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Redefining the War in Afghanistan: The Case for a Change in Mission

Rahim Kanani | Posted 10.28.2009 | World

Read More: Taliban, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan War, Barack Obama, War on Terror, World News
Rahim Kanani

With no end in sight, the U.S. must realize the limits of intervention, both in tanks and treasure, and integrate the implications of their actions over the last 8 years into their policy towards the region.

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US Contractor, John Christopher, Claims To Have Fought Off UN Hostel Attack With AK-47

AP | HAMZA HENDAWI | Posted 10.28.2009 | World

Read More: Afganistan, Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, Afghanistan Surge, United Nations, Taliban, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan War, Afghan Election, World News

KABUL — Armed with an AK-47, an American contract worker said Wednesday he held off militants attacking a guest house in Kabul, allowing about t...

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A Deadly October In Pakistan Amid South Waziristan Operation

Maria Tirmizi | Posted 10.28.2009 | World

Read More: Pakistan Opposition, Pakistan Militants, Pakistan, Pakistan Taliban, Pakistan Crisis, Taliban, Taliban Pakistan, Pakistan Military, World News
Maria Tirmizi

Panic-stricken text messages are making the rounds, warning friends and family against possible future target areas.

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Obama Afghanistan Decision: Not A Question Of Whether To Send More Troops, But How Many

New York Times | Thom Shanker, Peter Baker and Helene Cooper | Posted 10.28.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Joe Biden Afghanistan, u.s. Troops Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Robert Gates Afghanistan, President Obama, Mcchystal Afghanistan, Afghanistan Strategy, U.S. Troops, Mcchrystal Troop Request, Al Quaeda, Taliban, Afghanistan Decision, Robert Gates, Stanley McChrystal, Politics News

President Obama's advisers are focusing on a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers, administration officials sa...

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Afghan Police: 7 Killed In Attack On UN In Kabul

AP | ROBERT H. REID and HEIDI VOGT | Posted 10.29.2009 | World

Read More: Kabul, Abdullah Abdullah, Afghan Election, Afghanistan, Afghanistan Elections, Suicide Vests, Guest House, Taliban, Terrorism, Un, Karzai, Guesthouse, World News

KABUL — Terrified U.N. workers scrambled over the roof or leaped from windows to escape choking smoke and gunfire after being awakened at dawn W...

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Matthew Hoh: A Great American Patriot

Malou Innocent | Posted 10.27.2009 | World

Read More: Matthew Hoh, Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Stanley McChrystal, Taliban, Pashtun, World News
Malou Innocent

Counterinsurgency--the U.S. military's present strategy--requires a legitimate host nation government, which is not in the foreseeable future regardless of who's president.

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Troops In Afghanistan Outnumber Taliban 12-1

AP | SLOBODAN LEKIC | Posted 10.28.2009 | World

Read More: Troops in Afghanistan, Troops in Afghanistan 12-1, 12-1 Afghanistan, Afghanistan Taliban 12-1, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Nato, US Troops in Afghanistan, Afghanistan Taliban, Taliban, Afghanistan War, World News

BRUSSELS — There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It ad...

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Omar Bin Laden, Osama's Son: I Don't Know Where Dad Is

TIME | Andrew Lee Butters Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 | Posted 10.27.2009 | World

Read More: Al-Qaeda, Al Qaida, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Al-Qaida, Osama Bin Laden Message, Taliban, Omar Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, Omar Bin Laden Huffingtonpost, Bin Laden Son, World News

For Omar Bin Laden, the fourth eldest of Osama bin Laden's 20 known children, the awful realization that his own father was a terrorist mastermind plo...

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Who Are the Taliban?

Gilles Dorronsoro | Posted 10.28.2009 | World

Read More: Stanley McChrystal, Taliban, War on Terror, Afghanistan, Afghan Taliban, Terrorism, Al Qaeda, World News
Gilles Dorronsoro

Most do not join the Taliban for money, but because the Afghan government is unjust, corrupt, or simply not there; or the Americans have bombed their houses or shown disrespect for their values.

