lawrence nicholson

Remember many things, but especially the Marines fighting in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. Here’s a progress report emailed out at 4 p.m. Friday local time/9 a.m. Friday EST from USFOR-A, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan, about Operation Khanjar:
The Marines and Afghan forces are continuing to patrol and have begun engaging with key leaders in the [...]

So after I wrote this post, I checked in with State Department contacts to see what’s on the horizon for resourcing the Marine offensive in the Helmand River Valley. The biggest piece of news I can report: lots of diplomats are anticipating a relaxing Fourth of July. But there’s more.
The two State Department and USAID [...]

Underway in southern Afghanistan. There’s not a whole lot I can add from Washington (or, actually, Detroit, where I’m blogging from right now) to Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s on-the-ground report. Brig. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, the Marine commander in the area, is very well respected by everyone I’ve spoken to, and his admonition that “We’re not going to [...]

Use the initials if you don’t understand, but that was what Gen. Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, told commanders in Afghanistan would be the president’s reaction if they asked for more troops on top of the 17,000 extra combat troops and 4,000 extra trainers that Obama already ordered to be deployed this year. [...]