RESOURCES ON AFGHANISTAN

BACKGROUNDERS

'No More Taxpayer Dollars for Afghanistan War', UFPJ Afghanistan Working Group, May 13, 2009

'Speech: A New Strategy for Afghanistan', Ambassador Jawad, March 11, 2009

'Why Are We Bombing Pakistan?' Afghanistan Fact Sheet, UFPJ Afghanistan Working Group, February 22, 2009

'Peaceful Alternatives' Afghanistan Fact Sheet, UFPJ Afghanistan Working Group, February 16, 2009

'Escalation: Bad For Them, Bad For Us' Afghanistan Fact Sheet, UFPJ Afghanistan Working Group, February 9, 2009

Afghanistan Primer, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

Afghanistan Primer Brochure [Shorter], September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

NEWS AND ANALYSIS

'Mercenaries Set Off for Afghanistan', Remy Ourdan, Truthout.org, June 11, 2009

'"The U.S. Government has never supported democratic organizations..."', Elsa Rassbach interviews Zoya of the Foreign Committee of RAWA, June 2008

'Terminator Planet: Launching the Drone Wars', Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch, April 11, 2009

'Liberals Yet to Roar on Afghan War', Jennifer Bendery, Roll Call, April 1, 2009

'Women Lawmakers Battle Warlords', Anand Gopal, Christian Science Monitor, March 8, 2009

'Many In Afghanistan Oppose Obama's Troop Buildup Plans', Anand Gopal, Christian Science Monitor, March 2, 2009

'Don't Escalate in Afghanistan', Editorial, The Nation, February 4, 2009

'Helping Afghan Women and Girls', Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation, February 2, 2009

'On Anniversary of Bombing of Afghanistan, We Need A Surge in Diplomacy', Kelly Campbell, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

'It is Time to Set a New Course -- A Policy of War Will Not Bring Peace', Michael T. McPhearson, Veterans for Peace

Recent report by the RAND corporation, showing that a military response to terrorism is actually the least effective approach and police and political responses are more effective.

­US Labor Against the War (a member group of UFPJ) has a comprehensive list of articles and news stories about Afghanistan here.

Marjorie Cohn, Pres. of the National Lawyers' Guild, on the illegality of the US invasion.

Afghanistan, Inc. A CorpWatch Investigative Report, 2006.

Afghan Portraits of Grief: Global Exchange and 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, 2002. 

ABC News' December 2007 Poll of Afghanis.

POSITION STATEMENTS

Resolution Regarding an IVAW Position Statement on Afghanistan, Iraq Veterans Against the War

BOOKS

Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls, Seven Stories Press, 2006.

My War at Home, Masuda Sultan, Washington Square Press, 2006.

Love and War in Afghanistan, Gulchin Gulmamadova-Klaits, Alex Klaits, Seven Stories Press, 2005.

Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story,  Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton,  Bloomsbury, 2005.

The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, Sarah Chayes, Penguin Press HC, 2006.

Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan, Ann Jones, Metropolitan Books, 2006. 

The Places in Between, Rory Stewart, Harcourt, Inc. 2006.

ADDITIONAL BOOKS

Descent into Chaos, Ahmed Rashid

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, Mahmood Mamdani

Women for Afghan Women, edited by Sunita Mehta

Shattering the Stereotypes, Muslim Women Speak Out, Fawzia Afzal-Khan

VIDEOS/FILMS

Rethink Afghanistan

Civilian Casualties: Fragments From the War on Terror, Pomegranate Films, 2003.

View from a Grain of Sand, Meena Nanji, Ecesis Films Inc. 2004.

Beyond Belief, Beth Murphy, Alive Mind Media, 2006.

Osama, Siddiq Barmak, 2003.

ORGANIZATIONS [Based in Afghanistan]

ORGANIZATIONS [Based in US]

Women for Afghan Women

Afghans 4 Tomorrow

Afghans for Afghans

American Friends Service Committee

Women for Women’s Afghanistan Work

Defense Committee for Malalai Joya

Beyond the 11th

* UFPJ Briefing Call on Afghanistan - Peter Lems *

This briefing call was made by Peter Lems, from American Friends Service Committee, to the UFPJ Afghanistan Working Group. Peter is the AFSC Program Director for Education and Advocacy on Iraq and Afghanistan. In December 2008, he travelled to Afghanistan to meet with AFSC staff and design the organization's program work for the coming year. In this briefing call, he talks both about his own experiences in Afghanistan, as well as what the prospects of an escalation of U.S. forces are for Afghans.

* UFPJ Briefing Call on Afghanistan - Sonali Kolhatkar *

This briefing call was made by Sonali Kolhatkar. She is the co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence.  Sonali is also host and producer of KPFK Pacifica's morning program, Uprising, based in Los Angeles. She has reported from major national political events and internationally from Brazil, India, Afghanistan, and the UAE. She is also the co-director of the Afghan Women's Mission, a US-based non-profit solidarity organization that funds the social, political, and humanitarian projects of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

The call was facilitated by Kelly Campbell of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Kelly is on the UFPJ Steering Committee and is also the co-convener of UFPJ's Afghanistan Working Group.