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A Sanctuary Attacked, and With it, Pakistan's Future Further Imperiled

Mark Levine | Posted 10.27.2009 | World

Read More: Taliban, Islam, War on Terror, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kaust, Higher Education, Saudi Arabia, World News
Mark Levine

The Taliban confirmed it was behind the double suicide bombing that occurred in the International Islamic University in Islamabad last week.

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My Exclusive Interview With Ken Guest -- Journalist and Analyst on Afghanistan (Part 1)

Kathleen Wells, J.D. | Posted 11.26.2009 | World

Read More: Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Soviet-Afghan War, Afghanistan, Us Troops Afghanistan, Ken Guest, Afghanistan War, World News
Kathleen Wells, J.D.

Ken Guest has acquired his credentials as an expert on Afghanistan, its people and their struggles the old fashioned way -- by earning them.

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Pakistan: 42 Militants Killed In Anti-Taliban Assault

AP | ASIF SHAHZAD | Posted 10.28.2009 | World

Read More: Taliban Fighters, Taliban, Pakistan Opposition, Taliban Pakistan, Pakistan Taliban, Pakistan, Pakistan Crisis, World News

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan pressed an offensive deeper into Taliban territory along the Afghan border Tuesday, claiming to have killed 42 militants in...

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Matthew Hoh Resigns: State Department Official Quits Over Afghan War

Posted 10.28.2009 | Politics

Read More: Pentagon, Abdullah Abdullah, White House, Karzai, Department of Defense, Afghanistan, Troop Levels, Pakistan, Afghan War, President Obama, Kabul, Taliban, Afghanistan Troop Levels, Afghanistan War, Obama Decision, Mcchrystal, Marines, Military, War Games, Hoh, State Department, Nato, Matthew Hoh, More Troops, Iraq, Gates, Mullen, Politics News

WASHINGTON — A former Marine who fought in Iraq, joined the State Department after leaving the military and was a diplomat in a Taliban strongho...

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Obama's Decision On Afghanistan Troop Levels Likely Between November 7 And 11; More Troops Likely

ABC News | Posted 10.26.2009 | Politics

Read More: Kabul, White House, Abdullah Abdullah, Gates, Pentagon, President Obama, Pakistan, Troop Levels, Afghan War, Mullen, Karzai, Japan, Afghanistan War, Obama Decision, Nato, Military, War Games, Mcchrystal, Department of Defense, Taliban, More Troops, Afghanistan, Afghanistan Troop Levels, Politics News

Sources tell ABC News that as of now President Obama will likely announce his decision about a new strategy in Afghanistan at some point between the A...

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Afghanistan and Historical Watersheds

Bennett Ramberg, Ph.D. | Posted 10.26.2009 | World

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban, Barack Obama, Afghan Election, Afghanistan War, World News
Bennett Ramberg, Ph.D.

As Washington plots its course for Afghanistan, it would do well to test alternatives against America's 20th-century chronicle of victories, defeats, stalemates and what-ifs.

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Pakistan Takes Taliban Chief's Hometown Of Kotkai

AP | ASIF SHAHZAD and ASHRAF KHAN | Posted 10.25.2009 | World

Read More: Al Qaeda, South Waziristan, Army, Afghanistan, Islamabad, Pakistan, Qari Hussain, Hakimullah Mehsud, Taliban, Us, Terrorism, Kotkai, World News

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani soldiers captured the hometown of the country's Taliban chief Saturday, a strategic and symbolic initial prize as the army...

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Can the UN Save Afghanistan?

Stephen Schlesinger | Posted 10.24.2009 | World

Read More: 9/11, Afghanistan War, Loya Jirga, UN Security Council, Taliban, Afghanistan, United Nations, Al Qaeda, World News
Stephen Schlesinger

Given the UN's extraordinary and continuing role in Afghanistan, it would seem appropriate at this time that it might consider guiding President Obama toward a resolution of the dilemma he now faces.

