Afghanistan exit strategy

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Pakistan Wants In on Afghan Peace Talks With Taliban

Could offer reconciliation with lethal branch of militants

(Newser) - As the US and Afghanistan mull reconciliation with the Taliban as a way to wind down the war, Pakistan wants a role in potential peace talks. The Pakistanis would bring to the table their influence over the Haqqanis, a particularly lethal Taliban branch that is fighting against allied soldiers in...

Karzai Seeks Saudi Help in Taliban Talks

Afghan president arrives in Riyadh

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai arrived in Riyadh today, hoping to secure Saudi Arabia’s help in peace negotiations with the Taliban. Karzai and his entourage will first make a pilgrimage to Mecca, then meet with King Abdullah tomorrow to discuss the reconciliation process. Abdullah has said his government won’t participate as...

World Powers Mull Afghan Exit
 World Powers Mull Afghan Exit 
Jan 28, 2010 6:30 AM CST

World Powers Mull Afghan Exit

But Hamid Karzai thinks it'll be a while before his country's ready

(Newser) - Delegates from about 70 nations met in London today to draft an exit strategy for the Afghanistan conflict, which, consensus has it, would involve handing security responsibilities over to local forces and seducing Taliban fighters with jobs and homes. In attendance were everyone from Hillary Clinton to Ban Ki-Moon to...

McChrystal: There's Been Enough Fighting

General foresees settlement with weakened Taliban

(Newser) - Gen. Stanley McChrystal says he’s pushing towards a negotiated peace with the Taliban, using his newly-expanded forces to weaken their bargaining position. “As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there’s been enough fighting,” the NATO commander in Afghanistan tells the Financial Times . “What I...

For Pakistan, Taliban Leader Outranks US

Islamabad backs off Haqqani, a crucial link to Afghanistan

(Newser) - Pakistani officials are balking at pursuing a Taliban leader who poses a major threat to US forces in Afghanistan, underscoring their lack of faith in the Obama surge. Pakistan has made a separate peace with Siraj Haqqani, allowing him the use of North Waziristan as a base of operations after...

King Pays to Bring Troops Home for Holidays

But horrormeister thought $13K would be bad luck

(Newser) - When it comes to the holidays, Stephen King is glad to do the right thing—albeit in his own quirky way. Case in point: 150 infantry troops from Maine due to be shipped to Afghanistan next month were to spend the holidays at an Indiana training camp. King answered a...

Cocky Karzai Calls Gates' Bluff
 Cocky Karzai Calls Gates' Bluff 
MAUREEN DOWD
Dec 13, 2009 9:01 AM CST

Cocky Karzai Calls Gates' Bluff

Defense sec gets dissed by Afghanistan, Iraq 'puppets': Dowd

(Newser) - Robert Gates may be the man "running the world's best military," a force not inconsequential to stability in Afghanistan these days, but Hamid Karzai thumbed his nose at the defense secretary on his recent visit. "Puppets just aren’t what they used to be," notes Maureen...

McChrystal: We'll Know by This Time Next Year

General says troop surge should show results within a year

(Newser) - The US should know by this time next year whether the troop buildup in Afghanistan worked, Stanley McChrystal told the House Armed Services panel today, though he cautioned that there was no easy road to success. "The sober fact is that there are no silver bullets," he said....

Gates, in Kabul, Contradicts Karzai's Timetable

'We're in this thing to win,' he tells reporters

(Newser) - Robert Gates and Hamid Karzai seemed to contradict each other at a press conference in Kabul today, with Gates saying the US commitment in Afghanistan isn’t open ended, and Karzai saying it will be at least 5 years before Afghanistan is ready for a US withdrawal. Gates arrived in...

Gates: 'Years' Since Last bin Laden Intel
 Gates: 'Years' 
 Since Last 
 bin Laden Intel 

TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Dec 6, 2009 1:10 PM CST

Gates: 'Years' Since Last bin Laden Intel

White House pushes Afghan policy on Sunday circuit

(Newser) - The US hasn't had credible intelligence on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts in "years," Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted to ABC's George Stephanopoulos today. "We don’t know for a fact where Osama bin Laden is," the defense secretary said. "If we did, we’d go...

