One of the points that Defense Secretary Bob Gates emphasized — arguably, in fact, the key point — in his Senate testimony last month is the abundant need to put an “Afghan face” on all aspects of the war. Today’s a good day for him, then. Gen. David McKiernan, More…
One other interesting aspect of that new poll about Afghan public opinion is what the poll found about the prospect of negotiating an end to the conflict with the Taliban:
Negotiations are another way forward – one with public support, but with preconditions. All told, 64 percent of Afghans
In Afghanistan, you’ve got a war of unclear goals that everyone agrees has no military solution. But it’s also not clear if the alternative to open-ended conflict is to cut some kind of deal with Taliban elements — as increasingly-out-of-American-favor President Hamid Karzai has More…
Talk to Obama aides about the Afghanistan strategy review 60 days from now and they insist they’re coming up with new, narrowed goals for the war before they think about what resources are therefore necessary — that is, adding additional troops.
Both the Wall Street Journal and the More…
The New York Times reports that Karl Eikenberry, the commanding general of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007, is President Obama’s choice to become ambassador to Afghanistan. It’s an interesting choice: Eikenberry has two tours in Afghanistan to his name, so on the one hand More…
Following up on Matt’s post — and correcting my earlier one — notice how the last clause of President Obama’s statement about the first meeting with many members of his national security team is ” … we will undertake a full review of the situation in Afghanistan in More…
The first meeting of President Obama’s national security council is scheduled this afternoon, on the topics of Iraq and Afghanistan and the dicey situation in Israel/Palestine. According to The Associated Press and The Washington Post, Obama will receive military advice on his planned troop withdrawals in Iraq and More…
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