National Security

Afghan War: "Fragile, Reversible" Progress

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | December 16, 2010 | +

The White House has just released a summary of its classified review of Afghan war policy, concluding that if it’s not working well, at least slow and erratic progress is being made. The study, once viewed as a key pivot point in the war, dimmed in importance after the U.S. and its NATO allies conceded they’d be leading the fight against Taliban and al Qaeda militants until at least 2015. Yet even as the combat horizon has lengthened, the White House review says that some U.S. troops should be able to begin coming home from the war next summer. A year ago, President Obama sent an additional 30,000 troops into battle, boosting the U.S. troop presence to about 100,000. President Obama and members of his national-security team will be discussing the report later today.

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  • newfreedomblog

    “Specific components of our strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan are working well and there are notable operational gains. Most important, al-Qa’ida’s senior leadership in Pakistan is weaker and under more sustained pressure than at any other point since it fled Afghanistan in 2001.”

    .
    Yes We Can!!
    .
    While in other news…..
    .
    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/15/world/main7152700.shtml
    .

    Iraq: Al Qaeda Planning Holiday Attacks in West
    .
    Iraqi Authorities Say Two Captured Insurgents Admit to Planned Suicide Attacks in U.S., Europe during Christmas Season”

  • jsfox

    Planned attacks during the Christmas season. This bit of intelligence seems to come out every Christmas season. I’m not discounting it, but it shouldn’t come as any surprise.

  • http://2thirdsrocks.wordpress.com 2thirdsrocks

    but, but, I thought Al Qaeda had been defeated!?…

  • gysgt213

    “The White House has just released a summary of its classified review of Afghan war policy, concluding that if it’s not working well, at least slow and erratic progress is being made.”
    .
    Someone should be fired for that sentence.

  • michaelfury

    “Al Qaeda Planning Holiday Attacks in West”

    While in other news:

    http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/points-of-failure/

  • allthingsinaname

    Is it just me or, are all these wars the same?

  • 11charlie

    “This bit of intelligence seems to come out every Christmas season.”
    .
    Not to mention every holiday. And every big sporting event.

  • http://erieangel.wordpress.com erieangel

    Yeah. Vietnam all over again. I was just a kid during Vietnam and was too absorbed with my Barbie dolls and jacks-playing ability to pay much attention to the evening news my stepfather was watching. Yet, I do seem to recall hearing phrases very similar to “fragile progress”.
    .
    We can also compare our presence in Afghanistan with that of the USSR. Though we Americans see it as a good thing, but the USSR sacrificed everything on their failed attempt to take over the Afghan region. They thought it would be a cakewalk, after all Afghanistan has never had a viable central government, just a bunch of local war lords to contend with. Those war lords showed then, as they are showing now, they will not go down without a fight.

    Will the USA expend everything, even sacrificing our own government,as the Russians had, for the sake of “installing democracy”? And, it might be pointed out, it is a democracy many in that region don’t even want.

  • apr2563

    If Bush was still President, red alerts would be issued. The head of Homeland Security would be giving dire warnings. Stock up on duct tape! Keeping the fear level was always important.

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