NewsTrust - Afghanistan - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Army Colonel Challenges Pentagon’s Afghanistan Claims

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Scott Shane - Feb. 05 (Special Report) - After two deployments in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis says the Pentagon is not telling the whole truth about how the war is going.

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Despite Taliban threats, Afghan elders conference loya jirga opens amid high security in Kabul

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Amir Shah, Matt Lee - Nov. 15 (News Report) - Karzai urged the roughly 2000 delegates to consider both the need for international help and the need to make sure Afghans are setting the rules in their own country.

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Fact checking the South Carolina debate

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Glenn Kessler - Nov. 14 (Fact Check) - The GOP candidates met for a debate Saturday night sponsored by CBS and the National Journal, with a specific focus on foreign policy and national security. In foreign policy, there is often no right or wrong answer; the results of a policy are often ambiguous and its effectiveness is usually only determined by history. Still, there were a number of statements made by the candidates that were factually challenged, exaggerated or lacking context. Read full article ...

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McChrystal: US lacks knowledge to bring end to war in Afghanistan

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Oct. 07 (News) - McChrystal says the US and its allies are only 'a little better than' 50% of the way to reaching their war goals The US began the war in Afghanistan with a "frighteningly simplistic" view of the country and even 10 years later lacks knowledge that could help bring the conflict to a successful end, a former top commander said on Thursday. Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and its Nato allies are only "a little better than" 50% of the way to reaching their war goals. Of the remaining tasks to be accomplished, he said the most difficult may be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans can believe in and that can serve as a counterweight to the Taliban. McChrystal, who commanded coalition forces in 2009-10 and was forced to resign in a flap over a magazine article, said the US entered Afghanistan in October 2001 with too little knowledge of Afghan culture. "We didn't know enough and we still don't know ...

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Afghanistan and Iraq wars not worth fighting, say a third of US veterans

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Oct. 05 (News Report) - One in three US veterans of the post-9/11 military believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting, and a majority think ...Poll finds pride in military, but not for Afghanistan, Iraq wars

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10 myths about Afghanistan

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jonathan Steele - Sep. 28 (Special Report) - In 1988, the Soviet army left Afghanistan after a concerted campaign by the western-backed mujahideen. But since then, many enduring myths have grown up about the war-torn country. In his new book, Jonathan Steele sorts the fact from the fiction 1. Afghans have always beaten foreign armies, from Alexander the Great to modern times Afghan history is certainly littered with occasions when foreign invaders were humiliated. But there have also been many cases when foreign armies penetrated the country and inflicted major defeats. In 330BC, Alexander the Great marched through the area of central Asia that is now Afghanistan, meeting little opposition. More than a millennium later, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan also brushed resistance aside. Since Afghanistan emerged as a modern state, there have been three wars with Britain. The British invasion of 1839 produced initial victory for the intruders followed by stunning defeat followed by a second victory. In 1878, the British invaded again. ...

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Analysis: Pakistan's double-game: treachery or strategy?

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - Sep. 28 (News Analysis) - "Turns out they are disloyal, deceptive and a danger to the United States," fumed Republican Representative Ted Poe last week. "We pay them to hate us. Now we pay them to bomb us. Let's not pay them at all." For many in America, Islamabad has been nothing short of perfidious since joining a strategic alliance with Washington 10 years ago: selectively cooperating in the war on extremist violence and taking billions of dollars in aid to do the job, while all the time sheltering and supporting Islamist militant groups that fight NATO troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan has angrily denied the charges, but if its critics are right, what could the explanation be for such duplicity? What strategic agendas might be hidden behind this puzzling statecraft?

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Fact Check: Social Security, Health Care and More

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Cooper, KITTY BENNETT, TRIP GABRIEL, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr., JOHN M. BRODER, RYAN MURPHY - Sep. 13 (Fact Check) - As Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was assailed by some rivals for the Republican presidential nomination at Monday night's debate for his misleading claims on Social Security, he also seemed to be debating himself at times.

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A decade later, returning to the scene of something unfathomable - latimes.com

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Steve Lopez - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - A columnist goes back to Lower Manhattan, where in 2001 he got a close-up look at the destruction of 9/11. He's reminded anew that we all have a stake in what happened that day and in the days that followed.

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Suicide Bomber Kills Kandahar Mayor

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 27 (News) - In a further strike against the authorities in war-torn southern Afghanistan, the mayor of Kandahar was killed in his office on Wednesday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden in his turban, officials said.

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How the Deficit Got This Big

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Teresa Tritch - Jul. 25 (News Analysis) - A look at how the economy went from healthy surpluses at the end of the Clinton era to the current deficit. With President Obama and Republican leaders calling for cutting the budget by trillions over the next 10 years, it is worth asking how we got here — from healthy surpluses at the end of the Clinton era, and the promise of future surpluses, to nine straight years of deficits, including the $1.3 trillion shortfall in 2010. The answer is largely the Bush-era tax cuts, war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recessions. Despite what antigovernment conservatives say, non- defense discretionary spending on areas like foreign aid, education and food safety was not a driving factor in creating the deficits. In fact, such spending, accounting for only 15 percent of the budget, has been basically flat as a share of the economy for decades. Cutting it simply will not fill the deficit hole.

