Patrol Base Jaker Movie

UK Special forces leading fight in Afghanistan

 

Gordon Brown took the unusual step today of announcing that just over 500 special forces soldiers are spearheading Britain's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

On the eve of Barack Obama's statement on Afghanistan, Brown praised the special forces for "taking the fight directly to the Taliban", as he confirmed that a further 500 regular troops would be deployed within days. Those troops, all of whom will arrive in Afghanistan by Christmas, are Britain's contribution to the new international military and political surge that will be announced by Obama tomorrow night.

full story at www.guardian.co.uk

Michael Moore to Obama: No more troops in Afghanistan

 

Activist filmmaker Michael Moore has penned an open letter to President Obama, cautioning the commander in chief against increasing troop levels in Afghanistan.

"When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has," Moore wrote in the letter posted on his official Web site, michaelmoore.com.

Obama is expected to formally unveil his military strategy in Afghanistan at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, on Tuesday night.

full story at edition.cnn.com

Doubts linger over US civilian surge in Afghanistan

 

The Obama administration is forging ahead with its civilian surge in Afghanistan but some experts say thousands more are needed while others fear the security situation is making the push ineffective.

In unveiling his first Afghanistan strategy in March, President Barack Obama called for increasing the number of experts to 1,000 in order to help the Kabul government serve its people and wean the economy off opium production.

Obama, due to unveil a revamped strategy on Tuesday that is expected to include some 30,000 to 35,000 more troops, stressed again last week the importance of sending civilians to accompany the military push in Afghanistan.

"It's going to be important to recognize that in order for us to succeed there, you've got to have a comprehensive strategy that includes civilian and diplomatic efforts," he told reporters.

full story at news.yahoo.com

Selling realism in Afghanistan

 

As President Barack Obama prepares to make the case for sending more troops to Afghanistan, some allies are urging him to return to a line of argument little heard since the Bush years: the United States has a moral obligation to protect the Afghan people, particularly women, from the Taliban.

Obama ran on a promise to restore cold-eyed calculations of national interest to American foreign policy, a reaction against President George W. Bush’s tendency to cast a confrontational foreign policy in terms of the freedoms it would achieve for nations that did not have them. And he has governed without the public appeals to human rights that marked American foreign policy ventures from Kosovo to Iraq.

But realism has proved, at times, a hard political sell. Bloodless talk about “engagement” has left the Obama administration without a compelling story to tell or argument to make. And its emphasis on process has only increased the pressure for more tangible results.

In Afghanistan, the White House was reluctant to play up the Taliban’s excesses and the plight of Afghan women while it considered withdrawing from an active role in the country’s governance. But as Obama moves toward sending additional troops – reportedly more than 30,000 more – to the country, supporters of the policy are urging him to stress human rights in an effort to revive support for an increasingly unpopular war.

full article at www.politico.com

Pay for troop increase in Afghanistan or charge it?

 

President Obama is set to announce his strategy in a speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. And the question of cost hovers in the background of the difficult decision he faces.

Over the past eight years, the nearly $1 trillion cost of the military's efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan was essentially charged to the national credit card.

Will it be different this time?

There's some chance lawmakers may opt to pay the bill as it comes due, rather than letting the balance and interest accrue. It's not the first time the idea has come up, but it may be the first time the idea is given serious consideration.

full story at money.cnn.com

Obama administration paints rosier picture of Afghanistan war

 

As they prepare to roll out a new Afghan policy to a skeptical U.S. audience, Obama administration officials have begun recalibrating how they portray the war-damaged country and its government, subduing their grim assessments of the past year and emphasizing the positive.

Before now, U.S. officials stressed the arduous challenges facing the U.S. effort because of the battered condition of Afghan society and the corruption and ineffectiveness of its central government. But in recent days, the administration has praised the strides the country has taken and the skills and idealism of its officials, even the heavily criticized president, Hamid Karzai. They are talking up its economic potential, its educational progress and even its anti-corruption efforts.

"The picture in Afghanistan is much more positive than we often give it credit for," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a visit to Kabul this month. The message is aimed in part, officials say, at trying to build U.S. support for the expected U.S. troop increase at a time when most Americans have turned against the mission and some Democratic congressional leaders have concluded it is hopeless.

full story at www.chicagotribune.com

Air strike kills 30 Taliban in Afghanistan

 

KHOST, Afghanistan – About 30 Taliban insurgents were killed in a NATO-led air strike in eastern Afghanistan after they attacked an Afghan police post, a police official and the alliance said on Sunday.

Afghan border police commander Sayed Nabi Mullahkhil said a police checkpoint in eastern Khost province, which shares a border with Pakistan, was attacked by militants overnight.

full story at news.yahoo.com

Obama Faces Tough Task in Outlining Afghanistan Strategy

 

In his prime-time speech from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, Obama is expected to announce he's sending up to 35,000 more troops -- while trying to affirm he has found a clear path of success in a country known as the graveyard of empires.

President Obama said he intended to "finish the job" in Afghanistan. Now he has to say how.

No sweat? Hardly.

When the president announces his plans for the war Tuesday, he will have plenty of people to convince: frustrated liberals in Congress opposed to any troop surges, Republicans who have questioned Obama's lengthy deliberations and an American public that increasingly is giving up on the eight-year war.

full story at www.foxnews.com

British summit to focus on foreign exit plan in Afghanistan

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown used a Commonwealth summit to announce a January conference that will begin sketching out an exit plan for foreign powers in Afghanistan, setting targets for the Kabul government to tackle internal corruption and take the lead in preserving security there.

Mr. Brown, whose war-weary nation will go the polls next year, is staging the London summit in early 2010 even as big players in Afghanistan are expected to boost their troop presence there over the next few years.

“President Karzai has got to accept that there will be milestones by which he's going to be judged and he's got to accept that there will be benchmarks which the international community will set,” Mr. Brown told reporters at the Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Britain has said it will send an extra 500 troops to the south-central Asian nation to bring its commitment to 9,500 and U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce Tuesday he’s shipping about 30,000 more soldiers there to step up the fight against insurgents. He’s been urging other North Atlantic Treaty Organization members to boost their troop commitments.

full story at www.theglobeandmail.com

Buildup called helpful in 2 Afghan provinces

PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan — On what is more akin to a sunny winter's stroll, U.S. troops proudly tread on a newly asphalted road, past a refurbished mosque and a crowded market overflowing with produce. Children dance around the soldiers' boots and bearded men stop them for a casual chat.

This is Logar province: scene of a major U.S. military buildup, fuel for the argument by senior commanders that more troops and aid infusions could reverse Taliban gains in other areas of Afghanistan and ultimately lead to victory.

But the endgame has yet to be played out in Logar, a critical region south of Kabul.

Less than 10 miles from this provincial capital and a few days later, another patrol is greeted only by the cackle of crows and what soldiers call "the stinky eye" from some villagers when they enter Uzbakkhel in combat formation. Two roadside bombs welcomed them on a former visit, a district official had been assassinated the previous night and three days earlier the Taliban nearby killed a 24-year-old man whose uncle worked for the government in Kabul.

full story at marinecorpstimes.com