Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd. That was my reaction to the recent statement of the president’s national security adviser, former Marine Gen. James Jones, concerning the size of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan:
“The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”
The war in Afghanistan poses two important questions: What should be done and who should be "the deciders"?
Congressional Republicans say the answer to the first query is military escalation. But according to polls, most Americans disagree. At the same time, many experts wonder "whether or not we know what we're doing," as President George W. Bush's former deputy national security adviser said last week.
What now for the US in Afghanistan? Does the Obama Administration drop the other shoe and commit us to a second decade of war? Or will it somehow pull up short of the precipice? All of sudden, there’s doubt and the war’s opponents can see a hundred glints of hope – tops among them polls showing Americans now thinking that sending still more troops to Afghanistan because nineteen men hijacked four airplanes eight years earlier might not be the most logical course of action.
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."
The White House has ended weeks of hesitation over how to respond to the
Afghan election by accepting President Karzai as the winner despite evidence
that up to 20 per cent of ballots cast may have been fraudulent.
Abandoning its previous policy of not prejudging investigations of vote
rigging, the Obama Administration has conceded that Mr Karzai will be
President for another five years on the basis that even if he were forced
into a second round of voting he would almost certainly win it.
At least 30 civilians travelling on a bus in southern Afghanistan have been killed by a roadside bomb blast, the Afghan interior ministry has said.
The bus was on its way from Herat to Kandahar when the device exploded, the ministry said, adding that 10 children and seven women were among the dead.
The most seriously wounded have been taken to a Nato base for treatment.
Kandahar's provincial government blamed the Taliban for planting the device, although the group has yet to comment.
WASHINGTON - In a remarkable parallel with a similar turning point in the Vietnam War 44 years ago, President Barack Obama will preside over a series of meetings in the coming weeks that will determine whether the United States will proceed with an escalation of the Afghanistan War or adjust the strategy to reduce the U.S. military commitment there.
WASHINGTON - Top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen on Friday held a secret meeting in Germany with the NATO commander in Afghanistan to discuss a request for more troops, officials said.
Mullen met General Stanley McChrystal at an air base in Ramstein "so he could get a better understanding of the general's request" for additional troops, a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
WASHINGTON - Growing skepticism among key Democratic lawmakers about the U.S. commitment to the war in Afghanistan is certain to pose one of the most difficult political challenges faced by President Barack Obama in his first year in office.
The U.S. could be stuck fighting in Afghanistan for a long time because its army doesn't have the training to connect with the population or understand that country's complicated culture, a senior NATO adviser warns.
Stephen Henthorne says the U.S. army puts too much emphasis on combat while paying lip service to working with civilian agencies and Afghans, and figuring out a plan to establish stability in Afghanistan.
