Free Republic

Peace on earth, good will toward men. Fine sentiments. But as citizens of a republic, can we really assume we'll be held forever blameless for the actions of our government? Barack Obama, who if he were not in office would be applying for a Community Development Block Grant to stage anti-war rallies in Chicago, just authorized sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. But it's OK: He promises to pull them out in 18 months -- soon enough to guarantee they can't actually accomplish anything. A few hundred of these young American men will be sent home in coffins or with...

One reason so many roadside bombs in Afghanistan use pressure plates or wire controlled devices to detonate these weapons, is because American jamming technology has made wireless detonation of the bombs so difficult. The U.S. Department of Defense is working on a third generation of jammers, to make sure the terrorists have to rely on less effective means of detonating their bombs for the foreseeable future. The most recent innovation in the areas was the JCREW (Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare) 3.1 dismounted (wearable) jammer. These cost about $99,000 each. The wearable JCREW jammers are more useful...

The Army has begun fielding a new 5.56mm 30-round "improved magazine" that delivers a significant increase in reliability for M-16 and M-4 weapons. Bolstering the already high reliability ratings of the M-16 and M-4, the improved magazine reduces the risk of magazine-related stoppages by more than 50 percent compared to the older magazine variants, according to officials at Program Executive Office Soldier. Identified by a tan-colored follower, more than 500,000 of the improved magazines have been fielded to units in Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States. "With the improved magazines, we're taking weapons reliability up another notch," said Lt. Col....

A recent exchange of intelligence information between India and the U.S. revealed that an American Moslem (whose father was a Pakistani diplomat) under arrest for plotting Islamic terrorism, admitted that he had witnessed Pakistani Army officers working with Islamic terrorists, while he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan. While there have been many such reports, Pakistan always responds by claiming that they are "rogue officers." But American intelligence and military officials, who have worked have worked with the Pakistanis, report encountering many Pakistani officers who were openly favoring Islamic terrorism. Thus the Pakistani protests carry less and less weight. For...

As an increasing number of suicide attacks rock Pakistan's major cities, concerns for the country's security are rising. In recent years, many new terrorist groups have emerged, several existing groups have reconstituted themselves, and a new crop of militants has emerged, more violent and less conducive to political solutions than their predecessors. Links between many of these new and existing groups have strengthened, say experts, giving rise to fresh concerns for stability. Pakistani authorities have long had ties to militant groups based on their soil that largely focused their efforts in Afghanistan and India. But with Pakistan joining the United...

If anyone at the White House thought that Barack Obama became the “decider” on military matters on January 20th, Nancy Pelosi just gave them a little bit of education in Democratic politics. Obama needs Congress to appropriate funds for a 30,000-troop increase in Afghanistan, but Pelosi won’t lift a finger to help. Instead, it will be up to Republicans to get the President his money: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that it’s up to President Barack Obama to persuade reluctant Democrats to fund his Afghanistan troop buildup — his most important foreign policy initiative — because she has no...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Troops are being sent to war zones without proper training and suitable gear, according to two senior Democratic lawmakers who say they've been told by soldiers about problems ranging from their backpacks to their rifles. In a Dec. 10 letter to the Pentagon's top leaders, Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Solomon Ortiz, who heads the subcommittee on military readiness, said they are "greatly troubled" by what they learned as the Obama White House begins escalating the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, American aircraft equipped with radar (that can see what's on the ground), are tailing Taliban suspects driving through remote areas. Operators in these JSTARS aircraft can track movement of ground units, or individual vehicles, over a wide area. Operators can also use the detail mode to pick out specific details of what's going on down there, like tracking the movement of vehicles fleeing the scene of a battle, or meeting with Taliban leaders. JSTARS is real good at picking up trucks moving along highways on flat terrain, but the equipment has now been tweaked to deal with the mountains...

In Afghanistan, the Taliban are finding that their Medieval warrior mentality and physical hardiness are no match for smart bombs and even smarter intelligence work. The Taliban fighters are often described as clever and adaptive. They are. But the Taliban fighters, including many of the leaders, are illiterate and uncomfortable with new technology. They constantly get nailed using cell phones and walkie talkies (like the Motorola models available worldwide), even though it's common knowledge that the U.S. frequently eavesdrops. The Afghans believe the Americans are using some kind of pagan "magic", and if an Islamic warrior is pure-of-heart, the magic...

