The actions of four U.S. Marines caught on video laughing and urinating on Afghan bodies have been condemned by the United States, NATO, and the government of Afghanistan. Globe and Mail correspondent Paul Koring examines the potential consequences of the scandal (“Obama’s ‘hearts and minds’ effort hurt by surfacing of ‘deplorable’ video,” Globe and Mail, […]
Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders examines how the Canadian Forces ended up at war in Kandahar (“Canada picked its Kandahar moment,” Globe and Mail, 7 January 2012): What on earth were we doing in Kandahar? Now that it’s all over, that question hangs in the air…. How did we pour five years, more than […]
The United States has declared its involvement in the war in Iraq over (Thom Shanker & Michael S. Schmidt, “U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over,” New York Times, 15 December 2011): The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday even as violence continues to plague the country […]
A recent report argues that the success of the NATO-led International Stability Assistance Force’s (ISAF) targeted night raids (or kill/capture raids), which have been a major tactic of ISAF’s in recent years, may have been played up so as to make the Afghan mission appear more successful. The report, written by Alex Strick van Linschoten […]
Two human rights groups are calling for a public inquiry into Canada’s handling of Afghan detainees following a UN report on the torture of prisoners in Afghan government custody (Robert Hiltz, “Rights groups call for Afghan-detainee inquiry after UN report,” Postmedia News, 11 October 2011): Amnesty International and the BC Civil Liberties Association released a […]
On Friday, the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan marked its tenth anniversary (“Afghanistan war marks 10 years with little commemoration,” CNN, 7 October 2011). The conflict is already the longest war in U.S. history, having surpassed the duration of the Vietnam War in 2010. Canada’s participation in the war has not yet reached the ten-year […]