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Whatever Obama decides, Brown must set withdrawal date

In Afghanistan, Barack Obama is in a hole at least partly of his own making. The decision he must make – and it may come this week – is whether or not to stop digging and start looking for a way out. The decision Britain must make – and the matter ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Guardian Unlimited,  16 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Barack Obama,  U.S. Republican Party,  Hamid Karzai,  Lyndon B. Johnson,  The Pentagon

Why won't Obama be Europe's friend?

Obama's apparent lack of interest in America's European allies – some call it indifference, even disdain – is a source of growing unease on the Old World side of the Atlantic. As polls suggest Europeans, by and large, are hugely enamoured of George ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Comment Is Free,  2 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Barack Obama,  George W. Bush,  Gordon Brown,  G-20,  Nicolas Sarkozy

The Afghan election: a five-star debacle | Simon Tisdall

In Afghanistan's disreputable 2009 presidential election, everyone's a loser. Hamid Karzai's "victory", achieved by fraud and now by default, has left him a tarnished, diminished figure. The US administration that orchestrated the whole process still ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Guardian Unlimited,  1 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Abdullah Abdullah,  United Nations,  Hillary Rodham Clinton,  White House,  Hamid Karzai

America's new crusader castles

After the US Congress agreed a $7.5bn aid package for Pakistan this autumn, the Obama administration was taken aback by the seemingly ungrateful reaction of its intended recipients. Pakistani opposition politicians fumed about "colonialism" and ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Guardian Unlimited,  29 Oct 2009

Related Topics: U.S. Congress,  Barack Obama,  The Pentagon,  Al-Qaeda,  Taliban

Simon Tisdall's Lost Leaders

Which international leaders messed up most this week? Whose plans unravelled and fell apart? The Guardian's foreign affairs columnist Simon Tisdall is keeping a tally. Click on the cards to see this week's leading goofers and leave your comments ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Guardian Unlimited,  23 Oct 2009

Israel is in denial over Turkish rage

The apparent inability of Israeli leaders to see their actions as others see them – that is to say, to put themselves in other people's shoes – may partly explain the depth of the outrage with which they greeted the Goldstone report on last January's ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Comment Is Free,  22 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Ehud Olmert,  Tzipi Livni,  Ehud Barak,  Avigdor Lieberman,  Shimon Peres

Afghan run-off is a chilling prospect

Like Napoleon advancing on Moscow, western proponents of Afghanistan's second post-9/11 presidential election face a new and forbidding enemy. This foe fields no regiments of guards, no jihadi skirmishers; he possesses no cannon or improvised explosive ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Comment Is Free,  20 Oct 2009

Related Topics: John Kerry,  Barack Obama,  United Nations,  Hamid Karzai,  Taliban

Obama has little choice on Sudan

Given his tough rhetoric on Darfur during last year's US election campaign, Barack Obama will face inevitable criticism over his new policy of engaging rather than bashing Khartoum's leadership. But even opponents of the revised US strategy unveiled in ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Guardian Unlimited,  19 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Barack Obama,  United Nations,  Susan E. Rice,  White House,  Salva Kiir Mayardit

Obama's mettle is about to be tested

It's getting harder each day for the Obama administration to maintain the illusion of progress in Middle East peacemaking. The UN human rights council's vote to condemn Israel's January assault on Gaza, furiously rejected by the Israeli prime minister, ...

From SIMON TISDALL, The Observer,  18 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Barack Obama,  Hamas,  George Mitchell,  Hillary Rodham Clinton,  Susan E. Rice

Just bad friends

Washington's clumsy attempts to strengthen Pakistan's government only serve to stoke a conflict approaching civil war As the Obama administration dithers over what to do for the best in Afghanistan, neighbouring Pakistan is paying an increasingly heavy ...

From SIMON TISDALL, Guardian Unlimited,  15 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Taliban,  U.S. Congress,  Barack Obama,  U.S. Democratic Party,  Howard Berman

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