Obama's Long Road to Afghan Strategy
 Obama's 
 Long Road to 
 Afghan Strategy 
BEHIND THE SCENES
Dec 6, 2009 10:26 AM CST

Obama's Long Road to Afghan Strategy

Prez was relentless in analyzing every angle

(Newser) - Amid cries of "dithering" and the silent finality of Arlington's rows of white tombstones, President Obama calmly, analytically, and exhaustively reviewed all options in Afghanistan before finally announcing to his team on Nov. 29 that he would send in 30,000 more troops. The New York Times retraces the...

Obama Plan Won't Make America Safer

Afghan surge can't defeat terrorist ideology

(Newser) - President Obama should have used his speech to declare victory and announce the start of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan instead of an escalation, writes Eugene Robinson. Even if the surge achieves its immediate mission—at huge cost—the operation won't achieve its ultimate goal of making the US safer...

Bill Ayers Protests Obama
 Bill Ayers Protests Obama 
clarence page
Dec 3, 2009 1:36 PM CST

Bill Ayers Protests Obama

Calls his Afghan benchmarks 'a myth and a lie'

(Newser) - The honeymoon’s over for Bill Ayers and Barack Obama. The former Weather Underground member—that would be Ayers—was out protesting last night against Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan, columnist Clarence Page blogs for the Chicago Tribune . In this clip, he says he’s “appalled...

Pundits Split on Obama's 'Churchill Moment'
 Pundits Split on Obama's 
 'Churchill Moment' 
afghanistan speech
Dec 2, 2009 7:51 AM CST

Pundits Split on Obama's 'Churchill Moment'

Some find president's resolve unconvincing

(Newser) - President Obama staked his presidency on the Afghanistan war last night, but pundits are widely split on how convincingly he made the case for escalation.
  • This was no George W. Bush on an aircraft carrier, writes Matthew Cooper in the Atlantic. This was a community organizer turned war president,"
...

US Will Begin Withdrawing Troops in July 2011

President will discuss Afghan timetable in speech tonight

(Newser) - President Obama plans to begin withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan in July 2011, senior administration officials say. Obama will sketch out the timetable tonight when he announces plans to send an additional 30,000 troops to the country over the next 6 months, report the New York Times and the...

Obama Wants Afghan War Over in 3 Years

He wants all new troops on the ground within 6 months

(Newser) - President Obama wants the war effort in Afghanistan wrapped up in 3 years and most US troops home by then, senior officials tell CNN . He also wants to speed up deployment of the 30,000 or so additional troops he's sending, with the first Marines expected to be on the...

Troop Surge Number? 34K
 Troop Surge Number? 34K 
AFGHAN strategy
Dec 1, 2009 7:36 AM CST

Troop Surge Number? 34K

With NATO troops, total close to McChrystal request

(Newser) - The Washington Post has—or thinks it has—the much anticipated number of troops President Obama will deploy to Afghanistan, and it's 34,000. That, combined with 5,000 he's said to be seeking from NATO allies, brings the total within shooting distance of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for 40,...

Obama Cools to Surge in Afghan Forces

President expected to pare down Afghan role in US plans

(Newser) - Even as President Obama is expected to announce a surge in US troops in Afghanistan tomorrow, the White House has soured on doubling the size of the Afghan army and police, the Wall Street Journal reports. The president plans to scale back a key element of Gen. McChrystal's strategy, the...

Obama to Unveil Afghan Endgame

30K troop boost may go down easier with exit talk

(Newser) - When President Obama announces his planned boost in US troops in Afghanistan tomorrow, he'll also reveal his exit outline, according to administration sources. "He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down," an insider told...

Levin: No Afghan War if We'd Caught bin Laden
 Levin: No 
 Afghan War if 
 We'd Caught 
 bin Laden 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Nov 29, 2009 1:11 PM CST

Levin: No Afghan War if We'd Caught bin Laden

Senators hit talk shows to talk Afghanistan

(Newser) - Had the US not missed its chance to nab Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001, there's a “good chance we would not have forces or need to have forces there," Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin told Face the Nation. Given the current situation, however, Politico...

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