The Situation in Afghanistan Hearings Committee On
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Dear Senator
Dear Senator: We support, strongly and without qualification, President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense. Most of us have known the Senator for a decade or more and consistently have found him to be one of the best informed leaders in the U.S. Congress on national security issues. Senator Hagel’s credentials for the job are impeccable. As a decorated Vietnam veteran, a successful entrepreneur in the private sector, and a two-term United States senator, he brings exceptional qualifications and experience to the Department of Defense, particularly at this time of budget constraint and challenges in reshaping America’s military power while keeping it strong for the coming decades. Senator Hagel’s political courage has impressed us all. He has stood and argued publicly for what he believes is best for the United States. Time and again, he has chosen to take the path of standing up for our nation, rather than the path of political expediency. He has always supported the pillars of American foreign policy: a strong military; a robust Atlantic partnership; a commitment to the security of Israel, as a friend and ally; a determination to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons; and the defense of human rights as a core principle of America’s role in the world. We have spent most of our lives in the service of our country, deeply committed to America’s security and the example of our democracy. Many of us served in the U.S. armed services and most of us have served for decades as professional diplomats. -
Testimony of Ryan Crocker House Committee on Armed Services
Testimony of Ryan Crocker House Committee on Armed Services Hearing on Afghanistan November 20, 2020 Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Thornberry, it is an honor to appear before you today to discuss the critical issue of the US military mission in Afghanistan and the peace process. Our military has been in Afghanistan almost two decades. After this length oftime, it is important to recall the reasons for our intervention. It was in response to the most devastating attacks on US soil since Pearl Harbor. Those attacks came out of Afghanistan, perpetrated by al-Qaida which was hosted and sheltered there by the Taliban. We gave the Taliban a choice: give up al-Qaida. and we will take no action against you. The Taliban chose a swift military defeat and exile over abandoning their ally. Why is this of any significance today? Because, after nearly two decades, the Taliban leadership sees an opportunity to end that exile and return to power, largely thanks to us. And its links to al-Qaida, the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, remain very strong. Mr. Chairman, I appear before you today not as a scholar but as a practitioner. At the beginning of January 2002, I had the privilege of reopening our Embassy in Kabul. It was a shattered city in a devastated country. The Kabul airport was closed, its runways crate red and littered with destroyed aircraft. The drive to Kabul from our military base at Bagram was through a wasteland of mud, strewn with mines. Nothing grew. Kabul itself resembled Berlin in 1945 with entire city blocks reduced to rubble. -
Child Notice Afghanistan
Child Notice Afghanistan 2018 UNICEF The Netherlands UNICEF Afghanistan Child Notice Afghanistan 2018 Authors: Horia Mosadiq, Majorie Kaandorp (2018 edition) Naeem Poyesh, Hussain Hassrat, Abdul Ahad Mohammadi, Jane E. Thorson, Zakiah Mirzaei, Fatema Ahmadi (2015 edition) With support from: Majorie Kaandorp, UNICEF The Netherlands Design: Schone Vormen 2018 For further information, please contact: Majorie Kaandorp Children’s Rights Advocacy Officer UNICEF The Netherlands Email: [email protected] The Child Notice Afghanistan has been produced by UNICEF The Netherlands, in cooperation with UNICEF Afghanistan. The 2015 edition of the Child Notice Afghanistan was developed as part of the project Better information for durable solutions and protection which was financially supported by the Return Fund of the European Commission. The Child Notice describes the situation of children in the countries of origin providing legal and practical information on education, health care, child protection, armed conflict, juvenile justice, trafficking etc. The Child Notice has been developed based on this Methodology Guidance on Child Notice. 2 UNICEF Child Notice Afghanistan TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF ACRONYMS 5 DISCLAIMER 6 INTRODUCTION 7 READER’S GUIDE 9 SUMMARY 15 1 Demographic and statistical data on children 17 1.1 Demographic and statistical data on children 17 1.2 Islam and Religion 21 1.3 Family Structure 21 1.4 Political Development 22 2 Basic Legal Information 24 2.1 Conventions on children’s and human rights 24 2.2 National legislation 25 2.3 -
Enhancing Survivor-Centred Healthcare Response for Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence in Afghanistan
