According to a new United Nations report, 2009 was the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since the U.S. invaded in 2001. The international body tallied 2,412 civilian deaths, a spike from 2,118 killed in 2008. But insurgents were responsible for the vast majority. The population-protection measures taken by Gen. Stanley More…
Maybe this post requires an addendum. The Pakistani Supreme Court just took a major step toward ousting beleaguered President Asif Ali Zardari:
Pakistan’s top court has declared an amnesty that had protected the president from corruption charges was illegal, state and private TV outlets reported. The ruling Wednesday
As I report in my piece on Pakistan this morning, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke is taking pains to avoid “demand[ing] a sovereign country,” say, go after the Afghan Taliban in Baluchistan or al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. The Obama administration believes that would be counterproductive. Instead, the More…
Great reporting from Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball about the Obama administration’s debate over CIA (and maybe Joint Special Operations Command) drone strikes in Pakistan against senior al-Qaeda leadership:
One person standing in the way of expanded missile strikes: President Obama. Five administration officials tell NEWSWEEK that the president has sided
It sounded like a throwaway line in President Obama’s West Point address about the Afghanistan war. “It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak,” the president said, tying his troop increase in Afghanistan to More…
Does the United States have to remain in Afghanistan until Osama bin Laden is captured? And will the war be incomplete until that happens? Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) wanted to know.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal neglects the first question and answers the second. “I believe al-Qaeda can be defeated overall,” McChrystal More…
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) asks a brave and inconvenient question: As much as the Taliban may be hated, don’t some Afghans prefer their severity over “the endless process of having to grease the palms of endless government bureaucrats”? Better an uncorrupt religious fanatic than a corrupt secular government? It’s the More…
“Let me state up front that I fully support the policy that President Obama announced at West Point last week,” said Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia, during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today. “None of this will More…
In confirmation hearings six months ago, Gen. Stanley McChrystal painted a bleak picture of an Afghanistan plagued by a growing insurgency. But in two marathon congressional hearings on Tuesday, McChrystal, now the commander of U.S. and More…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked Gen. McChrystal about the size of the Taliban; McChrystal answered: “Our estimate is 24,000 and 27,000 full-time fighters,” plus additional “part-time” fighters. Their biggest impact is in the south, he added, where Taliban influence has “a significant impact on way everyone lives.” Everyone.
Why? Graham More…
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