U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the military's focus now is the rapid deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and the initial elements of the surge will begin arriving next week. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Admiral Mullen says orders have been issued to combat infantry, engineers and civil affairs experts to deploy to Afghanistan, with 1,500 Marines expected to arrive in southern Helmand Province next week. Mullen indicated there is a sense of urgency at the Pentagon to implement U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to send tens of thousands of...

As part of the new American counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines must work first to protect the Afghan population. Given the choice between killing the enemy or risking civilian lives, they have been willing to let the enemy go. NPR's Tom Bowman was in Afghanistan earlier this year and witnessed troops grappling with the dilemma of whether to shoot. Listen here javascript:NPR.Player.openPlayer(121330893,%20121330884,%20null,%20NPR.Player.Action.PLAY_NOW,%20NPR.Player.Type.STORY,%20'0')

The Taliban continue to adapt to new NATO tactics for detecting roadside bombs in Afghanistan. The current trend is to rely on more elaborate methods of deception. One troubling trend (especially for animal lovers) is the use of pack animals. These are common throughout rural Afghanistan, especially donkeys. In this case, the goods the animal carries is mostly explosives. A donkey can carry at least a hundred pounds of explosives, even counting material to hide the true nature of the load. Wheelbarrows and bicycles are also used, and carry about the same load of explosives. These bombs usually are left...

War On Terror: The anti-war crowd says the small number of enemy fighters inside Afghanistan doesn't justify sending 30,000 fresh troops there. They fail to understand the larger problem. Sen. Barbara Boxer complains al-Qaida is scarcely in Afghanistan. She cites an intelligence report leaked to ABC News that only 100 fighters are actually present inside the country, along with several thousand Taliban fighters. "I do not support adding more troops," the California Democrat argued, "because there are now 200,000 American, NATO and Afghan forces fighting roughly 20,000 Taliban and less than 100 al-Qaida." In other words, why are we even...

The Manmohan Singh government on Thursday said it was imperative for the international community to continue putting pressure on Pakistan to dismantle the safe havens that export terror into the neighbourhood. Responding to President Barack Obama’s Afghan policy, MEA spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said Pakistan has to be persuaded to root out these safe havens. `` India believes that it is in the interest of the international community to impress upon Pakistan that it must use all its influence and resources to implement its commitments to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and to deny sanctuary to all terrorist groups who operate...

Responding to President Obama’s address on Afghanistan yesterday, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld issued the following statement: “In his speech to the nation last night, President Obama claimed that ‘Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive.’ Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as Secretary of Defense, deserves a response.” “I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006. If any such requests occurred, ‘repeated’ or not, the White House should promptly...

Responding to President Obama’s address on Afghanistan yesterday, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld issued the following statement: “In his speech to the nation last night, President Obama claimed that ‘Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive.’ Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as Secretary of Defense, deserves a response.” “I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006. If any such requests occurred, ‘repeated’ or not, the White House should promptly...

One of the first decisions President Obama made upon taking office was to remove a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and send it packing to the British Embassy. The gift, a present from the British people in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, was pride of place in the White House under George W. Bush, but was seen as surplus to requirements by his successor. Hardly a good omen for an increasingly unpopular president, whose nation is actively engaged in a global war against a brutal enemy that seeks the destruction...

Most people expect Barack Obama to lay off some of the blame for the directionless policy on Afghanistan this year on George Bush in his speech tonight at West Point. Lee Siegel at the Daily Beast expects Obama to come across as closer to his predecessor than Obama might imagine. When it comes to pursuing the war in Afghanistan, Siegel — a war opponent — sees Obama as Bush Lite, and the speech as a manipulation of high order:

The countdown to handing back Helmand province to Afghan control began yesterday when Gordon Brown announced a detailed exit timetable.

fresh troops expected from the White House to securing the country's troubled south and will especially target this volatile city, the Taliban's main power base

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the purse string-controlling House Appropriations Committee, is calling the idea a "war surtax."

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., are proposing new taxes to pay for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Two top Democrats say they want to impose a new tax on the wealthy to finance any increase in U.S. troops for the Afghanistan war.

The CIA has paid millions of dollars to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) since 9/11, "accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency's annual budget", says a media report. The ISI also collected "tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA programme", which pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a newspaper reported on Monday citing current and former US officials. An intense debate has been triggered within the US government due to "long-standing suspicions that the ISI continues to help Taliban extremists who undermine US efforts in Afghanistan and provide sanctuary to Al Qaeda...

