Afghan Divide - regular coverage from the ground of the war-torn country by Afghan journalists for an international audience

IPS investigative series on local Afghans who have been abandoned or poorly treated by a complex web of U.S. contractors, their insurance companies, and their military counterparts despite years of service risking life and limb to help the U.S. military in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

Mission Essential, Translators Expendable

Military Translators Risk Low Pay, Death

Pratap Chatterjee’s
report for CorpWatch

POLITICS: U.S. Seeks to Limit Warlords in Karzai Cabinet

By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - The Barack Obama administration is talking tough to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the need for decisive action on corruption and governance reform, but its main objective is to prevent particularly corrupt and incompetent warlords from getting plum ministries as rewards for helping clinch his fraudulent reelection, IPS has learned.
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U.S.: Obama's Outreach to Muslim World Teetering
Analysis by Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama's extraordinary efforts since his first days in office to reassure Muslims in the Greater Middle East about U.S. intentions in the region have suffered a series of setbacks that threaten to reverse whatever gains he has made over the past 10 months in restoring Washington's badly battered image and influence there.
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AFGHANISTAN: Teenagers Enlist in Army, Police
By Lal Aqa Sherin*
KABUL - Niamatullah joined the Afghan National Police (ANP) for the same reasons that many Afghan men do.
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AFGHANISTAN: Abdullah Plays For Time
Commentary by Killid Correspondents
KABUL - Soon after President Hamid Karzai acceded to a runoff two weeks ago, challenger Abdullah Abdullah put forward an avalanche of requests so complex, that his objective remains unclear.
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AFGHANISTAN: NATO Supporting Insurgents? Not Exactly
Commentary by Killid Correspondents*
KABUL - The U.S. and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) have spent billions of dollars, sacrificed hundreds of lives and worked for years to fight insurgents and foster democracy in Afghanistan.
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AFGHANISTAN: U.S., NATO Forces Rely on Warlords for Security
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.
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AFGHANISTAN: Poll Finds Optimism, Amid Political Disenchantment
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - As debate continues in Washington over what its next steps should be in Afghanistan and as the total of NATO-led coalition deaths in the country approaches 70 for the fourth straight month, a new survey says Afghans are slightly more optimistic about the future of their country than in years past.
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AFGHANISTAN: The Cheap Way to Hell
By Lal Aqa Sherin*
KABUL - For the last three weeks, 30-year-old Ghulam Nabi has lain in a Kabul hospital bed, suffering. His face is etched with hopelessness, loneliness and despair over the life he once had and has now lost forever.
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US-AFGHANISTAN: Kerry Argues for Counterinsurgency Lite
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Amid growing speculation and partisan bickering over what President Barack Obama will do about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, an influential Democratic senator Monday warned against deploying tens of thousands more U.S. troops there.
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AFGHANISTAN: No Refuge For Victims of Violence
Commentary by Killid Correspondents*
KABUL - The rate of civilian casualties in Afghanistan during 2009 has increased exponentially if compared with previous years.
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AFGHANISTAN: NATO Members in Waiting Mode
Analysis by Pavol Stracansky
BRATISLAVA - Corruption, doubts over Afghan leadership, and faltering public support have emerged as the main stumbling blocks to a demand for more NATO troops in Afghanistan.
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DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH ASIA: Women’s Peace Offensive
Analysis by Beena Sarwar
KABUL - ‘Give peace a chance’ may just be another cliché for many, but for women who have suffered the ravages of war, endless strife and other forms of conflict, joining hands to find meaningful solutions to their collective aspiration lends it a whole new meaning.
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U.S.: Veteran Army Officer Urges Afghan Troop Drawdown
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - A veteran Army officer who has served in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars warns in an analysis now circulating in Washington that the counterinsurgency strategy urged by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal is likely to strengthen the Afghan insurgency, and calls for withdrawal of the bulk of U.S. combat forces from the country over 18 months.
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After working to strengthen independent media in Afghanistan for three years, IPS has teamed up with The Killid Group (TKG) and Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN) in 2007 to provide regular coverage from the ground of the war-torn country by Afghan journalists for an international audience. The partnership is a continuation of IPS's commitment to support local Afghan media, which has emerged as a platform for both debate and dissemination among the general public of diverse ideas, views and concerns about the country's past, present and future. And enhance pluralistic democracy by giving voice to Afghan citizens and civil society.