN
By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘Afghanistan ‘is slipping toward failure. The Taliban is back, violence is up, drug production is booming and the Afghans are losing faith in their government. All the legs of strategy ─ security, counternarcotics efforts, reconstruction and governance ─ have gone wobbly. If we should have had a surge anywhere, it…
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Why President Bush’s Light Footprint Strategy Failed in Afghanistan
By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘If some later contended that we never had a plan for full-fledged nation building or that we under-resource such a plan, they were certainly correct. We didn’t go there to try to bring prosperity to every corner of Afghanistan. I believe…that such a goal would have amounted to a fool’s…
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The Role of NATO in America’s Afghanistan War
By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* Introduction After ‘liberating Afghanistan’, the George W Bush Administration assumed that ‘the coalition of the willing’, and later North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), would shoulder responsibility[1] for the post-Taliban Afghanistan, as the US military role was assumed to win wars, not engage in peacekeeping, policing or building nations. This article…
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“Frishta was a ‘courageous woman’, the kind any country would wish to give birth to; a voice nobody could ‘afford to ignore’” – Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four The jeep drove through Afghanistan’s green zone, Sherpur, or what Nadir called ‘Sher-chur’ (lion’s loot) in his thesis. Nouveau riche warlords, drug lords and bureaucrats grabbed the barren patch of hillsides near Wazir Akbar Khan District in the first years of America’s invasion and turned them into the Beverly Hills of Kabul,…
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“My ancestors…were the most fortunate people. They were born, grew up and died in the same country” – Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three Mour planted a kiss on my head and thanked Khudai. I pulled my head away as she aimed to kiss me again. Hobbled to my place in the lounge, heavy with freshly sprayed vanilla, and sat on the mattress. Shujah and Mour took their places. The wrinkles on Shujah’s forehead had increased…
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“I’d known getting married in Kabul was not straightforward, but I’d never foreseen what it’d lead to” – Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two A green-uniformed man, sitting in between Nazia and me, warned that each word earned us a slap. He held the rose flower design earrings I’d bought for my cousin sister. Glanced at them, glared at me and shook his head. Abstained from battering me, perhaps, because his boss in the front passenger…
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The second marriage proposal goes horribly wrong – Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One In the bright early morning of the following day, on the way to school, Najiba, who had thin lips and a headscarf covering her forehead down to the bridge of her nose, popped in to explain the plan. We thanked Najiba for her invaluable help. She did this because Khudailoved those who…
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“We looked for a wife from a traditional family” – Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty I put a mantu with a piece of naan in my mouth and chewed on them. Shujah praised me for following the habitual practiceof the Prophet, peace be upon him. I told him that I hadn’t abandoned my traditions, including using my hands to eat, thanking Frishta in my heart for her…
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Bush vs Obama: Decision-Making Styles and Groupthink
By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* Introduction In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States embarked on a ‘Global War on Terror’ (GWOT) that would define a new era of American foreign policy. This period offers a compelling case study in presidential decision-making and its impact on international affairs. While both Presidents George…
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Bureaucratic Politics and Belief Systems in the Bush Administration
By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* Introduction The presidential candidate, George W. Bush, in 2000, was not someone who knew about the outside world, nor did he seem to be interested in it. He had barely travelled outside America, did not read about other countries, and knew no foreign leaders. During his election campaign, he did…