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Pakistan Is Said to Pursue Foothold in Afghanistan
The New York Times By Jane Perlez, Eric Schmitt and Carlotta Gall 25/06/2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is exploiting the troubled United States military effort in Afghanistan to drive home a political settlement with Afghanistan that would give Pakistan important influence there but is likely to undermine United States interests, Pakistani and American officials said.
US Military Chief to Reassure Afghans
June 26, 2010 VOA News
U.S. military chief Admiral Mike Mullen says he plans to reassure the Afghan government that the replacement of the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan will not change the way the war is being fought.
Petraeus lauds vets, Purple Heart recipients in NY
The Associated Press By MARY ESCH 26/06/2010
NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. - Gen. David Petraeus paid tribute to more than 400 veterans — including 100 recipients of the Purple Heart — Friday in upstate New York, days after he was asked to add command of the U.S. war in Afghanistan to his leadership of the war in Iraq.
What Afghanistan lawmakers want General Petraeus to do
The Christian Science Monitor By Dan Murphy 25/06/2010
General Petraeus takes over a counterinsurgency strategy that has largely failed, say Afghanistan lawmakers from Taliban hot spots Marjah and Kandahar, which have been targeted for key US offensives.
How did McChrystal lose his careful touch?
June 26, 2010 BBC News
As the tough commander of the US war effort in Afghanistan is removed from his post, the BBC's Lyse Doucet remembers a previous meeting with the popular general, Stanley McChrystal, when considering how he slipped up.
Reasons to be hopeful about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan
Washington Post By Michael O'Hanlon Saturday, June 26, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned on Sunday about a national rush to judgment that the Afghanistan war is somehow failing and that the overall narrative about the war has become too negative. That was practically an era ago regarding Afghanistan, but Gates is still right. With the drama over Wednesday's change of command receding, it is time to refocus on policy.
UK's Cameron Wants Afghan Pullout Within Five Years
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 26, 2010
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he would like to see UK troops pull out of Afghanistan within five years.
Afghan President Introduces Cabinet Members
June 26, 2010 Quqnoos
The Afghan President Saturday introduced the rest of his cabinet members to the Afghan Parliament, the Parliament said
Afghan president cautions about mineral windfall
June 26, 2010
(AFP) – KABUL — Afghanistan's stunning untapped mineral wealth could prove to be a curse rather than a blessing for the war-ravaged country if it is not managed properly, the nation's president said on Saturday.
Taliban commander killed in Afghanistan's Logar province: NATO
KABUL, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led forces, during a search operation, killed a Taliban commander in Afghanistan's Logar province, 60 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, Friday night, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release Saturday.
18 militants killed in S. Afghanistan
QALAT, Afghanistan, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led troops during an operation against Taliban militants eliminated 18 insurgents including two commanders in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province Friday night, deputy to provincial police chief said Saturday.
8 Taliban militants killed in N. Afghanistan
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Eight Taliban militants were killed in Afghanistan's restive northern Kunduz province Saturday morning as a result of airstrike against the militants' hideouts, provincial police chief said.
International Community Responsible for Afghan Drugs: Karzai
June 26, 2010 Quqnoos
The Afghan President said on Saturday that the International Community is responsible for Afghan drugs smuggling
Afghanistan: Marjah battle not yet won
June 24, 2010 BBC News
Four months ago, foreign forces in Afghanistan launched a major operation to clear insurgents out of the district of Marjah, in Helmand province. It was a test of the US-led counter-insurgency strategy. But as the BBC's Ian Pannell found on his return to Marjah, the outcome has been far from decisive.
Taliban switch to long-range fire in fight against UK troops
Royal Marines facing growing threat from change of tactics by Taliban in southern Afghanistan
The Guardian Richard Norton-Taylor Friday 25 June 2010
Royal Marines deployed in Sangin in southern Afghanistan, where British troops have suffered a high rate of casualties in recent weeks, are facing a growing threat from long-range rifle fire as Taliban fighters change their tactics, a senior British officer revealed today.
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Pakistan Is Said to Pursue Foothold in Afghanistan
The New York Times By Jane Perlez, Eric Schmitt and Carlotta Gall 25/06/2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is exploiting the troubled United States military effort in Afghanistan to drive home a political settlement with Afghanistan that would give Pakistan important influence there but is likely to undermine United States interests, Pakistani and American officials said.
The dismissal of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal will almost certainly embolden the Pakistanis in their plan as they detect increasing American uncertainty, Pakistani officials said. The Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, preferred General McChrystal to his successor, Gen. David H. Petraeus, whom he considers more of a politician than a military strategist, said people who had spoken recently with General Kayani.
Pakistan is presenting itself as the new viable partner for Afghanistan to President Hamid Karzai, who has soured on the Americans. Pakistani officials say they can deliver the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, an ally of Al Qaeda who runs a major part of the insurgency in Afghanistan, into a power-sharing arrangement.
In addition, Afghan officials say, the Pakistanis are pushing various other proxies, with General Kayani personally offering to broker a deal with the Taliban leadership.
Washington has watched with some nervousness as General Kayani and Pakistan’s spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, shuttle between Islamabad and Kabul, telling Mr. Karzai that they agree with his assessment that the United States cannot win in Afghanistan, and that a postwar Afghanistan should incorporate the Haqqani network, a longtime Pakistani asset. In a sign of the shift in momentum, the two Pakistani officials were next scheduled to visit Kabul on Monday, according to Afghan TV.