What did the U.S. military offensive against Shiite militias in Sadr City in April 2008 and the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza last December have in common? A lot, apparently, and both operations are being held up by their respective militaries as models for a new way of battling irregular fighters in urban strongholds. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus likes to put up a PowerPoint slide in public briefings detailing the forces, intelligence and surveillance assets involved in the Sadr city battles as representative of a new way of fighting. “This is the answer,” Petraeus said at a...

The president has been taking time thinking about Afghanistan. I cannot see why this is bad. If he's really thinking, he's not dithering—thought can be harder than action, weighing plans as hard as choosing and executing one. A question of such consequence deserves pondering. A president ought to summon and hear counsel before committing or removing American troops.

Barack Obama is to reject all of the options outlined for increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan in favour of revised plans which include a clear exit strategy, it has been claimed. The report came from a senior administration official close to the high-level deliberations Mr Obama is holding with his war cabinet over the refocusing of the Afghan war effort. The President is said to have raised questions at a meeting on Wednesday that could alter both the size of any possible troop increase and the length of time they are in the country before they can hand over to...

Last month, the U.S. Air Force created four new UAV squadrons (29th Attack Squadron, 6th Reconnaissance Squadron, 16th Training Squadron and 849th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron). All these new units are actually training squadrons. The air force is training 220 operator crews (each with a pilot and one or two sensor operators) a year. In two years, this will increase to 400 a year, which will enable the air force to run 50 CAPs (Combat Air Patrol; UAVs in the air over a combat zone) simultaneously. The large number of new crews are needed because the pilots only operate UAVs for...

A number of experts think the U.S. should abandon its “top down” strategy of building an Afghan national army and should switch to arming and paying local tribes to fight the Taliban. Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, appearing Thursday at a Capitol Hill conference sponsored by RAND, said he closely examined former Soviet counterinsurgencies in Poland and the Ukraine. In both cases, the Soviets successfully levered small, locally recruited militia forces to successfully battle numerically superior anti-regime insurgents. He warned of the perils of trying to police xenophobic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Pahstuns with an Afghan national army. A better...

policymakers continue to debate U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, we asked Rick Nelson, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to weigh in on the possibility of reconciling Taliban fighters, efforts to track down Al Qaeda and the potential risks that an escalation of the war in Afghanistan might pose to neighboring Pakistan. Nelson is a former Navy helicopter pilot with operational and intelligence experience in counterterrorism including assignments at the National Counterterrorism Center and National Security Council. Earlier this year, he returned from Afghanistan where he directed a Joint Task Force. Below is an email Q and...

The ongoing debate over the way forward in Afghanistan has settled into the “light footprint,” counterterrorism approach, versus the “heavy footprint,” population-centric counterinsurgency approach. Reportedly, what is about to emerge from the Obama administration is a hybrid of the two, with the vast majority of troops providing security in Afghanistan’s major population centers and pulling troops out of less populated rural zones. Drone strikes and periodic raids would be employed to check the Taliban in remote areas. The danger in such an approach is that once rural villages are ceded to insurgent control, they may never be recaptured as the...

As Pakistani troops advance through South Waziristan, they are coming across quickly abandoned facilities apparently long used by Islamic terror organizations. South Waziristan, and its pro-Taliban Mehsud tribe, has long been a place where government officials only went with permission of the locals. And the locals apparently believed their own propaganda that government troops would not get far if they tried to invade the area. Army artillery and helicopter gunships, aided by air force fighter-bombers, proved more than a match for the tribal warriors, who soon fled to the safer hills. The Islamic terrorists fled with them, often failing to...

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The White House declared Hamid Karzai the legitimate president of Afghanistan on Monday and said President Barack Obama's decision on whether to send more U.S. troops there is still weeks away.

By DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON - With the White House's reluctant embrace on Sunday of Hamid Karzai as the winner of Afghanistan's suddenly ... With Karzai, US Faces Weak Partner in Time of War New York Times. Abdullah Abdullah was at times emotional on Sunday in announcing in Kabul that he was dropping out of a runoff.

the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has warned the United States against striking terrorists from unmanned drones. “My concern is that these drones, these Predators, are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law,”

No excerpt available.

US strikes with remote-controlled aircraft against Al-Qaeda

EXCERPTED; "say current and former U.S. officials". Where is the outrage?

