For most Australians the feeling is the sooner we get out of the Afghanistan war the better. Hopefully without the loss of any further soldiers. While it will be good to get the troops home and the government…
NATO soldiers attend a security transition from NATO forces to Afghan forces in Nangarhar, Afghanistan in December.
EPA/Abdul Mueed
There are a lot of questions hanging over the staged withdrawal of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops, including the Australian contingent, from Afghanistan by 2014. The main publicly…
Afghan President Hamid Karzai talks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during a meeting in Kabul.
EPA/Omar Sobhani
The end of the US troops surge, the increasing insider attacks on Western forces and the ongoing downward spiral of insecurity across Afghanistan, have pushed this war-torn country into a military-political…
Afghan civilians point to bullet holes in a wall after a raid by Allied special forces.
EPA/Naweed Haqjoo
Our Chief of Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison, has told Australia, “The idea that we can will away war because we are about to withdraw from one that went longer and ended less conclusively than…
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney finally discussed the war in Afghanistan during the third debate on US foreign affairs.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
For a war that has gone on for more than a decade, cost the American taxpayer some US$500 billion, claimed the lives of more than two thousand GIs and inflicted many more thousands of wounded, the conflict…
NATO forces won’t work with Afghans… so what’s the point?
EPA/Jalil Rezayee
On Tuesday 18 September, at the direction of the United States military command in Afghanistan, deputy commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Lieutenant General James…
Suicide bomb attacks, such as this one in Afghanistan last week, continue to wrack the Middle East.
EPA/Abdul Mueed
The day will come when 11 September is just another date on the calendar. But that time is still some way off. Eleven years after the horrible spectacle of the World Trade Center towers being struck by…
A new study of NATO troops returning from Afghanistan has found an ongoing impact from combat stress.
AAP
Soldiers should be given regular periods of respite to recover from combat exposure, experts argue, following the findings of a Dutch study of NATO soldiers returning from deployment in Afghanistan. The…
Australian troops with Afghan elders in Uruzgan province.
AAP/Department of Defence
Reports are coming in this morning that five* Australian troops have been killed in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan. But instead of falling victim to an IED, signature weapon of this long running conflict…
We need to learn from lessons of the past when it comes to veterans’ mental health.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Physical injury and death in war is expected. But we also now know the stories of large numbers of veterans suffering major psychological trauma. These involve Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety…
An article in the New Statesman reports that Taliban have signalled their willingness to negotiate an end to the conflict in Afghanistan.
The current situation in Afghanistan is a dramatic example of the old adage that all foreign policy is merely an extension of domestic politics. Last week, the British weekly, New Statesman, reported an…
Pakistani citizens showed their opposition to the reopening of supply routes at a protest in Karachi this week.
EPA/Rehan Khan
For the past six weeks a high-level US team has been in Pakistan trying to negotiate a resumption of the convoys which travel through the country and provide Coalition forces in Afghanistan with about…
Osama bin Laden featured in Ayman al-Zawahiri’s video message in November.
Ausaf Newspaper/Handout
The past few days have seen a flurry of prognostications on al-Qaeda and its future. While each argument spars over whether al-Qaeda is on the ropes or resurgent, they miss a vital segment of analysis…
How is the war in Afghanistan going? With media this tightly controlled, the picture may never be clear.
Special Operations Command
Barack Obama marked the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death with a surprise visit to Kabul this week. Obama promised to “finish the job” in Afghanistan, but seven were killed in Kabul just hours…
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said the images are an aberration, but evidence points to the contrary.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
Once again we are confronted with disturbing images coming out of a war zone, this time of American troops posing for trophy shots with the body parts of alleged Afghan suicide bombers, published by the…
Australian troops work with Afghan National Army forces in Uruzgan province in August 2011.
Prime minister Julia Gillard today announced the revised timetable for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan. Within 12 to 18 months the majority of Australian military forces will leave…
Australian troops search locals in Gizab, Oruzgan province, before attending an assembly to discuss the removal of the Taliban from their town.
AAP/Australian Defence Force
Australia could end combat and training operations in Afghanistan and withdraw most of its troops by the middle of next year, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard will announce shortly in a speech to the Australian…
The residents of Bagram were furious at reports that US troops had burned a Qu'ran.
EPA/S. Sabawoon
The only thing surprising about yesterday’s riots outside of Afghanistan’s Bagram air base is that these things don’t happen more often. What is fascinating about Afghanistan is how its infrastructural…
Recent media reports have called into question Australia’s adherence to the Geneva Convention during the early stages of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. A key allegation is that Australia set up a system…
Tracer fire lights up the sky during the attack on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel.
AAP
The overnight attack by Taliban forces on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel demonstrates the ability of the Islamist group to attack Afghan and Western targets in all areas of the country. At least six Taliban…