Despite General McChrystal’s 11 visits to General Kayani in Islamabad in the past year, the Pakistanis have not been altogether forthcoming on details of the conversations in the last two months, making the Pakistani moves even more worrisome for the United States, said an American official involved in the administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan deliberations.
“They know this creates a bigger breach between us and Karzai,” the American official said.
Though encouraged by Washington, the thaw heightens the risk that the United States will find itself cut out of what amounts to a separate peace between the Afghans and Pakistanis, and one that does not necessarily guarantee Washington’s prime objective in the war: denying Al Qaeda a haven.
It also provides another indication of how Pakistan, ostensibly an American ally, has worked many opposing sides in the war to safeguard its ultimate interest in having an Afghanistan that is pliable and free of the influence of its main strategic obsession, its more powerful neighbor, India.
The Haqqani network has long been Pakistan’s crucial anti-India asset and has remained virtually untouched by Pakistani forces in their redoubt inside Pakistan, in the tribal areas on the Afghan border, even as the Americans have pressed Pakistan for an offensive against it.
General Kayani has resisted the American pleas, saying his troops are too busy fighting the Pakistani Taliban in other parts of the tribal areas.
But there have long been suspicions among Afghan, American and other Western officials that the Pakistanis were holding the Haqqanis in reserve for just such a moment, as a lever to shape the outcome of the war in its favor.
On repeated occasions, Pakistan has used the Haqqani fighters to hit Indian targets inside Afghanistan, according to American intelligence officials. The Haqqanis have also hit American ones, a possible signal from the Pakistanis to the Americans that it is in their interest, too, to embrace a deal.
General Petraeus told Congress last week that Haqqani fighters were responsible for recent major attacks in Kabul and the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, adding that he had informed General Kayani.
Some officials in the Obama administration have not ruled out incorporating the Haqqani network in an Afghan settlement, though they stress that President Obama’s policy calls for Al Qaeda to be separated from the network. American officials are skeptical that that can be accomplished.
Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, said on a visit to Islamabad last weekend that it was “hard to imagine” the Haqqani network in an Afghan arrangement, but added, “Who knows?”
At a briefing this week at the headquarters of Pakistan’s premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistani analysts laid out a view of the war that dovetailed neatly with the doubts expressed by Mr. Karzai. They depicted a stark picture of an American military campaign in Afghanistan “that will not succeed.”
They said the Taliban were gaining strength. Despite the impending arrival of new American troops, they concluded the “security situation would become more dangerous,” resulting in an erosion of the American will to fight.
“That is the reason why Karzai is trying to negotiate now,” a senior analyst said.
General Pasha, the head of the intelligence agency, dashed to Kabul on the eve of Mr. Karzai’s visit to Washington in May, an American official said. Neither Mr. Karzai nor the Pakistanis mentioned to the Americans about incorporating the Haqqanis in a postwar Afghanistan, the official said.
Pakistan has already won what it sees as an important concession in Kabul, the resignations this month of the intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, and the interior minister, Hanif Atmar. The two officials, favored by Washington, were viewed by Pakistan as major obstacles to its vision of hard-core Taliban fighters’ being part of an Afghanistan settlement, though the circumstances of their resignations did not suggest any connection to Pakistan.
Coupled with their strategic interests, the Pakistanis say they have chosen this juncture to open talks with Mr. Karzai because, even before the controversy over General McChrystal, they sensed uncertainty — “a lack of fire in the belly,” said one Pakistani — within the Obama administration over the Afghan fight.
“The American timetable for getting out makes it easier for Pakistan to play a more visible role,” said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the spokesman for the Pakistani Army. He was referring to the July 2011 date set by Mr. Obama for the start of the withdrawal of some American combat troops.
The offer by Pakistan to make the Haqqanis part of the solution in Afghanistan has now been adopted as basic Pakistani policy, said Rifaat Hussain, a professor of international relations at Islamabad University, and a confidant of top military generals.
“The establishment thinks that without getting Haqqani on board, efforts to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan will be doomed,” Mr. Hussain said. “Haqqani has a large fighting force, and by co-opting him into a power-sharing arrangement a lot of bloodshed can be avoided.”
The recent trips by General Kayani and General Pasha to Kabul were an “effort to make this happen,” he said.
Afghan officials said General Kayani had offered to broker a deal with the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, and had sent envoys to Kabul from another insurgent leader and longtime Pakistani ally, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, with the offer of a 15-point peace plan in March.
As for the Haqqanis, whose fighters stretch across eastern Afghanistan all the way to Kabul, they are prepared to break with Al Qaeda, Pakistani intelligence and military officials said.
The Taliban, including the Haqqani group, are ready to “do a deal” over Al Qaeda, a senior Pakistani official close to the Pakistani Army said. The Haqqanis could tell Al Qaeda to move elsewhere because it had been given nine years of protection since 9/11, the official said.
But this official acknowledged that the Haqqanis and Al Qaeda were too “thick” with each other for a separation to happen. They had provided each other with fighters, money and other resources over a long period of time, he said.
Also, there appeared to be no idea where the Qaeda forces would go, and no answer to whether the Haqqanis would hand over Osama bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, the official said.
The Haqqanis may be playing their own game with their hosts, the Pakistanis, Mr. Hussain said.
“Many believe that Haqqanis’ willingness to cut its links with Al Qaeda is a tactical move which is aimed at thwarting the impending military action by the Pakistani Army in North Waziristan,” he said.