NATO defense ministers Friday endorsed the kind of broad counterinsurgency approach for Afghanistan that is the basis for the pending troop request by the NATO and the U.S. commander there, General Stanley McChrystal. The ministers, including U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, are meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the defense ministers have a "general shared view" that the alliance must make Afghanistan strong enough to defend itself against militant forces. And he said the ministers also agree on the approach for accomplishing that. "There is the support of this counterinsurgency strategy, which means that ministers...

When White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs goofed and referred to "Secretary Kerry" on Wednesday, it seemed like one heck of a Freudian slip. But Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and former presidential candidate -- fresh back from a successful diplomatic mission to Afghanistan -- is brushing off any suggestion that he's positioning for a promotion or stepping on the real secretary of state's toes.

One-hundred percent of this morning's new Afghanistan war polling is bad news for Barack Obama's administration. In fact, it's a double-dose of bad news: One, it confirms the developing trend of crumbling civilian support for the military struggle launched late in 2001 to oust the Taliban and deny Afghanistan as a safe haven for al-Qaeda terrorist training for any future 9/11-style attacks. Two, the new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows the Democratic president's support fading sharply among the heretofore strongest supporters of Obama's "war of necessity" -- Republicans. And the latest Post/ABC poll bolsters two surveys earlier this month, both...

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials expect Afghan President Hamid Karzai to concede on Tuesday that he fell short of the 50 percent vote share in August's election that he needed to win outright, but it was unclear Monday whether that would lead quickly to a runoff election with his nearest challenger, a U.S. government official said. Karzai could opt to embrace a runoff, which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday was logistically feasible within weeks, or he could attempt to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who finished second in the August balloting.

Me and Izi have started small adventure company this year. We have started too late and all people has asked us about 2010 ;) This story begun when one journalist has called me and asked about Afganistan tour. - Have you been there? I have heard you intend to take people for Afganistan? Is this true? Well, we have seen Afganistan and road to Wakhan from other bank of Pyanzh but we have not been there. No clients this year, why not take a little ride to Afghanistan just for fun? Miro, our friend from Slovakia has joined us for...

One of President Obama's top advisers said Sunday the Bush administration failed to ask critical questions about the war in Afghanistan, leaving the Obama administration starting from scratch -- and leaving the war "adrift." "The president is asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN's "State of the Union."

10/15/2009 - FORT GORDON, Ga. (AFNS) -- An ordinary day for the Kapisa/Parwan Provincial Reconstruction team in Afghanistan became an unforgettable opportunity for an Airman from here to help save children's lives. Staff Sgt. Jonathan Okeefe, a 338th Training Squadron Det. 1 satellite, wideband and telemetry systems instructor at Fort Gordon, recently returned from a 12-month deployment to Afghanistan where he served as the chief communications officer for the Kapisa/Parwan PRT based out of Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. "Each PRT is assigned to one of the 26 provinces in Afghanistan," Sergeant Okeefe said. "The mission of each team is to make...

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan has boldly stepped up where even India has been discreet in treading, bluntly accusing the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI of masterminding the latest bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul which killed 17 people.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - Karima Yousafzai jumps behind the wheel of her 1994 Toyota Corolla and heads into traffic, deftly negotiating around wannabe motocross champions, oblivious pushcart peddlers, a roadside herd of sheep and several contenders for the crazy-driver-of-the-year award. She takes little notice of the looks directed her way.

For the second time today, I have seen a news report and thought it was a joke. The first time was when I heard the POTUS had one the Nobel Peace prize this time it was the Democratic Party's reaction to the criticism. According to Ben Smith at Politico the reaction was basically, "if you criticize the President's award, you are siding with the terrorists" A top Democratic National Committee official reacted furiously to a statement from Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele mocking -- and describing as "unfortunate" -- President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. "The Republican Party has thrown in...

The rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire was so intense that most of the soldiers spent the opening minutes of the battle lying on their stomachs, praying that the enemy would run out of ammunition.

Militant fighters streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war.

A nuclear-armed Taliban? It may not be as far-fetched as it might first appear. The Taliban already control or have a significant presence in northwest Pakistan along a critical stretch of the Afghan border. Taliban units operate with relative impunity in the region surrounding Peshawar, Pakistan's major population, commercial and transportation center less than 100 miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. Dominance of Taliban and al-Qaida forces in the pivotal northwest region of Pakistan provides not only a sanctuary and training centers for attacks on Afghanistan, but it has become a base of operations to weaken any pro-Western sentiments among the...