The Obama administration's freak out, as expressed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, over the Associated Press Agency's belated circulation of a photograph of a dying US soldier in Afghanistan, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, is the latest of example of the hypocrisy of US authorities who claim to be concerned about the feelings of American military families, while really simply desiring to censor the war's horrors from the eyes of the American people.
WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration and Congress begin a heated debate about how many more American troops to send to Afghanistan, military observers, soldiers on the ground there and some top Pentagon officials are warning that dispatching even tens of thousands more soldiers and Marines might not ensure success.
Some even fear that deploying more U.S. troops, especially in the wake of a U.S.
KABUL - A NATO jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, setting off a huge fireball Friday that killed up to 90 people, Afghan officials said.
The NATO command said a "large number of insurgents" were killed or injured in the pre-dawn attack near the village of Omar Khel in Kunduz province. An Afghan police officer said the 90 dead included about 40 civilians who were siphoning fuel from the trucks.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
KABUL - Two devastating suicide attacks in Afghanistan in the fortnight since elections show the Taliban is penetrating ever deeper in its war against the Kabul government and its international backers.
Insurgents are taking advantage of the government's inability to provide security to spread their tentacles from areas where they have long held sway.
Britain is failing to learn from the “military mistakes” made in Iraq in
developing ways to defeat the Taleban in Afghanistan, according to a series
of critical articles published in an internal army journal.
One devastating contribution, from a former sergeant-major in The Parachute
Regiment who has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, also paints an
alarming picture of soldiers and their families under huge stress from
repeated tours.
An upsurge in violence in Iraq in the month of August 2009 has led to the highest number of deaths from violence in the country for more than a year.
Figures compiled by the Iraqi government show that 393 civilians were killed during August.
Sixty police officers and soldiers also died in attacks.
But the violence is well below the worst levels of 2006 and 2007 when more than 2,000 Iraqi civilians were being killed on average every month.
KABUL/WASHINGTON - The United States and its allies must change strategy and boost cooperation to turn around the war in Afghanistan, the top U.S. and NATO commander there said on Monday, wrapping up a much-anticipated review.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal said the situation was "serious" but the 8-year-old war could still be won. He gave no indication if he would ask for more troops but is widely expected to do so in the coming weeks.
I'm a video game geek, so as I sat through movie previews a few weeks ago, I was sure I was watching Nintendo ads.
There on the cinema's screen was a supersleek plane flying over a moonscape while communicating with an orbiting satellite. In the next moment, a multicolored topographical map, orders being barked - and in my own mind, memories of Call of Duty graphics. And then, finally, two guys in front of a computer console, and the jarring punch line: "It's not science fiction; it's what we do every day," said the bold type, followed by a U.S. Air Force symbol.
President Barack Obama has staked his presidency on winning his “necessary” war in Afghanistan. Coming into office, one of his first acts, on Feb. 18, was to boost US troop levels in that country by 17,000, bringing the total number of soldiers and Marines in the country to about 57,000, to which one must also add about 33,000 other soldiers from NATO countries and Australia. That’s 100,000 foreign soldiers fighting against Taliban fighters.
As the government of Afghanistan, under the watchful eye of
Washington, prepared for its second national election since the U.S.
invasion of 2001, we sat down with Shazia, a Kabul resident and member
of the powerful organization RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the
Women of Afghanistan. We wanted to ask her about the current situation
in her country, and the experiences of women under the regime of Hamid
Karzai and his American backers.