Enhancing Survivor-Centred Healthcare Response for Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence in Afghanistan March 2021 | Acknowledgments All Survivors Project (ASP) and Youth Health and Development Organization (YHDO) would like to thank the victims/survivors of sexual violence, healthcare providers, community health workers and government and non-government stakeholders who participated in this research and shared their perceptions and experiences. The report was authored by Julienne Corboz. Layout and production assistance was provided by Roberto Thillet. ASP and YHDO, and the author of this report, are extremely grateful to the stakeholders who participated in the National Advisory Group, particularly those who peer reviewed and provided valuable feedback on drafts of the report, including: Taiba Jafari, Director of the Gender Directorate, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health; Najeebullah Zadran Babrakzai, National Coordinator for the Rights of Children, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; and Palwasha Aabed, Child Protection Officer, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The author is also grateful for peer review and feedback from the ASP and YHDO team. All Survivors Project, and not the peer reviewers, is responsible for the final content of this report. Cover illustration: Brian Stauffer © 2021 All Survivors Project and Youth and Development Organization Contents Acronyms . 4 Executive Summary . 5 Recommendations . 11 Introduction . 15 Background . 17 Overview of Methodology . 22 Results . 25 Barriers to Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence Accessing Healthcare Services 25 The Role of Communities in Supporting Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence 42 Healthcare Services for Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence . 45 Needs of Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence . -
TNSR Journal Vol 2 Issue 4 Book Final.Pdf (12.61Mb)
Texas National Security Review Texas T E R R A I TERRA INCOGNITA N C O G N I T A Volume 2 Issue 4 Volume Print: ISSN 2576-1021 Online: ISSN 2576-1153 MASTHEAD TABLE OF CONTENTS Staff: The Foundation Publisher: Executive Editor: Associate Editors: 04 Wars with Words? Ryan Evans Doyle Hodges, PhD Galen Jackson, PhD Francis J. Gavin Van Jackson, PhD Editor-in-Chief: Managing Editor: Stephen Tankel, PhD William Inboden, PhD Megan G. Oprea, PhD The Scholar Editorial Board: 10 More Significance than Value: Explaining Developments in the Sino-Japanese Contest Over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands Chair, Editorial Board: Editor-in-Chief: Todd Hall Francis J. Gavin, PhD William Inboden, PhD 38 The Collapse Narrative: The United States, Mohammed Mossadegh, and the Coup Decision of 1953 Gregory Brew Robert J. Art, PhD Kelly M. Greenhill, PhD John Owen, PhD Richard Betts, PhD Beatrice Heuser, PhD Patrick Porter, PhD 60 The City Is Neutral: On Urban Warfare in the 21st Century John Bew, PhD Michael C. Horowitz, PhD Thomas Rid, PhD David Betz and Hugo Stanford-Tuck Nigel Biggar, PhD Richard H. Immerman, PhD Joshua Rovner, PhD Philip Bobbitt, JD, PhD Robert Jervis, PhD Brent E. Sasley, PhD Hal Brands, PhD Colin Kahl, PhD Elizabeth N. Saunders, PhD Joshua W. Busby, PhD Jonathan Kirshner, PhD Kori Schake, PhD The Strategist Robert Chesney, JD James Kraska, SJD Michael N. Schmitt, DLitt Eliot Cohen, PhD Stephen D. Krasner, PhD Jacob N. Shapiro, PhD 90 Thinking in Space: The Role of Geography in National Security Decision-Making Audrey Kurth Cronin, PhD Sarah Kreps, PhD Sandesh Sivakumaran, PhD Andrew Rhodes Theo Farrell, PhD Melvyn P. -
WTH Is Going on with the Retreat from Afghanistan? Amb. Ryan Crocker On
WTH is going on with the retreat from Afghanistan? Amb. Ryan Crocker on withdrawal, and the consequences for US national security Episode #115 | September 1, 2021 | Danielle Pletka, Marc Thiessen, and Amb. Ryan Crocker Danielle Pletka: Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. Marc Thiessen: I'm Marc Thiessen. Danielle Pletka: Welcome to our podcast, What the Hell Is Going On? Marc, what the hell is going on? Marc Thiessen: I've never been more disgusted in my life with what's happening with what America is doing than I am right now watching the last planes leaving Kabul, leaving behind American citizens, thousands of Afghans who risked their lives to help us, the blood of 13 dead Americans and hundreds of Afghan civilians. It is the most shameful thing I have witnessed in my entire career in Washington. I'm shifting between absolute abject pain and rage as I watch this happen. Dany, what are your thoughts? Danielle Pletka: It is the worst thing in the world that a country like ours, we've suffered defeats, we've made mistakes, we've done terrible things. Never, I hope willfully, but by mistake, we've done terrible things. And we have betrayed allies before. We've not done enough for people who need us. We've let down the Kurds in Iraq, we've let down the Syrian people, but we have never actually gone in and rescued a group of people who in turn sacrificed all for us and for our security as Afghans did, because make no mistake, we were not in Afghanistan for the Afghan people. -
Relativitas Budaya Dan Berlangsungnya Budaya Bacha Bazi Di Afganistan Pasca Pemerintahan Taliban