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US Military Chief to Reassure Afghans
June 26, 2010 VOA News
U.S. military chief Admiral Mike Mullen says he plans to reassure the Afghan government that the replacement of the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan will not change the way the war is being fought.
Mullen is in Afghanistan for meetings with military and civilian leaders following the departure of General Stanley McChrystal. Ahead of the trip, Mullen said "nothing changes" about the strategy or the mission.
An Afghan presidential spokesman, Waheed Omar, called McChrystal's resignation "unfortunate." However, he welcomed President Barack Obama's choice of U.S. Central Command chief David Petraeus to replace McChrystal.
In the United States, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for more hearings on the mission in Afghanistan. In a letter Friday, the seven senators said they want clear answers on goals for the mission, and to hear a detailed plan on how to achieve those goals.
McChrystal resigned Wednesday, after he and several aides were quoted in a U.S. magazine making sarcastic and dismissive references to top U.S. leadership, including Vice President Joe Biden.
Admiral Mullen is also scheduled to visit Pakistan during his trip for meetings with regional leaders there.
Meanwhile, a landmine accidentally exploded inside an Afghan army vehicle in Kabul. Police officials had said initially they suspected a suicide bomber was responsible for the Saturday morning blast near the foreign ministry. Reuters news agency reports the blast killed the the army driver.
In southern Afghanistan, a NATO service member was killed in a bomb blast Saturday. NATO did not reveal the member's nationality.
NATO says an Afghan-international security force has killed a senior Taliban commander in northern Logar province. The force had tracked Ghulam Sakhi to a compound near the village of Qal-eh Saber in Pul-e Alam district.
NATO says troops called for women and children to exit the building Friday and Sakhi came out disguised as a woman. He opened fire and was shot. During the exchange Sakhi dropped a grenade, wounding a woman and two children.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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Petraeus lauds vets, Purple Heart recipients in NY
The Associated Press By MARY ESCH 26/06/2010
NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. - Gen. David Petraeus paid tribute to more than 400 veterans — including 100 recipients of the Purple Heart — Friday in upstate New York, days after he was asked to add command of the U.S. war in Afghanistan to his leadership of the war in Iraq.
The Army general picked by President Barack Obama to replace the U.S. military's top commander in Afghanistan was the keynote speaker at the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor Tribute in New Windsor, Orange County.
He didn't mention his current assignments, focusing instead on the sacrifice of the gathered veterans, especially those who earned the Purple Heart, an honor bestowed on those wounded or killed in combat.
"Today's troopers stand on the shoulders of those who came before them and because of your service, they stand very tall indeed," he said.
In an unscripted moment, he invited each of the 100 Purple Heart recipients and several Gold Star mothers, those who have lost children in combat, onstage to shake their hand and give them a commemorative coin.
Obama tapped Petraeus for the top job in Afghanistan after accepting Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation Wednesday. He currently oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as head of U.S. Central Command.
When he introduced Petraeus, friend and former classmate Alan Seidman handed him a bottle of water and said: "We want you healthy," referring to an episode last year when Petraeus briefly collapsed during Senate testimony, apparently from dehydration.
Petraeus joked that he was staying hydrated and healthy.
New Windsor is home to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor.
Later, Petraeus gave the commencement speech at nearby Cornwall High School, where he graduated in 1970. Recounting challenges he faced in his military career, he told the graduates there were four elements in achieving their objectives: planning, acting, dreaming, and believing.
"Regardless of the magnitude of the challenge you face, remember you can overcome it if you have a goal, the belief that you can achieve it, and the determination and perseverance to turn that belief into reality," he said.
"As you do all this stay hydrated," he added, to laughter and applause.
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What Afghanistan lawmakers want General Petraeus to do
The Christian Science Monitor By Dan Murphy 25/06/2010
General Petraeus takes over a counterinsurgency strategy that has largely failed, say Afghanistan lawmakers from Taliban hot spots Marjah and Kandahar, which have been targeted for key US offensives.
Kabul - As Gen. David Petraeus prepares to take command of the Afghanistan war, the call from Taliban hot spots Marjah and Kandahar is coming in loud and clear: Do something different, and do it fast.
Politicians from the southern Afghan areas, both targeted for key US offensives, charge that there are fundamental flaws in the way America has been carrying out its counterinsurgency strategy.
They say that two central aspects of the strategy – to protect civilians and bring the rule of law – have largely failed under Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was replaced by Petraeus this week after he and his team disparaged the Obama administration in Rolling Stone magazine.
Walid Jan Sabir, the member of Parliament (MP) from Marjah district, says the area is at best marginally safer since the US-led offensive in February, which was billed as a key test of the strategy to rout the Taliban and install a government loyal to Kabul and responsive to citizens' needs. But that security, Mr. Sabir says, is deteriorating once more and locals are growing increasingly frustrated at the US presence.
“I was optimistic about all this at first, but I’m disillusioned, and so are a lot of the people I’ve been talking to,” he says. “There are increasing numbers of [improvised explosive] devices, the government they installed isn’t trusted by the people, people have been beheaded, and US forces are barging into homes and arresting innocents. The people are caught between the US and the Afghan National Army by day, and the Taliban by night.”
The mix of violence, ineffective government, and controversial US military operations is eroding what little confidence Afghans have in the Karzai government, America's key partner in the counterinsurgency strategy that Petraeus has been called on to lead.
