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Petraeus
The Afghanistan War: Tactical Victories, Strategic Stalemate?
By David Wood - Politics DailyThe top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, likes to describe the tactical gains his troops are making against insurgents. But a stream of independent data and analysis suggests a wide gap between those battlefield gains and the strategic progress needed to convince a skeptical President Obama, Congress and the public to stay with the war effort for at least three more years. Recently, for instance, Petraeus asserted that his forces "achieved what we set out to achieve in 2010, which was to reverse the insurgency momentum.'' He has said that Taliban insurgents "are losing momentum ...
Afghans Blame U.S. for Civilian Casualties, Report Says
By David Wood - Politics DailyThe "surge'' troops President Obama sent into Afghanistan to turn the tide against the Taliban may be having the opposite effect. According to a new study published Thursday, Afghan civilians increasingly are "angry and resentful'' at U.S. and allied military forces, blaming them for "civilian casualties, night raids, wrongful or abusive detentions [and] deteriorating security.'' The study, based on interviews and focus group sessions with more than 250 Afghans, conveys bad news for Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan and architect of the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy, ...
Afghan War: In 10th Year, No End in Sight
By David Wood - Politics DailyEntering its 10th year, the war in Afghanistan, which started as a violent, feel-good strike back for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has ballooned into a nasty and dirty conflict whose purpose is unclear and end point unknown. But the growing price tag -- in money and lives -- can be roughly tracked: on average each month sees $5.7 billion in direct costs and 40 American battle dead and 79 wounded, not counting those struggling with traumatic brain injury as well as combat stress and other non-physical consequences of repeated combat tours. And no end is in sight. Winning the war, Gen. David ...
Don't Ask. Don't Tell. Don't Spin.
By Robert and Donna Trussell - Politics DailyFollow the Trussell cartoons on Twitter at ChaosTheoryPD ...
Next-Gen Taliban Less Strict, Increasingly Media-Savvy
By Paul Wachter - AOL News(Sept. 13) -- Taliban leader Mullah Omar has yet to be captured and, in recent days, made a speech promising that an American defeat in Afghanistan is "imminent." But while the United States has not destroyed the Taliban, it has disrupted their operations, killing many senior leaders and driving others from traditional strongholds. Faced with such a disruption, the Taliban have done what other groups do in shifting circumstances -- they've adapted. "For one thing, the technology has changed. Men who used to reject television now put out propaganda DVDs and run a website of news and opinion, ...
Robert Gates to Retire in 2011: Three Dilemmas He Leaves Behind
By Katie Drummond - AOL News(Aug. 16) -- Robert Gates, the U.S. defense secretary since 2006 and a key player in shaping the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hopes to retire from his post sometime in 2011. That's the most immediately attention-grabbing detail revealed over at Foreign Policy, in a profile that recounts Gates' unlikely decision to stay on following the end of President George W. Bush's tenure in the White House. "I really didn't want to be asked," he told Foreign Policy. "[But] if I were asked, I would say, 'Yes.' In the middle of two wars, kids out there getting hurt and dying, there was no way that I was ...
Are US Officials Putting Orwellian Spin on Iraq Troop Withdrawal?
By Paul Wachter - AOL News(Aug. 16) -- "All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome." That's George Orwell, who New York University history professor Hannah Gurman writes would be having "a field day" with the spin now coming from the U.S. Ministry of Information regarding troop pullouts from Iraq. "He could not have invented a more Orwellian tale than the actual story of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq," she writes in a provocative essay for ...
Petraeus for President? He Says, 'No way!'
By Politics Daily Staff - Politics DailyThe question has been raised more than once, especially in the blogosphere: Will Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the 2007 surge in Iraq and now the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, run for president? And it was put to him directly Sunday on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." In answering the question, the modern general echoed two Civil War generals. The question came up when the NBC program's moderator, David Gregory, asked Petraeus, "What are you reading?" The general responded that he had recently been reading about the historiography of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and how ...
Petraeus Calls Afghanistan War Strategy 'Sound'
By not in system - AOL News(Aug. 15) -- Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that U.S. strategy was "fundamentally sound" and that progress was being made in the war, but he cautioned that "to win overall" was "going to be a long-term proposition." Petraeus. who took over command in Afghanistan last month, acknowledged in interviews with the Washington Post and NBC's Meet the Press that polls were showing growing public opposition and frustration with the war. But he stressed that he didn't feel pressured by that and the objective set by President Obama to begin drawing down forces and turning more of security operations ...
Opinion: Amateurs Run Amok
By Mark Budman - AOL News(July 16) -- It used to be that when someone mentioned amateurs, I thought of the person who hits himself on the finger with a hammer, or pricks herself with a needle just below the thimble. Or maybe blows a fuse or two. Someone inept, pathetic and sad, but mostly harmless. Now, I take a much more sinister view. The recent case of the Russian spy who couldn't make her laptop connection work seems to me to be the latest drop in the sea of amateurism that threatens to engulf America (though, of course, it's not just an American phenomenon). When discussing amateurs, I am not talking about ...
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