Journal of International Relations, Volume 6, Nomor 4, 2020, hal 535-544 Online di http://ejournal-s1.undip.ac.id/index.php/jihi Relativitas Budaya dan Berlangsungnya Budaya Bacha Bazi di Afganistan Pasca Pemerintahan Taliban Dwi Ramadhani Departemen Hubungan Internasional, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik Universitas Diponegoro Jalan Prof.H.Soedarto,SH., Tembalang, Semarang, Kotak Pos 1269 Website: http://www.fisip.undip.ac.id Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This research explains the issue of opposing human rights carried out by the people of Afghanistan against boys through the bacha bazi culture. The conservative culture in Afghanistan led to a separation between men and women, thus bacha bazi serves to be a means of fulfilling the sexual needs of the male community in Afghanistan. “Women are for children, boys are for pleasure” is a famous sentence that explains the culture of bacha bazi for the people of Afghanistan. Although very normal, bacha bazi is taboo to talk about so that the practice is done in secret. The Taliban regime in 1996-2001 was able to abolish the bacha bazi culture, but with the fall of the regime, this culture is increasingly spreading. Domestic and international organizations, as well as foreign troops in Afghanistan, have sought to eradicate the culture, but have encountered difficulties. So this research was conducted to answer how the bacha bazi culture can take place after the Taliban government. The research methodology is an explanative qualitative method through data collection techniques with a literature study. The results of this study are proof that cultural relativity keeps this culture going on in Afghanistan despite violating human rights. -
Washington, DC June 1, 2016 Dear Mr. President, We Are Writing, As
Washington, DC June 1, 2016 Dear Mr. President, We are writing, as Americans committed to the success of our country’s Afghanistan mission, to urge that you sustain the current level of U.S. forces in Afghanistan through the remainder of your term. Aid levels and diplomatic energies should similarly be preserved without reduction. Unless emergency conditions require consideration of a modest increase, we would strongly favor a freeze at the level of roughly 10,000 U.S. troops through January 20. This approach would also allow your successor to assess the situation for herself or himself and make further adjustments accordingly. The broader Middle East is roiled in conflicts that pit moderate and progressive forces against those of violent extremists. As we saw on 9/11 and in the recent attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, and Brussels, the problems of the Middle East do not remain contained within the Middle East. Afghanistan is the place where al Qaeda and affiliates first planned the 9/11 attacks and a place where they continue to operate—and is thus important in the broader effort to defeat the global extremist movement today. It is a place where al Qaeda and ISIS still have modest footprints that could be expanded if a security vacuum developed. If Afghanistan were to revert to the chaos of the 1990s, millions of refugees would again seek shelter in neighboring countries and overseas, dramatically intensifying the severe challenges already faced in Europe and beyond. In the long-term struggle against violent extremists, the United States above all needs allies—not only to fight a common enemy, but also to create a positive vision for the peoples of the region. -
Congressional Record—House H2574
H2574 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 19, 2021 Sewell (DelBene) Wilson (FL) Young (Joyce NAYS—208 Ruppersberger Slotkin (Axne) Wilson (SC) Slotkin (Axne) (Hayes) (OH)) (Raskin) Waters (Timmons) Aderholt Gohmert Moolenaar Waters Wilson (SC) Rush (Barraga´ n) Young (Joyce Allen (Barraga´ n) (Timmons) Gonzales, Tony Mooney (Underwood) Wilson (FL) Amodei (OH)) Gonzalez (OH) Moore (AL) Sewell (DelBene) (Hayes) The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Armstrong Good (VA) Moore (UT) question is on the resolution. Arrington Gooden (TX) Mullin f Babin Gosar Murphy (NC) The question was taken; and the Bacon Granger Nehls NATIONAL COMMISSION TO INVES- Speaker pro tempore announced that Baird Graves (LA) Newhouse TIGATE THE JANUARY 6 ATTACK the ayes appeared to have it. Balderson Graves (MO) Norman Banks Green (TN) Nunes ON THE UNITED STATES CAP- Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speak- Barr Greene (GA) Obernolte ITOL COMPLEX ACT Bentz Griffith er, on that I demand the yeas and nays. Owens Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Bergman Grothman Palazzo The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- Bice (OK) Guest Palmer Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution ant to section 3(s) of House Resolution Biggs Guthrie Pence 409, I call up the bill (H.R. 3233) to es- 8, the yeas and nays are ordered. Bilirakis Hagedorn Perry tablish the National Commission to In- Bishop (NC) Harris Pfluger The vote was taken by electronic de- Boebert Harshbarger Posey vestigate the January 6 Attack on the vice, and there were—yeas 216, nays Bost Hartzler Reed United States Capitol Complex, and for 208, not voting 5, as follows: Brady Hern Reschenthaler other purposes, and ask for its imme- Brooks Herrell Rice (SC) diate consideration. -
