War in Afghanistan // Current

Towns Turn Out to Honor Marine

"Freedom isn't free," he said. "Somebody's paying for it every day. How do you say 'thank you'... more

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McCain's Voting Record: He Does Not Support Our Troops and Veterans

Since everyone is at least a bit familiar with John McCain’s record when it comes to strolling through a market in Baghdad... more

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As U.S. and European officials ponder what to do about the situation in Afghanistan, they are coming to a perhaps surprising conclusion: The simplest way to stabilize the country may be to negotiate a truce with the Taliban fundamentalists.

The question isn't whether to negotiate with the Taliban but when. There's a widespread view among Bush administration officials and U.S. military commanders that it's too soon for serious talks, because any negotiation now would be from a position of weakness. Some argue for a U.S. troop buildup and an aggressive military campaign next year to secure Afghan population centers, followed by negotiations.

A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that the U.S. would consider any discussion with the Taliban militants who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden as he planned the devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The painful experience of Iraq and Afghanistan has convinced many U.S. commanders that if you can take an enemy off the battlefield, that's better than getting pinned down in protracted combat.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the argument for negotiations with the Taliban during a meeting with NATO allies who are weary. "There has to be ultimately -- and I'll underscore ultimately -- reconciliation as part of a political outcome to this," Gates said. "That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of us."

Gen. David Petraeus, who has overall responsibility for the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has made similar arguments. He believes that the U.S. must work to separate the "reconcilables" among the Taliban from those who are allied with al-Qaeda, and draw the moderates into the government. Petraeus successfully pursued that strategy with Sunni Muslim insurgents in Iraq -- encouraging them to break with al-Qaeda then forming alliances with them.

Petraeus believes an effort to co-opt the Afghan insurgency should probably be accompanied by a stronger U.S. troop presence, just as it was in Iraq. He argues that it's a mistake to think that there's a purely military solution in either country. "You can't kill or capture your way out of this," he explains.

A move to negotiate with the Taliban is already underway thanks to a quiet diplomatic push by Saudi Arabia. Late last month, at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Saudi King Abdullah met in Mecca with representatives of the Taliban and other Afghan insurgent groups headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, who was represented in Mecca by his brother Qayoum Karzai, supported the Saudi mediation. "We're at the very early stages now, but we do have hope for the future," Qayoum Karzai said.

President Karzai is said to have demanded that the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, publicly renounce bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as a condition for further talks. A Taliban representative took this demand to Mullah Omar in his hideout in Afghanistan and returned to Mecca with a positive answer, according to a source familiar with the talks.

Mullah Omar has sent the Saudis a list of seven demands of his own, according to this source. Among the items on the Taliban agenda are a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan; a role for Taliban representatives in provincial and national government; assimilation of Taliban fighters into the Afghan army; and amnesty for guerrillas who fought against the United States.

The Saudis have proposed a second round of discussions in Mecca, when the hajj pilgrimage season begins. U.S. officials are said to be skeptical, but France and Britain appear to be encouraging the Saudi effort. Some Pakistani government and army leaders are also supportive.
Gates notes that we reached just such an accord in Iraq with Sunni insurgents. "At the end of the day, that's how most wars end," he said.
As U.S. and European officials ponder what to do about the situation in Afghanistan, they are coming to a perhaps surprising... more

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1 month ago

'US missiles' hit Pakistan school.

A suspected US missile strike has killed at least eight students at a religious school in north-western Pakistan, witnesses say. ... more

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1 month ago

U.S. Conducts Daring Afghan Hostage Rescue

U.S. Special Forces soldiers conducte anighttime operation to free a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of Engineers... more

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1 month ago

Gates, Rice Brief Lawmakers On Draft Accord With Iraq

As Iraq's Oil Flows Freely, Profits Are Stuck in Bureaucracy U.S., Iraqi Officials Question Terms of Draft Security Deal ... more

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1 month ago

Al-Qaeda Web Forums Abruptly Taken Offline

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 17 -- Four of the five main online forums that al-Qaeda's media wing uses to distribute... more

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1 month ago

Afghan Subcontractor Accuses DynCorp of Fraud

An Afghan construction company and eight of its employees filed a federal lawsuit against Falls Church-based DynCorp... more

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1 month ago

Army's life-or-death drama: To combat suicides, service introduces interactive video

Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be mandatory viewing Army-wide -- in which soldiers will play the role of an anguished infantryman and make virtual choices that lead the character to get help or, in the worst case, shoot himself in the head.

"This is you: Specialist Kyle Norton," a male narrator begins, putting soldiers in the boots of a 19-year-old Midwesterner after a bomb-clearing mission in Iraq.

The video, titled "Beyond the Front," leads the viewer through a detailed drama in which Norton is hit by relationship troubles, financial problems and scrapes with the law -- what Army research shows are major events that precipitate suicide. Norton is blindsided by an e-mail from his fiancee, who has become pregnant by another man. He is devastated further when one of his best friends is killed in an ambush.

Questions pop onto the screen at key moments, prompting the viewer to decide whether to get help -- by opening up with buddies, Norton's sergeant or a chaplain. Depending on the choices, Norton edges toward recovery or sinks deeper into suicidal thoughts. The goal is to immerse the viewer into Norton's life in a way that makes preventive lessons stick, say Army officials and the video's creators.

The video is one of several initiatives launched by the Army to try to stem the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers. That rate increased from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, when the Iraq war started, to 18.1 per 100,000 last year.

This year, 93 active-duty soldiers killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In all of 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide. Suicide attempts by soldiers have also increased since 2003.