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It's a Runoff, Now What? Parsing the Impacts of the Presidential Rematch in Afghanistan

Vikrum Aiyer | Posted 10.23.2009 | World

Read More: Senator John Kerry, Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai, Isaf, President Barack Obama, Afghan-Runoff, Taliban, Pashtun, Al Qaeda, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tajik, Rahm Emanuel, Northern Alliance, Nato, Independent Electoral Commission, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, General Stanley McChrystal, Afpak, Kai Eide, Afghan Election Fraud, Afghanistan Karzai Abdullah, Afghanistan Run-Off Election, World News
Vikrum Aiyer

A coalition government in Afghanstan, while supposedly offering the best of both worlds, tacitly condones an illegitimate election and would require America to broker power among competing personalities.

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Afghanistan: Fraud, Opium, and Taliban

Jamal Dajani | Posted 10.23.2009 | World

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Nato, Taliban, Opium, Barack Obama, Afghanistan War, Afghan Election, World News
Jamal Dajani

Why isn't Mr. Karzai being held responsible for this blatant act of election fraud? And who can guarantee that a repeat of the fraud won't happen? Or that all hell won't break loose during the run-off?

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Pakistan Air Base, Wedding Bus Attacked, Dozens Killed

AP | CHRIS BRUMMITT | Posted 10.24.2009 | World

Read More: Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Pakistan Air Base, Pakistan, Pakistan South Waziristan, Kamra, Taliban, Foreign Affairs, South Waziristan, World News

ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked a major Pakistani air base on Friday, killing seven people in an escalating campaign that str...

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Obama in the Thicket of "Afghaniranistan"

William Bradley | Posted 10.21.2009 | World

Read More: Russia, Britain, Cia, France, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Mi-6, Nobel Peace Prize, Iaea, Mossad, Moscow, Tehran, Israel, Iraq, Vienna, Special Forces, Taliban, Sayeret, Al Qaeda, Revolutionary Guard, Iranian Nuclear Program, Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Soviet Union, Jihadism, Post-Soviet Space, Somalia, Cairo Address, John Kerry, World News
William Bradley

Obama is in a multi-faceted complex of geopolitical crises. He is actively using military force in two of the countries, and has threatened, at the least, tough sanctions in the third.

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Getting the Vietnam Analogy Right in Afghanistan

Leon T. Hadar | Posted 10.21.2009 | World

Read More: Nazi Germany, President Obama, Lebanon, Iran, Hitler, China, History, Muslim, Saudi Arabia, Nato, Vietnam War, John Kennedy, Chechnya, Munich, Analogies, Czechoslovakia, Syria, Xinjiang, West Germany, South Vietnam, Hamas, Soviet Union, Hizbollah, Afghanistan War, Al Quaeda, Kashmir, Shiites, Iraq War, Communism, North VIetnam, Taliban, India, Lyndon Johnson, Cuba, Ospolitik, Detente, World News
Leon T. Hadar

The ghosts of the Vietnam War seem to be hanging around the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his national security aides debate a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

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War Fever at the Times: A Five-Day Log

David Bromwich | Posted 10.24.2009 | Media

Read More: Dexter Filkins, Cia, Eric Schmitt, Pat Tillman, Pakistan, David Rohde Escapes, David Petraeus, New York Times Magazine, Stanley McChrystal, New York Times, Taliban, Afghanistan, Lewis Sorley, David Rohde, Media News
David Bromwich

Made nervous by signs that President Obama will not push for a bigger war in Afghanistan, the New York Times is showing what the rest of his time in office will be like if he does not cooperate.

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David Rohde: Held By The Taliban. Part Three

nytimes.com | DAVID ROHDE | Posted 10.20.2009 | World

Read More: Nytimes, Pakistan, Pakistan Taliban, David Rohde Escapes, New York Times, NYTimes.Com, David Rohde Taliban, Taliban, David Rohde, World News

A NERVOUS-LOOKING Pakistani soldier pointed a rocket-propelled grenade at our pickup truck in late January. The Taliban guard beside me loaded his rif...

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Karzai Appears Set To Agree To Runoff In Afghan Election

New York Times | SABRINA TAVERNISE and HELENE COOPER | Posted 10.20.2009 | World

Read More: Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan War, Karzai, Afghan Election, Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghan Recount, Obama, Taliban, Election Results, Hamid Karzai, Afghan War, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Kerry, White House, Abdullah, Runoff, Un, Hillary Clinton, World News

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai appears set to concede as early as Tuesday that he fell short of a fi...

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