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(snip) SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you about health care quickly. It looks like that’s coming finally to a head in the Senate. It looks like that the majority leader, Harry Reid, is going to put the government- run insurance option in there, the so-called public option. Do you think at this point that that will pass the Senate?MCCAIN: I think that the Democrats have the votes. I think that Blue Dogs bark but never bite. So I don’t think they have a problem over in the House side.MCCAIN: In the Senate, I think that the Democrats are very aware that...

Nation-building in Afghanistan is a tough proposition for the United States since it is a "medieval" country, Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) told a local editorial board on Monday afternoon. The freshman lawmaker said that the a rebuilding project similar to what the U.S. undertook in Iraq would unlikely to achieve success in Afghanistan because the latter is "medieval" and the former is a "20th century country." Roe added that winning "the war" there would take "decades." He emphasized that the government needs to re-evaluate the mission there and define victory in the conflict against Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents. "I believe...

(snip) "This is not easy and I would expect that the public would ask some very tough questions," Obama said last Friday. "That's exactly what I'm doing, is asking some very tough questions." Obama telephoned Senator John McCain, his Republican opponent from last year's election campaign, on Saturday to get his advice on Afghanistan. McCain supports sending more troops. "I think he has a very difficult decision," McCain told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "The base of his party, Americans are weary, understandably they're weary. And it's a very difficult decision for him. But I believe he'll make the right...

FLORENCE—Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Friday the Afghan government has failed to provide services for its citizens, allowing a Taliban resurgence and a need for more U.S. troops. Graham, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said more forces to keep the Taliban from taking over part of the country. “I will support the recommedation to send more troops,“ Graham said this morning during a town hall meeting of about 150 people at Francis Marion University. “I will support President Obama if he decides to commit troops. I do not want to make this a partisan issue like they (Democrats)...

US military and intelligence officials are concerned that a proposed alternative plan to ramp up cross-border attacks in Pakistan and rapidly build the Afghan security forces in lieu of a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy may take hold and lead to a catastrophic failure in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This alternative strategy, which was proposed by Vice President Joe Biden and reported in The New York Times, calls for reducing the US military mission in Afghanistan and ramping up airstrikes and covert raids against the al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas. "Rather than trying to protect the Afghan population from the Taliban, American...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee responded Sunday to recent criticism from former White House hopeful Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the committee. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, has lately suggested that the proper course for the United States to pursue in Afghanistan is to beef up the country’s own army and police forces before planning on sending in any additional American troops.

A middle path of muddling through is the real recipe for quagmire and loss of public support. BY LINDSEY GRAHAM, JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, & JOHN MCCAIN Growing numbers of Americans are starting to doubt whether we should have troops in Afghanistan and whether the war there is even winnable. We are confident that not only is it winnable, but that we have no choice. We must prevail in Afghanistan. We went to war there because the 9/11 attacks were a direct consequence of the safe haven given to al Qaeda in that country under the Taliban. We remain at war...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. military can pull most of its troops from Afghanistan in the next year as "victory" is not a realistic outcome, a report by the Cato Institute says. Malou Innocent and Ted Galen Carpenter in an authoritative report on the conflict in Afghanistan note that "a definitive, conventional 'victory' is not a realistic option." Washington said its strategy in Afghanistan is focused in part on denying al-Qaida and other militants the opportunity to establish a safe haven in the embattled nation. The authors, however, opine that denying a sanctuary to terrorists does not require...

CHARLESTON (AP) – Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham said Monday that President Barack Obama should act quickly to send additional troops to Afghanistan for the war against the Taliban. McCain, of Arizona, told reporters after a town hall meeting on health care at the military college The Citadel that the president knows what's needed and he should make the decision immediately. "Then we'll work with him to sell it to the American people who are understandably weary of the conflict," McCain said.

Facing fire from his own party over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, President Obama is getting cover from an unlikely source: Republicans. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia are among a growing faction of congressional Republicans speaking up for the Democratic president as he faces questions of whether to escalate the U.S. troop presence in an increasingly bloody conflict. Mr. Cantor, who has helped lead the fight in the House GOP caucus against much of Mr. Obama's domestic agenda, voiced support Friday for Mr. Obama's willingness to carry the fight to the Taliban...