How to Feel Like a Woman, Or Why Punishment Is a Drag Mary Anne Franks University of Miami School of Law, [email protected]
University of Miami Law School University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository Articles Faculty and Deans 2014 How to Feel Like a Woman, or Why Punishment Is a Drag Mary Anne Franks University of Miami School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/fac_articles Part of the Law and Gender Commons, Law and Society Commons, and the Sexuality and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Mary Anne Franks, How to Feel Like a Woman, or Why Punishment Is a Drag, 61 UCLA L. Rev. 566 (2014). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty and Deans at University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. How to Feel Like a Woman, or Why Punishment Is a Drag Mary Anne Franks ABSTRACT If a man in prison says that he was made -to feel like a woman," this is commonly understood to mean that he was degraded, dehumanized, and sexualized. This association of femininity with punishment has significant implications for the way our society understands not only the sexual abuse of men in prison but also sexual abuse generally These important implications are usually overlooked, however, because law and society typically regard prison feminization as a problem of gender transposition: that is, as a problem of men being treated like women. In contrast, this Article argues that feminization is punitive for both men and women. -
Congressional Record—Senate S1432
S1432 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 25, 2019 a second staff person to accompany him or letter signed by 58 former national se- nancial Intelligence from 2011 to 2015 and as her on the dais he or she must make a re- curity officials, who served under Re- Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence quest to the Chairman for that purpose. publican and Democratic administra- Agency from 2015 to 2017. RULE 8. COINAGE LEGISLATION l. Eliot A. Cohen served as Counselor of the tions, criticizing President Trump’s U.S. Department of State from 2007 to 2009. At least 67 Senators must cosponsor any declaration of a national emergency to m. Ryan Crocker served as U.S. Ambas- gold medal or commemorative coin bill or build a wall on our southern border be sador to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012, as resolution before consideration by the Com- printed in the RECORD. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009, as mittee. There being no objection, the mate- U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to EXTRACTS FROM THE STANDING RULES OF THE rial was ordered to be printed in the 2007, as U.S. Ambassador to Syria from 1998 SENATE RECORD, as follows: to 2001, as U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait from RULE XXV, STANDING COMMITTEES 1994 to 1997, and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon JOINT DECLARATION OF FORMER UNITED from 1990 to 1993. 1. The following standing committees shall STATES GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS be appointed at the commencement of each n. Thomas Donilon served as National Se- We, the undersigned, declare as follows. -
Talking to the Taliban 2011 – 2012: a Reflection
Talking to the Taliban 2011 – 2012: A Reflection BY MARC GROSSMAN hen then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked in early 2011 if I would become the United States’ Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) – after the W sudden death of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the first SRAP – she described the foundations Ambassador Holbrooke had laid to manage one of the most challenging tasks facing the nation. Secretary Clinton also said that she wanted to continue the experiment: having the SRAP organization prove that the “whole-of-government” philosophy – the idea that the United States must employ expertise and resources from all relevant parts of government to address the nation’s most important challenges – was the right model for 21st century diplomacy.2 The SRAP team brought together experts from across the U.S. Government (and included several diplomats from NATO countries) to develop and implement integrated strategies to address the complex challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the region. Among the first things I learned when I arrived at my desk in February 2011, was that an allied government had put the United States in contact with someone who seemed to be an empowered representative of the Taliban, the Afghan insurgent group which the United States had removed from power in 2001, but which had ever since kept up a deadly war against Afghans, Americans and our allies, friends and partners.3 The contact was preliminary, but many in the White House and on the SRAP team hoped that this connection might open the door for the conversation everyone knew would be required if there were ever to be peace in Afghanistan: Afghans talking to other Afghans about the future of Afghanistan.