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Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President's Brother, Assassinated

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Jul. 12 (News) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half brother, a lightning rod for criticism of all that is wrong with the Afghan government, was assassinated Tuesday at his home in southern Afghanistan, an official said.

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Buried bombs take increasingly deadly toll on Afghan civilians

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Laura King - Jul. 03 (News Report) - The United Nations says May was the deadliest month for noncombatants in Afghanistan since it began keeping track five years ago. Civilians have been dying in record numbers as violence ratchets upward across Afghanistan.

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U.S. Wars Leave 225,000 Dead, Cost $4.4 Trillion: Study

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Agence France-Presse - Jul. 02 (News Report) - U.S. wars launched since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have left 225,000 dead and cost up to $4.4 trillion, according to a new study by university researchers. The study published by Brown University this week focused on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and counter-terrorism campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen, which came in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

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Afghanistan: Roadside bomb kills returning refugees

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Jul. 02 (News Report) - At least 11 members of a family have been killed by a roadside bomb in the southern Afghan province of Zabul. The family, including women and children, were thought to be refugees returning home from Pakistan. They were driving their van through Shamulzayi district when the blast occurred. They are thought to have been heading for Ghazni province. Roadside bombs are a weapon commonly used by the Taliban in their war against western forces.

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Kabul hotel siege leaves at least 11 civilians dead

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Pamela Constable - Jun. 29 (News) - The siege of the Intercontinental by a squad of Taliban suicide bombers and heavily armed gunmen was one of the most sophisticated and audacious attacks in the capital in years. It took the lives of 11 civilians, including hotel staff and visitors, and wounded a dozen more, officials said.

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General Reveals that Obama Ignored Military's Advice on Afghanistan

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Weekly Standard - By Stephen Hayes - Jun. 29 (News) - Lieutenant General John Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the Afghanistan decision President Obama announced last week was not among the range of options the military provided to the commander in chief. Allen’s testimony directly contradicts claims from senior Obama administration officials from a background briefing before the president’s announcement.

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Is Karzai's Accusation That Coalition Forces Are Polluting Afghanistan with Nuclear Material Accurate or an Over-Reaction?

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Larry Greenemeier - Jun. 25 (News Report) - President Obama has called for the withdrawal of 33,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan over the next year and the remaining 68,000 by the end of 2014, but questions linger regarding what the troops are leaving behind after more than nine years of combat. In particular, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has accused U.S. and NATO-led coalition troops of littering

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Deaths in attack on Afghan clinic

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Aljazeera - Jun. 25 (News Report) - At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a hospital in Afghanistan. Estimates of the casualties, which included patients and medical staff, varied widely as chaos enveloped the facility in Azra district of eastern Logar province, which is just south of capital Kabul. Dozens more were wounded in the attack. The bomber had been driving an "an SUV packed with explosives," officials said. Deen Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the Logar provincial government, said as many as 35 people were killed, although Afghanistan's Interior Ministry put the death toll at 20.

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Seized Phone Offers Clues to Bin Laden’s Pakistani Links

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Carlotta Gall, Pir Zubair Shah, Eric Schmitt - Jun. 24 (News Report) - The cellphone of Osama bin Laden’s trusted courier, which was recovered in the raid that killed both men in Pakistan last month, contained contacts to a militant group that is a longtime asset of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, senior American officials who have been briefed on the findings say.

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Bin Laden wanted to change al-Qaida's bloodied name

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:20:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jason Burke - Jun. 24 (News Report) - Osama bin Laden was considering changing al-Qaida's name to improve its image among Muslims, according to documents obtained by US special forces from the compound where he was killed. A letter apparently written in the months before he died indicates th

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Barack Obama and Pentagon split on Afghanistan pullout

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Ewen MacAskill, Patrick Wintour, Nick Hopkins - Jun. 22 (News Report) - Barack Obama is set to reject the advice of the Pentagon by announcing on Wednesday night the withdrawal of up to 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by November next year, in time for the US presidential election.

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What Afghans think about President Obama's troop drawdown

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:27:49 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Tom A. Peter - Jun. 22 (News Report) - Many Afghans have mixed feelings about tonight's announcement from President Obama that the US will begin drawing down the levels of troops in Afghanistan.

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Obama expected to announce major Afghan drawdown

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Davis S. Cloud, Christi Parsons - Jun. 21 (News Report) - President Obama plans to announce a troop reduction in Afghanistan that Pentagon and other administration officials say is expected to bring home about 10,000 personnel by the end of the year.

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Semper Fly

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Weekly Standard - By Matt Labash - Jun. 20 (News Report) - This is the curse of PTSD, he says. You can fix an amputee by giving him a prosthetic leg. It’s trying and tough. He has to learn to walk again. But “how do you get 33 Marine deaths out of your mind, the way they died, and your wounds, and combat, and seeing things you don’t see every day? We try to do our best to hide that. With the loss of a limb, you don’t. You get help. But what about the guy who is hanging by a thread all day long? He feels ashamed to bring it up. People are going to say, that’s a wound? Like, is that really a wound? . . . I live combat almost every day, because the same instincts that protected me are still more alive than ever. I can be in a grocery store and feel like I’m walking down the street in Fallujah. . . . You fight yourself, with mind distortions, paranoia, hypervigilance, depression, guilt. It’s so complex. And it’s your mind, so you can’t ever escape it. I can’t ever put a prosthetic on that.”

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