PHOENIX -- Sen. John McCain will hold a central Valley town hall Wednesday evening to discuss proposed health care reforms with Arizonans. McCain held a town hall Tuesday in Sun City, where most of the 1,400-plus attendees were retirees concerned about changes in Medicare and their insurance coverage. Wednesday's meeting may shape up to be a bit different because when McCain arrives, he will be greeted by anti-war protesters. Protest group End the War said it will be waiting outside the town hall with signs calling for the U.S.'s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Group spokesman Mitch Rubin said that McCain has...

KABUL (AP) — Sen. John McCain called Tuesday for more American troops in Afghanistan, saying that doubling the number of Marines in one southern region could lead to "significantly more success." The former Republican presidential candidate, along with other members of a visiting congressional delegation, also said that Afghanistan's elections this week were a milestone event, but that the U.S. was not backing one candidate over another. The group's two-day visit included meeting with Marines in southern Helmand province, where U.S. and Afghan forces are staging a major offensive aimed at clearing out Taliban militants ahead of Thursday's vote.

U.S. immigration officials are holding a Pakistani journalist for Voice of America's Deewa Radio who was detained at the airport as he arrived in Washington to contriubte to programing at VOA headquarters. The journalist, whose home was destroyed by the Taliban last month, was taken into custody on Sunday.

US for smaller India role in Kabul-Pakistan pressure to prune consulate footprint in Afghanistan JAYANTH JACOB New Delhi, May 26: The US administration is nudging India to scale down its presence in Afghanistan — including pruning or closing down its consulates — in line with Islamabad’s demands, sources said. This stand goes against US policy of the past eight years, when Washington wanted India to send troops to Afghanistan. The US is now hunting new allies to “stabilise” Pakistan and Afghanistan, such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran that have leverage with Islamabad, as President Obama’s Afpak policy takes off....

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S clashes with the liberal base of his party are the kind of sporting event that Washington loves. But what Mr. Obama is confronting is less his party and more a stubborn reality that many in his party are unwilling to accept: There are forces in the world that continue to wage war against the United States and its allies, whether or not the United States wants to acknowledge that war. Mr. Obama's recent decisions on paying for Afghanistan, reviving military tribunals and withholding photos of detainee abuse, among others, all reflect this reality. Although we disagreed with his...

Back in 2007, commentators were sounding the alarm that Pakistan was approaching a precipice. A lot has changed in two years. Pakistan's problems then -- protesters clogging the streets of Islamabad demanding President Musharraf's resignation, and sporadic Taliban raids on coalition forces in Afghanistan -- were but a glimpse of the danger ahead. No one could have imagined the speed and intensity with which the Taliban and their allies have since spread east from their sanctuary in the Hindu Kush mountains to threaten an invasion of the Pakistani capital. Pakistan's deepening disorder coincides with the release of the Obama administration's...

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has confirmed reports that Pakistan is increasing its nuclear weapons programme. The confirmation came during a Senate Armed Services committee hearing on Thursday when Democrat senator Jim Webb, an expert on defence issues, raised fears that Pakistan is adding to the nuclear weapons it traditionally has pointed toward India, and questioned whether US aid could be funding it. Noting reports that Pakistan "may be actually adding on their weapon systems and warheads" Webb asked: "Do you have any evidence of that?" "Yes," Mullen answered. The US has urged...

Every British officer I talk with asks what in the world happened with General McKiernan, and why was his relief performed so publicly. I do not know. And I do not personally know General McKiernan. I do know that these ears have never heard someone speak a foul word about him, and I talk with lots of interesting people. If he, McKiernan, was a bad general I would have heard about it. However, General McKiernan did make some statements about additional troops to Afghanistan, and when he made those statements I remember thinking, “He’s going to get fired.” And so...

It seems harsh to suggest the Pentagon top brass don't know what they're doing. But those who care to read the transcript of the press conference at which the sacking of the top American general in Afghanistan was announced may find that conclusion hard to resist. "In some ways we're learning as we go here," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs. It was not a reassuring admission. The public defenestration of General David McKiernan, a distinguished career officer who took command in Kabul less than one year ago, was brutal in that cold, callous way peculiar to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The parents of slain Army Ranger and NFL star Pat Tillman voiced concerns Tuesday that the general who played a role in mischaracterizing his death could be put in charge of military operations in Afghanistan. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, Pat Tillman Sr. accused Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal of covering up the circumstances of the 2004 slaying. "I do believe that guy participated in a falsified homicide investigation," Pat Tillman Sr. said.