Counterinsurgency in Kandahar: showpiece or flop? War and peace in Afghanistan, June 2010

Darulaman Palace ruins in southwest Kabul, Afghanistan.

7 p.m. (19:00), Thursday, 24 June
Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice
202 Harvard SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico
(corner of Silver, one block south of Central near UNM)

The U.S.-led military offensive in Kandahar, the Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan, is the centerpiece of Pres. Obama’s last-ditch effort to break the will of the insurgency. The strategy, which matches military might with Afghan police, civilian functionaries, and development funds, has yet to achieve any measurable success. Meanwhile, the insurgent groups have initiated bloody suicide bombings in Kabul and audacious attacks at the heavily fortified U.S. bases at the Bagram and Kandahar.

Seamus O’Sullivan, an assistant professor at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, will evaluate the insurgency and the counterinsurgency in a slide show presentation and talk. He will also describe the contours of daily life for international workers in Afghan capital and the psycho-social impacts of a multi-ethnic society ravaged by three decades of violence and poverty.

Donations accepted for Stop the War Machine.
For more information, contact O’Sullivan at tsos@earthlink.net or SWM at stopthewarmachine@comcast.net.