Doubt about Kandahar offensive The US operation in Marjah was originally outlined as a decisive prelude to a larger offensive in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. When the "government in a box" ushered in by US troops failed to take hold in Marjah amid fears of insurgent attacks, however, McChrystal postponed the Kandahar offensive planned for this summer.
US and Afghan forces have begun stepping up security efforts in and around Afghanistan’s second-largest city, but it's unclear when the joint civilian-military "surge" will begin. The aim is to decrease support for the Taliban, which many locals currently see as better able to maintain order than the Kandahar government, by bringing less-corrupt government and rule of law to the city.
Kandahar MP Malalai Ishaq Zai snorts derisively when asked if she thinks the Kandahar effort is likely to go better than in rural Marjah. The mother of eight lived in virtual captivity in her home during seven years of Taliban rule in the 1990s, which started in Kandahar. She then emerged, at the age of 38, to run a school and a women’s organization before becoming the only woman elected to parliament from the region in the 2005 elections.
Critics: US needs to root out corruption, pressure Pakistan Ms. Zai, an outspoken Karzai critic, says the US has coddled corrupt local officials close to Karzai's government.
Zai says that the president, a Kandahar native, is more concerned with his own position and that of his family than in permanently ousting the Taliban. Many locals charge his half-brother, Kandahar power broker Ahmed Wali Karzai, is involved in smuggling and corruption.
“For him, it’s all about preserving his presidency and his position, not what the people of Kandahar need,” she says, echoing the concerns of many of his critics in Kabul. “The US presence in Kandahar can give is a little security, but if they don’t focus on the corrupt and powerful, they won’t win.”
She says it appears unlikely at the moment that the US will clip Wali Karzai’s wings, since he’s both deeply involved in US military contracts here and protected by his older brother, the man the US is counting on to lead Afghanistan to a more stable future.
Zai and others, from former presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah to US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, have also been concerned that the US has not sufficiently curbed Pakistan's support for the Taliban, some of whose leaders are believed to be based in Pakistan – allegedly with cover from the Pakistani intelligence services.
With a US deadline of 2011 looming, some say Karzai has focused increasingly on working with his Pakistani neighbors rather than with Washington. Pakistan will be there long after US troops leave and has pushed Afghanistan to make a deal with Taliban leaders, whose power Pakistan wants to preserve.
Can Petraeus address Afghan concerns? But neither Zai nor Sabir wants a change in strategy, per se. Instead, they argue that the US, by locking itself into its relationship with the increasingly autocratic Karzai, is losing the local support that is key to its counterinsurgency strategy.
Whether Petraeus, who is expected to keep McChrystal's strategy – albeit with a likely change in approach – can do much about any of this is uncertain. Despite concerns over fraud in last year’s presidential election, Karzai is the leader of the country and has broad powers to appoint local leaders. And going after local warlords who have become entrenched since the war started in 2001 could have dangerous repercussions for US forces – potentially adding to their enemies here.
But one thing is clear: he doesn’t have much time to get things working. While Kabul remains relatively safe, much of the country is aflame, with the Taliban conducting targeted assassinations and planting roadside bombs, and increasingly powerful local warlords vying with each other to extract cash from farmers and businessmen.
Record death toll in June Marjah, in Helmand Province, isn’t the only area where violence is rising. In the province just north of Kandahar today, 11 bodies were found in a field. Local police say they were killed by the Taliban, who considered them informers.
Two NATO soldiers were also announced killed on Friday, taking the death toll of foreign forces to 81 for June – already a record in the nearly nine-year war. And attacks, particularly roadside bombs or IEDs, have continued to increase. There were 3,496 IED incidents in the first four months of the year, on pace to eclipse last year’s record total of 8,159.
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How did McChrystal lose his careful touch?
June 26, 2010 BBC News
As the tough commander of the US war effort in Afghanistan is removed from his post, the BBC's Lyse Doucet remembers a previous meeting with the popular general, Stanley McChrystal, when considering how he slipped up.
General McChrystal looked down at his boots.
He was strangely quiet, distant, as we sat facing each other on straight-backed chairs, waiting to start our interview.
I wondered what weighed so heavily on his mind.
He was usually so quick to smile and talk.
I knew he had just come from the presidential palace. Questions raced through my mind.
Had something gone wrong again with President Karzai? Or on the battlefield?
To break the silence, I simply said: "Tough job."
"Yes," he replied, "I just heard my college room-mate died. He's been ill."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. "Would you like more time?"
"No," the general insisted, visibly tightening his jaw and sitting up straight. "This is my job." And the general focused.
That was Gen McChrystal in the field, in his element, in command.
Secretive force
When I first met him in Kabul a year ago, just after he took up his post, I asked how he would cope with the pressure of being the face of what was being called "Obama's war".
He smiled with palpable confidence. "I've brought a lot of good people with me."
This was Team McChrystal, a tight-knit team of fiercely loyal advisors and aides.
Some had worked with him in Iraq, some belonged to his band of brothers - as soldiers say - from the elite West Point Military Academy.
They had graduated in 1976, in the shadow of the Vietnam war, amid deep anti-war sentiment. It took real courage and commitment to want to be a soldier then, one of his aides once told me.
That is the kind of reputation the general brought to Afghanistan. A soldier's soldier.
No-one talked much about what had really gone on when he headed what is called the most secretive force in the US military, the Special Operations unit hunting al-Qaeda militants in Iraq.
There was much myth-making around the gaunt commander who slept four hours a night, ate one meal a day, and removed cushions from office chairs so visitors would not stay too long.
