Tag: barack obama

America’s Role in Afghanistan – A Quiet One

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 12/17/09 By Michael Shank I was not in America feasting on pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. I was in Afghanistan during the Muslim holiday of Eid, also a day to give thanks. Landing in Kabul , I wondered what there was to be thankful for. Poverty plagued the […]

Talking with the Taliban

THE GUARDIAN 10/14/08 By Michael Shank Wandering seven long years in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan with hardly an end in sight, the US has just been offered a most fortuitous fix. It likely eludes America’s current president and queuing candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, but not for […]

Obama, McCain Don’t Grasp Roots of Pakistan’s Instability

THE HILL 09/12/08 By Michael Shank (Regarding article “McCain, Obama applaud Musharraf’s resignation,” Aug. 18.) Have presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) learned nothing from the resignation of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf? Both noted the exit of coup-installed Musharraf should “open the door to cooperation…in the […]