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By Arthur Blaustein
$12.95
By Michael Dirda
$21
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“Today I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays,” President Obama declared Friday, helpfully noting that this withdrawal plan makes good on one of his campaign promises. No doubt what he said strikes fear in the hearts of Republican presidential hopefuls and their supporting casts.
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AP Photo
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President Obama announced Friday that he has ordered a “small number” of combat-ready U.S. soldiers—somewhere around 100, the BBC says—to help local forces in Uganda fight the Lord’s Resistance Army and its internationally wanted leader, Joseph Kony. (more)
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U.S. Air Force / Senior Airman Bradley A. Lail
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The withdrawal of American troops from Iraq is on track, said Pentagon officials Wednesday, though the Obama administration has yet to decide just how many troops will stay beyond the Dec. 31 departure deadline. (more)
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U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Larry E. Reid Jr.
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By Bill Boyarsky — Barack Obama’s plan for a limited withdrawal from Afghanistan means tens of thousands of American troops will remain there, many of them fighting, for several years to come.
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John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune —
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AP / Mukhtar Khan
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In an attempt to rebuild relations with restive Kashmir, one of the world’s most militarized regions, the Indian government has declared that it will cut its troop levels there by 25 percent over the next 12 months.
Posted on Jan 14, 2011
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U.S. Army / Staff Sgt. Michael Bracken
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New statistics show that the Afghan police force, upon whose shoulders eventual U.S. and British military withdrawal is based, is experiencing an unsustainable rate of attrition that sees one in five recruits bailing every year.
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Flickr.com / mindfrieze
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The Pentagon is once again articulating its oft-cited trope that release of classified documents on the WikiLeaks website could endanger U.S. and allied troops and Iraqi civilians as the whistle-blower site prepares to publish even more classified files on the Iraq War.
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AP / Maya Alleruzzo
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American soldiers reportedly were called in to help Iraqi forces repel an attack by insurgents on an army base in Baghdad, just five days after the much-ballyhooed official end of U.S. combat operations in the country.
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Wikimedia Commons
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Iraq is now “sovereign and independent,” according to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who made this optimistic pronouncement on Tuesday, the official end day of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from his war-ravaged country.
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Much fanfare was made about the so-called withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq this month, but as this Al-Jazeera report explores, we might want to read the fine print on this one.
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AP / Sgt. Armando Monroig, U.S. Army
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The U.S. military is moving to trim its troop count in Iraq to 50,000 by Sept. 1, at which point the remaining personnel will assume an “advise-train-assist” role. But the American commander there says that if Iraqi security forces fall down on the job, U.S. troops could be thrust back into a combat role.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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President Obama may have marked 2011 on his calendar to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, but his commander there, Gen. David Petraeus, isn’t so sure. Withdrawal, Petraeus said in an interview with NBC, must be “conditions-based.”
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AP / Rahmat Gul
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Afghanistan’s human rights commission announced Sunday that civilian deaths so far in 2010 had risen by 6 percent, a fact construed as negative unless you’re The Associated Press, which seems to think “the modest increase suggested that U.S. and NATO efforts to hold down civilian casualties were having some success.”
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AP / Alaa al-Marjani
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Only a few hours after U.S. soldiers transferred combat duties to Iraqi security forces, a series of explosions in Basra on Saturday and in Ramadi and Fallujah on Sunday lit up Iraq, killing at least 55 and wounding many others.
Posted on Aug 8, 2010
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White House / Lawrence Jackson
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With 66 deaths so far in July, the month will go down as the deadliest yet for U.S. troops in the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan. The July toll brings the 2010 total so far to at least 265 American military personnel killed.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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On Tuesday, Gen. David Petraeus succeeded in convincing the Senate Armed Services Committee that he’s fit to take over for Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan, and he hinted that strategic shifts may be on the way ... (continued)
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U.S. Army / Spc. De'Yonte Mosley
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Global Post’s Ben Gilbert reports that the Rolling Stone story “was the subject of gossip, concern, disbelief, surprise and shock from enlisted men and officers deployed in Kandahar Province.”
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Army Sgt. David Alvarado
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Even in the face of increased military deployment and the fact that 2010 is on course to be one of the deadliest years for foreign troops in Afghanistan, the number of civilians killed there by U.S. and NATO forces has reportedly decreased due to stricter rules of engagement.
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Monday was the deadliest day so far in 2010 for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. According to the Los Angeles Times, five American soldiers died in a bombing in the east and two in the country’s southern region.
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U.S. Navy / Petty Officer 2nd Class Gina K. Wollman
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Servicemembers United, having just won a Freedom of Information Act request, says the military has not been counting National Guard or Reserve veterans who were discharged under the military’s anti-gay policy.
Posted on May 20, 2010
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Shirtless gyrations? Check. All-male soldier crew in sweaty Afghanistan? Check. Fingers tracing other men’s sternums? Check. Looks like a normal day for our troops in Afghanistan in this fascinating remake of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” video opera.
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Flickr / Truthout.org by Troy Page; adapted by Mr. Wright
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President Obama arrived in Kabul on Sunday on a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he is expected to address U.S. troops as well as put pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to step up the fight against corruption and drug trafficking.
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Flickr / Randy83
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One day after the Dutch Cabinet collapsed, the country’s prime minister has announced that he expects the Netherlands to pull out all its troops from Afghanistan in August.
