Afghanistan News Center

Afghanistan News May 18, 2012: Today's headlines.....

Afghanistan fundraising goal eludes as US heads to NATO summit
By Missy Ryan | Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On the eve of this weekend's NATO summit, the United States remains short of its goal of raising $1.3 billion in security funds from its partners in Afghanistan, after a money-raising blitz failed to garner immediate contributions from allies coping with fiscal and political pressures.

House OKs continued war in Afghanistan
By DONNA CASSATA | Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House endorsed the continued war in Afghanistan on Thursday despite acknowledgment from Republicans and Democrats that the American people are war-weary after more than a decade of conflict.

Kabul Urges Islamabad Against Mass Expulsion
Ayaz Gul May 17, 2012 VOA
ISLAMABAD -- Afghanistan is urging authorities in neighboring Pakistan to abandon plans to expel tens of thousands of unregistered Afghan migrants from the country.

Pakistan blew its chance for security
The Washington Post By David Ignatius May 17, 2012
As America begins to pull back its troops from Afghanistan, one consequence gets little notice but is likely to have lasting impact: Pakistan is losing the best chance in its history to gain political control over all of its territory — including the warlike tribal areas along the frontier.

Two NATO Troops Killed In Afghan Attack
May 18, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Two NATO soldiers have been killed in a suspected militant rocket attack in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan insurgent attacks down: A sign of widening Taliban fractures?
An independent monitoring group says insurgent attacks in Afghanistan are down 43 percent compared with this time last year.
By Tom A. Peter | Christian Science Monitor – Thu, May 17, 2012
Afghan and NATO leaders will gather in Chicago this weekend to discuss the future of security in Afghanistan as international troops prepare to end combat operations in 2014.

The Long Road out of Afghanistan
The challenges of getting military materiel out of the country by 2014 are forcing the U.S. to make some unlikely bedfellows.
Wall Street Journal By CON COUGHLIN May 17, 2012
As the Obama administration makes plans to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, it faces the crucial question of how to get its equipment and material out of the landlocked country. Transportation experts estimate that the U.S. military will need to ship around 100,000 containers of materiel and vehicles as it completes its withdrawal.

What to do about Afghanistan
By John Kerry Chicago Tribune May 17, 2012
It wasn't long ago that skeptics questioned whether NATO had a future at all in the post-Cold War era, let alone in the difficult period of the Iraq invasion that revealed old fissures in the alliance.

Gass Warns Pakistan to Be Reasonable in Reopening Nato Supply Route
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 17 May 2012
Nato's Civilian Representative in Afghanistan Simon Gass warned Pakistan to be realistic after news reports suggested it would seek as much as $5000 per container in transit fees via its soon-to-be reopened supply route into Afghanistan.

Afghan forces now face a threat from NATO
The Washington Post
By Ronald E. Neumann and Michael O’Hanlon Opinions Friday, May 18, 2012
Ronald E. Neumann was the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 through 2007 and is the author of “The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan.” Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and is most recently the co-author of “Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy.”

Afghanistan, detention issue divide lawmakers
By DONNA CASSATA | Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Coalitions of House Democrats and tea partyers pushed to speed up President Barack Obama's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and end the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects, even American citizens, captured on U.S. soil.

On joint U.S.-Afghan mission, balancing suspicion and ambition
By Kevin Sieff, The Washington Post
SPINA, Afghanistan — When night came, after long hours in the desert, the Afghan troops poured into a one-story schoolhouse and sprawled out on the floor. Outside, the Americans were still crammed in their mine-resistant vehicles, gauging the risks of sleeping next to their partners.

News Analysis: NATO to renew commitment to Afghan security at Chicago summit
by Abdul Haleem, Yangtze Yan
KABUL, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan will top the agenda of NATO summit in Chicago on May 20-21.

Afghanistan after the US: What's next?
Challenges in Wardak Province, west of Kabul, are a mirror of those the Afghan government will face as US and NATO pull back from reconstruction and aid funding in the next two years.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent May 18, 2012 at 11:50 am EDT The Christian Science Monitor
Maidan Shahr, Afghanistan - A major question at the NATO summit in Chicago this weekend: How will Afghanistan – and its government – fare after US troops leave?

News Analysis: Lift of NATO supply blockade may trigger a wave of protests, terrorist attacks in Pakistan
By Jamil Bhatti
ISLAMABAD, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The possible restoration of supply lines for the NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan is likely to trigger a wide range of protests and terrorist attacks in Pakistan as some militant groups and religio-political forces warned the government against the probable decision.

U.S. Sanctions Alleged Haqqani Network Operative, Taliban Financier
May 17, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The U.S. Treasury Department has slapped sanctions on an accused Haqqani network operative and a Taliban financier, a move it says will help "ensure all those who perpetrate ongoing violence and terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan will continue to be marginalized and cut off from the international financial system."

Report: NATO's Afghan Exit Risks State Collapse
VOA News May 17, 2012 Selah Hennessy
LONDON - NATO is rushing its withdrawal from Afghanistan and could risk reversing the gains made there during the past decade, according to a new report. The Afghanistan Analysts Network report was released before a NATO summit in Chicago.

Afghanistan Starts Work on $30M TB Hospital
VOA News May 17, 2012
Afghanistan has begun work on a $30 million hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis, a disease that health officials say kills more than 10,000 Afghans every year.

Pacifists in the Crossfire
By LUKE MOGELSON The New York Times May 18, 2012
Several miles west of Kabul, the village Qala-e Naw sits deep in the barren foothills of barrener mountains that are perennially half-sunk in cloud. The ruins of old homes strafed by Soviet gunships crowd a gravel streambed that is dry most of the year but runs swiftly with snowmelt come spring. One morning early in December, a 12-year-old girl named Gulali followed