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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

Prosecuting American 'War Crimes' in Afghanistan

 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed "great regret" in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague.

The ICC's chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court's authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he already has jurisdiction—at least with respect to Afghanistan.

Because Kabul in 2003 ratified the Rome Statute—the ICC's founding treaty—all soldiers on Afghan territory, even those from nontreaty countries, fall under the ICC's oversight, Mr. Ocampo told me. And the chief prosecutor says he is already conducting a "preliminary examination" into whether NATO troops, including American soldiers, fighting the Taliban may have to be put in the dock

full article at online.wsj.com

NATO's Afghanistan war casualties

 

via network.nationalpost.com

Liberals Vow to 'Spank' Obama for Sending More Troops to Afghanistan

 
President Obama is days away from announcing a new Afghan strategy, but his immediate battle could come from liberals who are vowing to "spank" the president for committing tens of thousands of more troops to the eight-year conflict.

In a prime-time speech Tuesday from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Obama is expected to announce that he is sending up to 35,000 additional troops to Afghanistan beginning next year.

The figure is short of the 40,000 troops his top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, requested -- but enough to anger many congressional Democrats who oppose any potential troop surge, arguing that the mission is too expensive and lacks a clear objective.

"I think there will be some disillusionment within his base," said Paul Kawika Martin, political director for Peace Action, a grassroots organization, who added that thousands of activists are planning to protest following the president's announcement.

"We're going to spank him for sending more troops," he told FoxNews.com, adding that they may also "thank him" if he announces a quick exit strategy.

full story at www.foxnews.com

Marines in Afghanistan hear a plea: Don't leave too soon

 
It was at the end of a recent after-lunch meeting, with the two sides sitting cross-legged on a tattered rug, exchanging pleasantries and enjoying sweet tea and stone-baked bread.

Haji Mohammed Khan, district administrator for Nawa, a government bureaucrat with three decades' experience in war and shaky peace, had something he wanted to ask the Marines, some of whom will soon return to bases in the United States.

"Please," Khan said in a low voice, his sad eyes looking directly at his guests, "don't let us be here alone. You used your young people, your vehicles, your helicopters to help us. Please don't turn around and leave unfinished your business here."m

full story at www.latimes.com