Tag: Afghanistan War

If we didn't already suspect that the incoming Obama Administration's State Department has its work cut out for it, Ambassador Ronald Neumann has some serious news from the front lines. The candid diplomat comes to Denver Dec. 10 to talk about America's struggle with diplomacy and democratic reform challenges in the Middle East.

Across the state, flags flew at half staff by order of the governor to honor a Highlands Ranch man who died last week while serving in the National Guard in Afghanistan and was buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver on Friday. Sgt. Jonnie Stiles, 38, was killed on Nov. 13 when a bomb exploded near his vehicle during a patrol in Jalalabad.

A Colorado College political science professor paints a grim picture of the economic crisis facing the Obama administration and the constraints it will put on any attempt to redirect foreign policy. In an interview published Wednesday on the Harper's Magazine Web site, international politics expert David Hendrickson — who recently wrote "Cause for Depression," a pictorial guide to the financial crisis — spoke to Ken Silverstein and offered some dire predictions and grim warnings.

I would go listen to former Colorado Senator Gary Hart give a lecture on just about anything, even sea slugs, but I don't think my editors would let me write about it. Luckily, today the Obama campaign hosted a "round table" with Hart and Congressman Ed Perlmutter on national security, a more palatable topic for a political column. Hart has become something of a well respected elder statesman and Perlmutter has quickly established himself as one of our delegations go-to guys on the issue, so you can imagine that as a former Military Legislative Assistant I really enjoyed this forum.

Read more of Jeff's commentaries: • My crystal ball: Obama '08 • October surprose gets less surprising • McCain hot foots it out of Michigan

Our Washington Independent colleague Spencer Ackerman is embedded with U.S. troops on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border through Sept. 19. We’ll reprint his dispatches from the field over the next eleven days. KABUL, Afghanistan — Since Afghans took up arms against the Soviet occupation in 1979, insurgency in war-torn Afghanistan has followed a cyclical pattern. The spring and the summer are for fighting. The winter — which, particularly along the mountainous, porous eastern border with Pakistan, can feature six-foot snowbanks — is for regrouping. Until, perhaps, now.

The implicit message from Sgt. Aaron Hughes' superiors is to run down the children if they get in the way of the truck steaming...