Similar approaches
The same kind of tales had emerged about the man who now replaces him, the general who was the face of America's last big war, in Iraq.
Gen David Petraeus was also said to sleep little, run a lot, work all the time.
I once joked with Gen Petraeus that he had to spend more time in Afghanistan because he was being outdone in the image stakes by the other hard-charging general.
He laughed: "I know about Stan's one meal a day," he said. "He eats one meal a day, all day long."
The two men worked closely together.
Both said Afghanistan would be more difficult than Iraq. Both were poster boys for a new way of fighting wars. It is called counter-insurgency, or Coin.
But Gen McChrystal put his personal stamp all over it, emphasising the need to avoid civilian casualties, to protect the population.
It earned him rare praise and trust from a most reluctant commander-in-chief, President Hamid Karzai.
I saw how that relationship worked when I travelled with them to the southern city of Kandahar in April, at the very moment when relations between President Karzai and Washington were in deep crisis over the president's extraordinary outburst, accusing the Americans of perpetrating election fraud in Afghanistan.
Would the trip have to be cancelled? No. The president, the general, and their aides huddled together in a special pod in the military plane that took us south.
And then they strode into a meeting to face hundreds of tough-minded, plain-speaking tribal elders.
The president told the tribesmen of his respect for a general who took responsibility when Afghan civilians were wrongly killed in battles against the Taliban.
He stabbed the air with his finger, and said: "When he admits his mistakes, we should forgive him."
There was a murmur from the floor at this public endorsement of the American general even though many of the elders had deep misgivings about his strategy.
Careful touch
Back in Washington, Gen McChrystal was praised as the man who knew how to deal with a difficult ally, unlike almost everyone else on Obama's Afghan team.
So what happened to the general's careful touch when it came to dealing with his own president's team?
There seemed to be two sides to this general - a careful commander in the field and a coarser one that emerged in the magazine article that brought him down.
On that day in early June when we sat together on straight-backed chairs in Kabul he did not rise to the ringing phrases he had used only weeks before.
He rejected, again and again, reports from the south that his much-vaunted strategy was running into trouble, saying wars never go as planned.
On - and off - the record, he insisted: "I still believe we can win."
I walked with him to the door of his office. When we parted, I said: "I'm sorry about your college friend." No, its OK, he replied brusquely, I should not have said it.
Weeks later, that is what he is saying over and over again.
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Reasons to be hopeful about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan
Washington Post By Michael O'Hanlon Saturday, June 26, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned on Sunday about a national rush to judgment that the Afghanistan war is somehow failing and that the overall narrative about the war has become too negative. That was practically an era ago regarding Afghanistan, but Gates is still right. With the drama over Wednesday's change of command receding, it is time to refocus on policy.
Several recent critiques paint only part of the picture, and they are often more wrong than right unless they are presented with greater nuance. Consider:
-- The "Kandahar offensive" is delayed. This complaint is strange: The U.S. troop buildup remains slightly ahead of schedule (95,000 soldiers are in Afghanistan, an increase of nearly 30,000 this year), and a major offensive in the classic sense was never promised in Kandahar. Some tactical operations there may be rescheduled this summer as U.S. reinforcements arrive -- but there is no fundamental deviation from the plan, which is to create a "rising tide of security" in Gen. Stanley McChrystal's still-relevant words.
-- Marja is a mess. The U.S. military erred in raising expectations about its big February operation in Marja, a midsize town in Helmand province where violence remains too high and Afghan governance too weak. But the trend in Helmand, where we have added a number of forces since 2009, is encouraging. Even Marja is slowly progressing. The military needs to do a better job documenting this progress. The province is in better shape than a year ago in terms of the return of commerce and agriculture and the reduction in violence against citizens.
-- There aren't enough trainers for Afghan security forces. Our allies have not quite met their promises, or our expectations, for additional trainers. But allies have deployed more than 5,000 additional combat troops this year, exceeding the pace expected. The number of U.S. trainers has risen, and the number of Afghan officers graduating from training has more than doubled since last year. Growth trajectories for the Afghan army and police remain on schedule. Perhaps most important, nearly 85 percent of Afghan army units are "partnered" with coalition units -- meaning that they plan, patrol, train and fight together. This is one of Gen. McChrystal's many positive legacies. In southern and eastern Afghanistan last month I saw many signs of the Afghan army's willingness to fight. The number of key districts where security conditions are at least tolerable, if not yet good, is up modestly.
-- Directives to restrict the use of firepower when civilians may be present increase risk to our troops. George F. Will has raised this concern ["Futility in Afghanistan," June 20]; the infamous Rolling Stone article did as well, quoting troops in the field. But evidence suggests it's not true. Roadside bombs, against which firepower is tactically irrelevant, overwhelmingly remain the most frequent cause of casualties to coalition troops. The percent of casualties from firefights is up, but modestly -- and in any event McChrystal favored allowing troops in danger to call in supporting firepower. Meanwhile, the policies have reduced civilian casualties from coalition forces, an important step toward winning greater support from Afghans.
-- Firing two cabinet ministers reflects poorly on the Afghan president. The dismissals of Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and national security/intelligence director Amrullah Saleh were regrettable on balance. But there were mitigating circumstances; for example, Saleh's hard-line anti-Taliban views conflicted with President Hamid Karzai's hope of enticing some insurgents to negotiate.
