Who: Garry Trudeau, David Levinthal, David Stanford, and Owen Powell. Moderated by Roger Rosenblatt What: Politics and Current Events Lecture Series: War in Afghanistan and Iraq Where: The 92nd St. Y When: January 26, 2010 Thumbs: Up, but could have been Upper (more...)

video President Obama made his third appearance on 60 Minutes this Sunday to talk about the still-struggling economy and his decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, a decision he calls the most difficult in his presidency so far: "When you go to Walter Reed and you travel to Dover and you visit Arlington and you see the sacrifices that young men and women and their families are making, there's nothing more profound." (more...)

video It's hard to imagine worse timing. President Obama flew to Norway today (according to Mark Knoller he is only the second president to do so) to accept his Nobel Peace Prize, nine days after announcing to the nation that he was sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Has there ever been a more reluctant Nobel Prize recipient? And yet by most accounts Obama managed to pull it off. (more...)

It is perhaps a measure of the media cycles of the blogosphere that I consider the latest study from Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism on last week's news coverage to be encouraging. According to the study, 27% of the newshole between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6 was devoted to coverage of Afghanistan. Which makes sense since the President's speech took place on the 2nd. Though it is interesting (and a not a little disturbing) to note that it is "the largest amount of attention the media have devoted to the war there since the PEJ began monitoring the news in January 2007." Meanwhile, coverage of the economic crisis accounted for 15%, which actually seems a bit low if only because at the end of the day doesn't everything come back to the economy? (more...)

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Jesse Ventura's promotional blitz for his new truTV show Conspiracy Theory has been a strange but entertaining mix of made-for-soundbite quotes, stabs at his former employers, and earnest political commentary. In his appearance on last night's Joy Behar Show, he touched a nerve when he bluntly asked if President Obama "really run the country" given his escalating commitments in Afghanistan. He also stormed out of The Opie and Anthony Show after being heckled by comedian (?) Jim Norton over his antiwar stance. (more...)

After every major speech, after every event really, Twitter is usually ablaze with people weighing in with their thoughts and opinions, and takeaways. It's like one big cable show but (thankfully) without the sound. Last night however, there was a definite sense of 'everyone shut-up, already' permeating the media twittersphere. (more...)

video President Obama addressed the nation tonight regarding his plans for the war in Afghanistan. During the prime time speech he announced that he will be sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan because he feels that it is in the "vital national interest" to do so. (more...)

On last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann laid out a pretty stark prescription for President Obama on the war in Afghanistan: Get out now. He makes a lot of excellent points, and some less so, but Olbermann glosses over an 800 lb fact. Both he and the moderate left spent the bulk of the Bush administration using Afghanistan to play "good war, bad war" with Iraq, and elected President Obama on a promise to do exactly what he is about to do: send more troops to Afghanistan.

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Whether you agree with the idea that we should leave Afghanistan now is somewhat beside the point. For years, Democrats pointed to Afghanistan as the "right fight," in contrast to the ill-advised-and-executed Iraq war. In doing so, they ceded the issue of whether invading Afghanistan was the best way to respond to the Taliban, and built the argument that the Iraq War was depriving the US of troops that should have been in Afghanistan. It is that dissonance that Olbermann fails to address. During the campaign, Olbermann made the case for Obama by saying that he was more ready to commit additional troops than McCain was.
Now, Olbermann says Afghanistan is a quagmire that we can't afford. True or not, what has changed in the interval? The geographical and military challenges posed by Afghanistan have been well known for a very long time.Are the stakes in Afghanistan suddenly lower? As the President reminded us during the campaign, Afghanistan (not Iraq) is "the central front in the war on terrorism," so how can its conduct be measured in dollars and cents? In the aftermath of 9/11, it was damn near impossible to question, let alone oppose, the invasion of Afghanistan. It's disingenuous now, though, to send all of that support for escalation in Afghanistan down the memory hole.

video Pres. Barack Obama met with VP Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others last night for a final meeting on Afghanistan strategy before his big decision on troop deployment coming next Tuesday. How do we know? Well if you follow the White House Flickr stream closely, you would have known about it late last night. Welcome to the new media presidency. (more...)

review On Election Day this Tuesday, HBO will premiere By The People, which chronicles Barack Obama's campaign to win the presidency of the United States. (more...)

VIDEO Was President Obama's trip to Dover Air Force Base early Thursday morning to salute the caskets of 18 dead American soldiers as they were returned to American soil from Afghanistan a moment of presidential piety, or an irresistible photo-op? And could it have been both? (more...)

tweetfinder Want to know what it feels like to be a reporter on the ground in a war zone? How about while it's happening? ABC's Jim Sciutto, who was one of the few Western reporters on the ground during the Iran protests, found himself under rocket fire during last night's attacks in Kabul. See his series of tweets below. (more...)

Our guards believed the drones were targeting me. United States officials wanted to kill me, they said, because my death would eliminate the enormous leverage and credibility they believed a single American prisoner gave the Haqqanis, the Taliban faction that was holding us. Whenever a drone appeared, I was ordered to stay inside. The guards believed that its surveillance cameras could recognize my face from thousands of feet above. (more...)

video Looks like the Taliban has gone 2.0. Over the weekend CNN's Fareed Zakaria reported that the radical, religious, political group, which governed Afghanistan from 1996-2001 before being overthrown by the U.S., and is currently enjoying a resurgence of power in that country has its own YouTube channel. Apparently Sharia law, which among other things, allows for gruesome public executions, and requires women to wear burqas and remain in the home, has nothing whatsoever against the Internet! (more...)

Almost a year ago, while reporting on the Taliban in Afghanistan for the New York Times, journalist David Rohde was taken captive. Rohde returned home in June, and now he's telling the action-packed and emotional story of his kidnapping and captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan on the front page of the Times. (more...)

Who: Jackson Diehl interviewed by Clyde Haberman What: NYU’s Center for Global Affairs’ “Worldly Perspectives with Clyde Haberman” Where: The Center for Global Affairs When: October 14, 2009 Thumbs: Up (more...)

video The CBS Evening News closed the show last night with a moving package featuring CBS News reporters and producers, sharing their remembrances of covering the war in Afghanistan. Yesterday marked the eight year anniversary of the battle overseas. Pairing comments from the CBSers in front of a stark black backdrop with images and video of the war provided a touching and powerful tribute. (more...)

video Harry Smith spoke with Katie Couric, Lara Logan and Terry McCarthy, overseas in Kabul, about what lies in store for the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Logan describes the experience for the troops there as "hostile in every sense" and the uphill battle on the very rocky terrain over there. Good discussion of response to McChrystal entreaties for more troops, and Karzai's legitimacy following the election. Thoughtful and useful report. (more...)

This morning, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was freed from his captors in northern Afghanistan by a military raid that took the life of his interpreter. As in the case of David Rohde, the Times asked news outlets not to report on Farrell's capture, although fortunately his was a shorter ordeal than Rohde's. (more...)