In a remarkable display of contrition from a military officer who operates far from public visibility, Vice Adm. William McRaven, chief of the Joint Special Operations Command, visited an area in Gardez to apologize personally for the killing of five civilians during a February raid. McRaven brought with More…
In February, U.S. Special Operations Forces raided a house in Gardez, in the eastern district of Paktia, searching for Taliban militants. They killed two men they believed to be insurgents. A NATO statement at the time said that soldiers also “found the bodies of three women who had been More…
Buried on page B-2 of an annex in Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Aug. 30 strategic assessment of the Afghanistan war is a vague promise about how he will run it. “Draft C2 guidance for command and control of special operations forces will be issued soon,” McChrystal writes. That forthcoming order will More…
Not that he wasn’t before. But during the White House debate over Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy this fall, Vice President Joe Biden argued for a “Pakistan-first” approach that tamped down U.S. troop increases in Afghanistan in favor of counterterrorism strikes in both countries and civilian aid to Pakistan. Since the More…
Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) asked why the Taliban won’t simply reconstitute itself in the parts of Afghanistan that Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s population-security battle plan won’t flood with U.S. troops. It’s the Taliban version of the tried-and-true baseball strategy of hittin’ ‘em where they ain’t. Gen. David Petraeus’ sotto voce answer? More…
I reported yesterday that Gen. Stanley McChrystal will probably testify next week about Afghanistan war strategy. It’ll be interesting to see if he faces questions about the so-called “black jail.”
Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater’s most dogged journalistic pursuer, has an absolute monster story in The Nation about the Joint Special Operations Command contracting out very sensitive drone-strike spotting and terrorist-snatch operations to Blackwater. It’s a huge piece, so read the whole thing. There’s a ton of detail in here, and More…
Update: I am retracting this post, published yesterday, titled “Inside This Morning’s White House Afghanistan Meeting: Anger With Eikenberry, ‘Beef’ With McChrystal.”
My original source for the post stands by the account provided. The individual, a National Security Council staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity, has provided truthful More…
The New York Times reports that President Obama is considering sending a far smaller number of additional troops to Afghanistan than previously mentioned:
Pentagon officials said the low-end option of 10,000 to 15,000 more troops would mean little or no significant increase in American combat forces in Afghanistan. The bulk
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