-- Karzai is too anxious to cut a deal with the enemy. Some wonder if Karzai's May peace conference, or jirga, reflected a weakening of will to win the war. But at that jirga -- which included no representatives of the Taliban or the Haqqani network, the two most lethal parts of the insurgency -- Karzai made no offer to suspend the constitution, resign or expel NATO troops. He followed the jirga with a trip to Kandahar, where he asked local leaders for patience and sacrifice in the coming difficult times. Karzai's performance is mixed, and his half brother still plays a big role in the corruption in Kandahar, but the president is not about to cut a deal with the enemy that amounts to a negotiated surrender.
-- The July 2011 "deadline" is too vague. Some worry that President Obama's ambiguity about the timetable hurts the war effort. I opposed that deadline and the president's lack of clarity about its meaning. But there is still a logic to the vagueness: It keeps pressure on Afghan officials to deliver, it reminds Americans that this war will not last forever and it sustains the president's flexibility to adjust the war plan to conditions. Even relative optimists can understand why such flexibility is valuable. If the strategy is bearing fruit by next summer, the U.S. drawdown is likely to be gradual, and the president should keep saying so.
There are indeed weaknesses in U.S. strategy, including problems with the Afghan police and an inadequate plan to fight corruption. Gen. David Petraeus and military and civilian leaders should focus on these and other matters. But on balance, we have many assets and strengths in Afghanistan -- and better-than-even odds of leaving behind a reasonably stable place if we persevere.
Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is co-author of Brookings's Afghanistan Index and co-author with Hassina Sherjan of "Toughing It Out in Afghanistan."
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UK's Cameron Wants Afghan Pullout Within Five Years
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 26, 2010
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he would like to see UK troops pull out of Afghanistan within five years.
Cameron, asked by reporters on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Canada if the troops would be home by the time of the next parliamentary election due by 2015, said, "I want that to happen, make no mistake about it."
Cameron's statement came a day after Australia's new prime minister said she asssured U.S. President Barack Obama about the country's military commitment to Afghanistan.
Some observers have speculated Prime Minister Julia Gillard may push for an early withdrawal of Australia's 1,550 troops from Afghanistan as the war loses popularity among Australians and elections loom.
compiled from agency reports
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Afghan President Introduces Cabinet Members
June 26, 2010 Quqnoos
The Afghan President Saturday introduced the rest of his cabinet members to the Afghan Parliament, the Parliament said
"Out of twelve proposed cabinet members, at least seven nominees are introduced to get confidence votes," said head of the Afghan Upper House, Yunus Qanoni.
The Candidate Ministers include Afghan National Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Bismellah Mohammadi for the position of Interior Minister.
The former Afghan Interior Minister, Mohammad Hanif Atmar and Intelligence Chief Amrullah Saleh had stepped down after Karzai had blamed them for failing to ensure security of the peace jirga.
Other candidates include former governor of Kandahar province Assadullah Khalid for Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs, and former Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi for Minister of Commerce and Industries, the spokesman said.
The candidates will speak to the parliament next week to get votes of confidence.
List of Candidate Ministers:
Gen. Bismellah Mohammadi, Ministry of Interior Affairs
Sarwar Danish, Ministry of Higher Education
Anwarul Haq Ahadi, Ministry of Commerce and Industries
Dr. Dawoud Ali Najafi, Ministry of Transport and Aviation
Eng. Abdul Qudus Hamidi, Ministry of Public Works
Assadullah Khalid, Ministry of Borders and Tribal Affairs
Jamayer Anwari, Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation
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Afghan president cautions about mineral windfall
June 26, 2010
(AFP) – KABUL — Afghanistan's stunning untapped mineral wealth could prove to be a curse rather than a blessing for the war-ravaged country if it is not managed properly, the nation's president said on Saturday.
Afghan government officials recently said the country's mineral deposits could be worth up to three trillion dollars, tripling an earlier US estimate.
"If our country does not have a very solid government foundation and if we do not set up strong regulations for exploration of minerals, 10 years from now these very same rich underground resources could become disastrous for us," President Hamid Karzai said.
He told a gathering of hundreds of people that Afghans should to be cautious of plots to weaken the government to extract Afghanistan's huge reserves of lithium, iron, copper, gold, niobium, mercury, cobalt and other minerals.
"These companies do not come here for our interests -- they are after their own interests even if it's at the cost of weakening the government, the people and feeding and strengthening corruption so they can easily exploit," he said.
Karzai went on to say that Iran in the 1950s and several African countries were examples of countries that were destabilised so that their rich natural resources could be exploited by foreign companies.
Afghanistan already has a reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
The former minister of mines was dropped from the cabinet in February after being accused of accepting a 30 million dollar in bribe in return for awarding a Chinese company the country's biggest copper mine contract.
The mineral wealth of Afghanistan has remained largely unexploited because the country has been mired in conflict for three decades and is today embroiled in an insurgency by Islamist militants led by the Taliban.
But the government has said the findings of a recently completed US geological survey could transform Afghanistan from one of the world's most impoverished nations become one of the richest.
Current minister of mines Wahidullah Shahrani on Friday promised total transparency in the awarding of contracts to exploit the country's mineral wealth during a trip to London to woo foreign investment.
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Taliban commander killed in Afghanistan's Logar province: NATO
KABUL, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led forces, during a search operation, killed a Taliban commander in Afghanistan's Logar province, 60 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, Friday night, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release Saturday.
"Intelligence sources tracked Ghulam Sakhi to a compound near the village of Qal-eh Saber, Pul-e-Alam district, where the combined forces went and apprehended him," the press release said.