If the trend continues, the death rate this year is likely to exceed that of a demographically similar segment of the U.S. population -- 19.5 per 100,000, Stephens said -- which has not happened since the Vietnam War
Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to... more

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1 month ago

The Taliban: News & Videos about The Taliban - CNN.com

An airstrike by Pakistani fighter jets killed more than 30 Taliban fighters, including one believed to be a high-ranking... more

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1 month ago

Chorus of failure grows ever louder over Afghanistan

Critics of the US war in Afghanistan now include the British ambassador, writes Paul McGeough.

GIVEN centuries of cross-Channel antipathy, can we believe what a Frenchman has to say on the thoughts of a Briton on progress in the war in Afghanistan? If a coded French diplomatic dispatch obtained by the respected Paris weekly Le Canard enchaine is to be believed, London's man in Kabul thinks this war is lost.

In the ways of diplomacy, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles might be forgiven for believing his exchange early last month with Francois Fitou, the No.2 at the French Embassy, was strictly entre nous. But Fitou was so alarmed by what he heard, that he reported all its explosive detail to Paris - where it was promptly leaked to the investigative and satirical Le Canard enchaine.

Cutting across the official belief in Washington and London that the war is hard but winnable, Fitou says that Cowper-Coles told him current American strategy "is destined to fail".

Fitou summarises the Englishman's assessment: "The security situation is getting worse. So is corruption and the [Afghan] Government had lost all trust. [The insurgency], while incapable of winning a military victory, nevertheless has the capacity to make life increasingly difficult, including in the capital.

"The presence - especially the military presence - of the coalition is part of the problem, not the solution. The foreign forces are ensuring the survival of a regime that would collapse without them. In doing so, they are slowing down and complicating an eventual exit from the crisis."

Cowper-Coles apparently sees no benefit in boosting allied troops in Afghanistan - it would only increase the sense of an occupation and give the Taliban more targets, Fitou reports. Instead, the British ambassador argues that the only realistic solution is the emergence of "an acceptable dictator", which would allow Britain to withdraw its troops within five to 10 years.

The report provoked howls in London. But stopping short of a denial, the Foreign Office declined to go into what was the thinking of the British ambassador. Resorting instead to its own sleight of hand, it denied something that Le Canard enchaine had not reported - that the thoughts attributed to Cowper-Coles were the views of the British Government.

The French report coincides with a crisis of confidence among Washington and its allies in Afghanistan, including on-the-record expressions of frustration by British officers after seven years of fighting in the country's south.

"The perception of the threat from the Taliban continues to outstrip reality," Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith told The Times last week. "This struggle is more down to the credibility of the Afghan Government rather than the threat from the Taliban."Critics of the US war in Afghanistan now include the British ambassador, writes Paul McGeough. GIVEN centuries of cross-Channel... more

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2 months ago

Pakistanis worry about Zardari rule

Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and now the leader of her party, the Pakistan Peoples... more

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2 months ago

End of an era for Pakistan

It went down to the wire. Would he or wouldn't he resign? When President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation... more

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2 months ago

Honor killings persist in 'man's world'

In a tangle of bushes and trees outside a remote village in southwest Pakistan, six close male relatives of three teenage girls... more

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2 months ago

Pakistan: Sovereignty outweighs terror fight

Pakistan's new president said his nation will not tolerate a violation of its sovereignty by "any power" in the... more

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2 months ago

Al-Qaida vows more attacks in video -

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida threatened major new attacks in Afghanistan and vowed to keep fighting in Iraq even after Americans leave,... more

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2 months ago

A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan - washingtonpost.com

A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan Recent Events in Afghanistan KABUL, Sept. 19 -- Just one year ago, the Taliban... more

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2 months ago

US deaths in Afghanistan makes 2008 deadliest year

KABUL, Afghanistan: Militants killed two U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan on the anniversary of 9/11, making 2008 the deadliest... more

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3 months ago

Pentagon: Afghan strategy not working - Afghanistan- msnbc.com

The strategy in Afghanistan isn't working, but that doesn't necessarily mean that this is a war that can't be won.... more

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3 months ago

US Confirms Raid Inside Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — American forces launched a raid inside Pakistan Wednesday, a senior U.S. military official said, in the first known U.S. ground assault in Pakistan against a suspected Taliban haven. The government condemned the attack, saying it killed at least 15 people.

The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of cross border operations, told The Associated Press that the raid occurred on Pakistani soil about one mile from the Afghan border. The official didn't provide any other details.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry protested saying U.S.-led troops flew in from Afghanistan for the attack on a village in the country's wild tribal belt. A Pakistan army spokesman warned that the apparent escalation from recent foreign missile strikes on militant targets along the Afghan border would further anger Pakistanis and undercut cooperation in the war against terrorist groups.

The boldness of the thrust fed speculation about the intended target. But it was unclear whether any extremist leader was killed or captured in the operation, which occurred in one of the militant strongholds dotting a frontier region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

U.S. military and civilian officials declined to respond directly to Pakistan's complaints. But one official, a South Asia expert who agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name, suggested the target of any raid like that reported Wednesday would have to be extremely important to risk an almost assured "big backlash" from Pakistan.

"You have to consider that something like this will be a more-or-less once-off opportunity for which we will have to pay a price in terms of Pakistani cooperation," the official said.

Suspected U.S. missile attacks killed at least two al-Qaida commanders this year in the same region, drawing protests from Pakistan's government that its sovereignty was under attack. U.S. officials did not acknowledge any involvement in those attacks.

But American commanders have been complaining publicly that Pakistan puts too little pressure on militant groups that are blamed for mounting violence in Afghanistan, stirring speculation that U.S. forces might lash out across the frontier.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — American forces launched a raid inside Pakistan Wednesday, a senior U.S. military official said, in... more