‘Get Afghanistan Right’ Week

‘Get Afghanistan Right’ Week

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

The biggest concern about Barack Obama’s foreign policy is probably his hawkishness on Afghanistan. Since early in the primary campaign he has consistently taken the position that, in contrast to Iraq, Afghanistan is the right war and we would we wise to ramp up military efforts in the region.

The problem, as Katrina vanden Heuvel argues in a recent Nation post, is that Obama’s planned escalation would drain resources that are vital to the President-elect goals for an economic recovery, health care, and social justice at home, while impeding other critical international initiatives such as the Middle East Peace process and regional diplomacy in South Asia.

Fears that quagmire in Afghanistan could undermine Obama’s planned domestic reforms are driving a new campaign launched by the online magazine, The Seminal, in collaboration with a host of progressive media groups, including The Nation. Get Afghanistan Right Week is an effort to rally people who oppose military escalation in Afghanistan, and who support non-military solutions to the conflict.

The Seminal is kicking off the campaign with the creation of a new website and a week of blogging on the topic, joined by like-minded folks at Brave New Films, Firedoglake, Daily Kos, and many other new media outfits. From January 12 to 18, the new site will post stories and relevant materials to publicize growing opposition to the idea that more troops will bring stability to Afghanistan or secure the United States.

The goal of the week of blogging is simple: To raise awareness about the new surge planned in Afghanistan, to get more bloggers to come out on the record with their position on Afghanistan, and to let people out there who are opposed to escalation know there are like-minded folks organizing to stop the surge.

As Howie Klein at Down with Tyranny puts it, we’ll be doing this “in the hope of helping to remind Obama that he needs to get us out of Bush’s wars, not dig us deeper into the hole.”

As the week progresses, more material will be posted at the Get Afghanistan Right website. If you’d like to participate and have your own blog, you can email posts to [email protected]. If you’re not a blogger, The Seminal accepts guest submissions, or you could post a diary on the open communities at Daily Kos, Oxdown Gazette, or The Agonist.

The point is to use this week to communicate as widely as possible the idea that we need to radically shift policy in Afghanistan.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x