The press release also said that Afghan women and children were evacuated from the compound after Afghan forces used a loudspeaker to ask civilians to vacate the compound but the Taliban commander, dressed in woman dress, used a pistol and a grenade to attack the forces.
"When Afghan and coalition forces shot him he dropped the grenade and it detonated, wounding a woman and two children," the press release said.
It also said that Sakhi was involved in Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks, ambushes, and indirect fire attacks in Logar province.
Taliban militants have not yet to made any comment.
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18 militants killed in S. Afghanistan
QALAT, Afghanistan, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led troops during an operation against Taliban militants eliminated 18 insurgents including two commanders in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province Friday night, deputy to provincial police chief said Saturday.
"Acting on intelligence reports the international troops pounded militants' hideouts in Shar-e-Safa area of the province on Friday night killing 18 rebels including two group commanders Mullah Toorjan and Mullah Ahmad Shah on the spot," Ghulam Jilani Farahi told Xinhua.
He did not give more details.
Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops have yet to comments.
Southern and eastern parts of the post-Taliban Afghanistan have been the scene of increasing Taliban-led insurgency over the past couple of years.
In the meantime, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) earlier in the day confirmed air strikes against militants in Zabul but did not mention the exact number of casualties inflected to hard-liner militias.
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8 Taliban militants killed in N. Afghanistan
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Eight Taliban militants were killed in Afghanistan's restive northern Kunduz province Saturday morning as a result of airstrike against the militants' hideouts, provincial police chief said.
"A precision airstrike against militants' hideout in Bagh-e- Shirkat area in the vicinity of Kunduz city capital of Kunduz province left eight rebels including their commander Mullah Usman dead,"Mohammad Razaq Yaqubi told Xinhua.
He said that several Taliban militants were also injured in the attack took place at around 08:00 a.m. local time.
Kunduz and neighboring Baghlan province in northern region of the war-torn country has been the scene of spiraling militancy over the past one year.
Taliban militants, whose regime was ousted in a U.S.-led military campaign, have yet to make comments.
The hard die outfit regrouped and made a bloody comeback four year ago in their traditional hotbed southern Afghanistan, vowed to speed up their assaults against Afghan government and NATO-led forces this year in the country.
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International Community Responsible for Afghan Drugs: Karzai
June 26, 2010 Quqnoos
The Afghan President said on Saturday that the International Community is responsible for Afghan drugs smuggling
The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, in his speech on Global Day Against Drugs said that poppy cultivation is persuaded by international Mafia groups and outsiders in Afghanistan.
The Afghan President said If International Community does not honestly prevent drugs smuggling to their own countries, cultivation can not easily be stopped in the world and in Afghanistan.
While accepting some of the responsibilities, the Afghan President highlighted that the criticisms made by the Central Asian countries regarding an increase in the Afghan drugs is unacceptable.
"If we [Afghan government] are weak and cannot control our borders, why are your borders not controlled? If it crosses our borders, how can tonnes of drugs cross your borders that are well-guarded?," said the Afghan President.
Because of a huge presence of International Community in Afghanistan, opportunities for corruption and a misuse of governmental positions have increased, the Afghan President said.
"If the International Community really wants to decrease corruption in Afghanistan, we wish they won’t contract with top government officials’ relatives," he said. "They shouldn’t contract with our ministers, and our parliamentarians."
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Afghanistan: Marjah battle not yet won
June 24, 2010 BBC News
Four months ago, foreign forces in Afghanistan launched a major operation to clear insurgents out of the district of Marjah, in Helmand province. It was a test of the US-led counter-insurgency strategy. But as the BBC's Ian Pannell found on his return to Marjah, the outcome has been far from decisive.
They are interviewing for a new baker in Loy Chareh. The last man to do the job was forced to close down, despite reaping handsome profits from the hundreds of soldiers and police recently deployed to Marjah's district capital.
But the Taliban objected to what they saw as his collaboration by serving bread to "the enemy".
When they threatened to kidnap the baker's son, he closed the business and left town.
Force, fear and religion
Hundreds of other families have also been forced to leave because of the appalling security situation. The Afghan Red Crescent says it has processed more than 200 families in the last month.
Their stories vary but the theme is usually the same. Despite the injection of hundreds of millions of dollars, many residents of Marjah say security has deteriorated.
This is the most high-profile operation to date for the Nato-led Isaf (International Security Assistance Force) mission, but for many in Marjah, it is simply too unsafe to live at home any more.
Winning the support of the people who live here is the real battle. It is far from clear who will win.
The Taliban use force, fear and religion to cajole and coerce. That has left most residents either too afraid or just unwilling to side with America and the government it props up.
Operation Moshtaraq
It is more than four months since Marjah, in southern Helmand province, became the epicentre of US President Barack Obama's war in Afghanistan.
It is where many of the thousands of extra troops were deployed and it became the test-case for the new counter-insurgency mantra of the commanding generals.
Operation Moshtaraq saw thousands of American, British and Afghan troops drop into Marjah and Nad-e-Ali to clear the Taliban from their main strongholds.
Speaking at the time, British Maj Gen Nick Carter predicted: "In three months' time or thereabouts, we should have a pretty fair idea about whether we have been successful."
But four months later, America's war is proving much harder and far slower than military commanders and their political masters hoped for.
More caution
The pressure from Washington for quick results led to what some now concede was the over-selling of the operation, creating inflated expectations and unrealistic deadlines.
Today, military leaders are far more cautious. Brigadier George Norton, the regional deputy commander in Helmand, says the military are where he would expect them to be.