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Flickr / teunvoten
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Scuffles between police and protesters erupted in Ciudad Juarez, the border town in Mexico that has been the scene of hundreds of drug-related murders, as Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposed new crime initiatives to a skeptical public.
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Flickr / AndYaDontStop
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Police have charged an American soldier with assaulting his young daughter. Specifically, Joshua Tabor of Tacoma, Wash., is reported to have waterboarded his 4-year-old three or four times because she was afraid of water and had trouble with her ABCs.
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Wikimedia Commons / The White House
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has tepidly announced he is pondering introducing conscription in order to build a domestic army and police force capable of taking over security operations from NATO troops in his war-torn country.
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AP / Ahmad Masood, pool
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Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has some sobering news for supporters of the U.S.-led intervention in his country: Even after eight years of war, it could be another decade before the Afghan military is able to take over security duties from the coalition, and even longer to wean it from its dependence on foreign aid.
Posted on Jan 28, 2010
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Wikimedia Commons
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The Pentagon is planning to ramp up the number of U.S. special forces troops in Yemen, pointing to the botched Christmas Day attack on Northwest flight 253 as part of the impetus for the increase. It’s not clear yet how many more American troops will be sent over, but the boost will be significant, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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AP / Jae C. Hong
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The U.S. has deployed an additional 4,000 troops to Haiti as aftershocks rocked the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. The American troop count will reach 16,000 by the weekend as relief efforts hit full stride in the earthquake-ravaged country.
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Flickr / laura padgett
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If it wasn’t crystal clear before that Senate Republicans will stop at nothing to make sure their Democratic rivals don’t pass a health care reform bill by Christmas, or anytime, it should be now. On Friday, GOP senators attempted, unsuccessfully, to filibuster a huge military spending bill that needed to be passed before midnight ... (continued)
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U.S. Army / Spc. David J. Marshall
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By T.L. Caswell — By escalating an unnecessary conflict, President Barack Obama runs the risk of damaging many more Americans through PTSD and other human consequences of warfare. We are heaping upon members of the military more responsibility, more work, more war, more physical and psychological trauma.
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He took his time to mull it over, and in a speech at West Point on Tuesday night President Barack Obama announced his decision about what course of action to take in Afghanistan, affirming reports that he plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to push back on the resurgent Taliban and to try to establish some semblance of stability in the war-scarred country.
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U.S. Marine Corps / Cpl. Artur Shvartsberg
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Thanks to high-level leaks, we now know semiofficially that President Obama plans to deploy 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, that he will announce a time frame for withdrawal and that his exit strategy (as well as Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s) depends on the expansion of the dysfunctional Afghanistan National Army. (continued) Update
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Original photo cropped: White House Photo / Pete Souza
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On the eve of President Obama’s speech at West Point, one of his more media-savvy supporters, filmmaker Michael Moore, sent out a pre-emptive missive to the would-be “new war president,” predicting the fallout that Obama will face if he follows through with his reported plan to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
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U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Marie Brown
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Perhaps inspired by reports that President Obama plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, Gordon Brown said Monday that Great Britain would deploy an additional 500 soldiers to the region. (continued)
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White House / Pete Souza
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President Obama won’t unveil his plans for Afghanistan until next week, but military officials tell the AP he intends to escalate the war by sending up to 35,000 additional troops. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said the plan would include an exit strategy, but that’s little consolation for the doves who got Obama elected. (continued)
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White House / Samantha Appleton
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Those who hoped that President Barack Obama would consider withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan anytime soon are likely to be disappointed, judging by the hints Obama dropped about his plans for America’s military involvement in the volatile South Asian nation.
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Modified from an archival White House photo by David Morse
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By William Pfaff — Barack Obama has made a welcome change to the presidency, dropping the praetorian guard that used to flank his predecessor at every opportunity.
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By Eugene Robinson — It is wrong to sacrifice troops without military goals that are clear, achievable and worthwhile. And what goals in Afghanistan remotely satisfy those criteria?
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U.S. Marine Corps / Sgt. Pete Thibodeau
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As President Barack Obama considers whether to send more American forces to fight in Afghanistan, it’s looking as if European countries are unlikely to commit more of their own troops to the cause, according to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
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AP / Fraidoon Pooyaa
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While the Obama administration continues to mull over its options regarding America’s commitment to the war in Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council has voted to urge “member states to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources” to the ongoing conflict.
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AP / Gerald Herbert
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President Barack Obama is under major pressure to sort out the future U.S. commitment and plan of action in Afghanistan, and thus his work was cut out for him during his huddle Tuesday with NATO leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
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teachersparadise.com
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Although the word is already out that Gen. Stanley McChrystal is about to submit a formal request to the White House to send more American troops to Afghanistan, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Pentagon has told McChrystal to wait, perhaps to let the Obama administration reconsider its next move.
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Flickr / Army.mil
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Although the Obama administration was well aware of the fact that, by Monday morning, everyone and his cousin knew about Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s warning about “mission failure” in Afghanistan, which the general had issued to the White House as part of a report that found its way into the clutches of Washington Post journalists, there will be no official call for more troops until an equally official request is submitted.
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defenselink.mil
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There are already about 62,000 American troops in Afghanistan, and more may be sent to combat the Taliban and contain insurgent violence, according to Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said Tuesday that the next couple of weeks could be telling in terms of how many more troops the U.S. might deploy.
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