Norman Solomon

Norman Solomon on his trip to Afghanistan on KQED's This Week in Northern California

On the October 23rd This Week in Northern California

Uncle Sam in Afghanistan: Good Help Is Hard to Find

Almost eight years after choosing Hamid Karzai to head the Afghan government, Uncle Sam would like to give him a pink slip. But it's not easy. And the grim fiasco of Afghanistan's last election is shadowing the next.

Another display of electioneering and voting has been ordered up from Washington. But after a chemical mix has blown a hole through the roof - with all the elements for massive fraud still in place - what's the point of throwing together the same ingredients?

This time, the spinners in Washington hope to be better prepared...

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Interviews on Afghanistan

Norman Solomon was interviewed on KRCB and on KPFK about his trip to Afghanistan.

Starting Another Year of War in Afghanistan

October 2009 has begun with The New York Times reporting that "the president, vice president and an array of cabinet secretaries, intelligence chiefs, generals, diplomats and advisers gathered in a windowless basement room of the White House for three hours on Wednesday to chart a new course in Afghanistan."

As this month begins the ninth year of the US war effort in Afghanistan, "windowless" seems to be an apt metaphor. The structure of thought and the range of options being debated in Washington's high places are notably insular. The "new course" will be a permutation of the present course...

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