But he admits, they are "not perhaps where some might have aspired us to be and some of the rhetoric at the time was perhaps encouraging to make people think this could happen quicker than realistically it could do".
The queues outside the new town hall show that some are ready to turn to the local governor for help.
But many of the men squatting patiently in the midday sun are here to file complaints: about the lack of security and jobs.
Inside, there's an emergency meeting underway. Provincial leaders and their British and American backers have had to fly in to try and deal with the crisis.
Few of the tribal leaders here will tell you that things have improved in Marjah. Most have risked their lives just by being here.
"Of course I'm afraid. I'm scared. If the Taliban see that I've come here to meet the governor, they'll capture me and cut my head off - they'll kill me," one leader says.
Deadliest month
Back at the Marines' camp, there has been a gun battle with the Taliban. Although the fighting is nothing like the intensity of February, there has been a noticeable increase.
June has the dubious distinction of being the deadliest month for coalition forces. Everyone expects the bloodshed on all sides to increase, and that includes the civilians caught in the middle.
Inside the control room, the latest gun-battle is monitored using high-tech cameras and unmanned drones in the sky.
But as happens so often, the insurgents attack and then disappear seamlessly into the local population.
The Marines say it is frustrating trying to identify who is friend and who is foe. Some admit that they need better intelligence.
Guns and boots
The Afghan National Army and police are supposed to step into the breach. This is the "transfer" part of President Obama's exit strategy for his troops, where responsibility for security passes to local forces.
Again, there has been progress; the men look lean and are certainly eager to take on the insurgents.
But there are too few of them; even after training they require a lot of coaching.
They have almost no logistical support and rely entirely on the coalition for everything from boots to guns.
Shortly before he was sacked, Stanley McChrystal, the general ordered to turn this war around, worried that Marjah was seen as a "bleeding ulcer".
His replacement, Gen David Petraeus, faces enormous pressure to show tangible progress across Afghanistan by November, when the US votes in mid-term elections.
But there is now a growing gap between what the politicians demand and what the military can deliver.
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Taliban switch to long-range fire in fight against UK troops
Royal Marines facing growing threat from change of tactics by Taliban in southern Afghanistan
The Guardian Richard Norton-Taylor Friday 25 June 2010
Royal Marines deployed in Sangin in southern Afghanistan, where British troops have suffered a high rate of casualties in recent weeks, are facing a growing threat from long-range rifle fire as Taliban fighters change their tactics, a senior British officer revealed today.
Brigadier George Norton, deputy commander of British and US forces in Helmand province, was speaking by video link from Camp Bastion as it was disclosed that the marines – from 40 Commando – will be reinforced by a contingent guarding the nearby Kajaki dam. The unit will be replaced by US troops.
More than 800 British troops are based in Sangin, a strategic crossroads in central Helmand where four marines have been killed recently. Two were killed by gunfire this week. The number wounded has not been disclosed. Of the 307 British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since 2001, 98 have been in Sangin.
Asked about the vulnerability of British troops in Sangin, Norton said: "We are all vulnerable to IEDs [improvised explosive devices], but the insurgents are increasingly using long-distance small arms." Major General Gordon Messenger, the Ministry of Defence's chief military spokesman, said Taliban-led insurgents were resorting to what he described as an "increasing use of single shots at range". British officers said it would be misleading to describe the shots as coming from snipers, a word suggesting the use of sophisticated rifles by well-trained fighters.
They said it was more a question of hidden insurgents firing from a distance and then fleeing an area difficult for British troops to attack because of the danger of civilian casualties.
"If the truth be told, there's still much hard fighting left to do," said Major General Richard Mills, the American commander of 20,000 US marines and 8,000 British troops in Helmand. "It is a very difficult situation , a very difficult fight ... There is a lot left to do, but progress is steady."
He acknowledged it had been a difficult week for British forces but said they were holding up "very, very well". "Sangin is difficult ground. It is key terrain for the insurgents, it is one of the last population centres that they contest. They are giving it up very, very reluctantly but they are giving it up. They are consistently pushing back against us, but we are consistently pushing out further and further from the district centre."
He also said insurgents were increasing attacks on helicopters, mainly with rocket-propelled grenades. "They are looking for the spectacular attack. They are looking for those that have psychological impact on us," Mills said.
Norton described the challenge his troops faced as enormous, but said they were determined to achieve the results that were needed. He referred to the debate about what British troops were doing in Afghanistan: whether it was to promote Afghan development and stability or to protect Britain's national security. "It is clear we are here for both purposes," he said. The two issues were connected. "It is a significant challenge but viewed through one lens", he said.
Asked about previous suggestions from Barack Obama that US troops would start coming home in July next year, Mills said he had been given neither a timeline nor a deadline.
There is a view among officials that Obama's decision to replace General Stanley McChrystal as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan by General David Petraeus could lead to US forces staying longer than anticipated.
London has made it clear it wants to speed up the recruitment and training of Afghan forces to enable British troops to start leaving as soon as possible, preferably by the middle of next year. The role of British troops in Afghanistan is likely to feature in events organised tomorrow, Britain's second annual Armed Forces Day.
The four soldiers killed on Wednesday in Afghanistan when their armoured vehicle crashed into a canal were named by the MoD as Private Alex Isaac, Private Douglas Halliday and Colour Sergeant Martyn Horton, of 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment, and Lance Corporal David Andrew Ramsden, from 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment.
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