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It’s been three months since General Stanley McChrystal informed the Obama administration of the resources he needs to successfully prosecute the war.  The controversy over the elections in Afghanistan have been resolved for a week now, which supposedly kept Barack Obama from making a decision on whether to give McChrystal more troops and the number that will be sent.  This morning, McClatchy reports on an apparent trial balloon coming from the White House that Obama will split the difference between McChrystal’s medium- and high-risk options for troop support of a counterinsurgency strategy — but still won’t make a decision until...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is wrapping up deliberations on war strategy in Afghanistan and is considering final Pentagon options that include sending about 30,000 more troops, officials said on Saturday. A deployment of that size would be less than the 40,000-troop increase recommended by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, but more than many of Obama's Democratic allies may support. Record combat deaths have eroded U.S. public support for the war, and a decision to expand troop levels could become a political liability for the president ahead of congressional elections next...

In the protracted Washington debate over the war in Afghanistan, the most concise analysis so far has come from America’s top soldier: “If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance (there), then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference.”Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking two days after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner, by default, in August elections so massively rigged that a U.N.-backed electoral complaints committee threw out about a million Karzai votes. That forced a run-off from which his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah...

The U.S. Marine Corps today released video of its V-22 Ospreys arriving in Afghanistan. Ten MV-22s flew from the USS Bataan and are now operating in southern Afghanistan. The video is of MV-22Bs with the Marine Medium tiltrotor Squadron 263, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit taking off in three waves from the flight deck of the Bataan. And here is video of the arrival and flight of the first Osprey to be use in Afghanistan.

War On Terror: Sen. John Kerry, who was so wrong about Iraq, now says our commander in Afghanistan is "reaching too far, too fast" and that a "good enough" policy should suffice. It won't. Offering his advice on how to micromanage the war against the Taliban, Kerry said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, President Obama's hand-picked general to fight what he called a "war of necessity," is wrong in saying he needs 40,000 more troops to fight and win it. Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Kerry advocated a "good enough" policy designed not to achieve victory in al-Qaida's...

BBC LATEST: Headline Only US President Obama Says He Will Not Rush "Solemn Decision" To Commit Troops To Afghanistan

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...

Click to watch on You TubeWASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2009 -- Embedded above is a b-roll video of the ATV MRAP in Afghanistan. Scenes include the vehicle driving through the base and interviews. (Courtesy Video, American Forces Network Afghanistan. Length: 00:01:38.)

'Legendary' Soldier Who Defused 64 Taliban Bombs Is Blown Up On His Last Day On The Front Line By IAN DRURY 03rd November 2009 An army bomb disposal expert who saved countless lives in Afghanistan was killed on his final mission in the warzone. Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, died instantly when a roadside bomb he was trying to disarm blew up. The Improvised Explosive Devices are the favoured weapon of the Taliban and since June Sergeant Schmid had successfully dealt with 64 of them. Legendary figure: Olaf Schmid was renowned for his expertise in disarming explosive devices. Colleagues described...

If media leaks are to be believed, President Obama will attempt to chart a middle way in Afghanistan, sending more soldiers but not as many as General Stanley McChrystal would like. The New York Times describes the emerging strategy as “McChrystal for the city, Biden for the country,” a blend of the diametrically opposed approaches advocated by the general (who favors a counterinsurgency strategy) and the vice president (who wants to do counterterrorism operations only). The Times writes that "the administration is looking at protecting Kabul, Kandahar, Maza-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Herat, Jalalabad and a few other village clusters, officials said." In...

President Obama has run out of "excuses" for delaying a decision on whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, House Minority Leader John Boehner said Monday after Afghan President Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of his nation's presidential election by default. Obama administration officials had suggested that a decision on American troop levels should be withheld until Afghanistan's runoff election was over. But now that Karzai's challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, has dropped out of the race and handed the election over to Karzai for another five-year term, lawmakers are urging the U.S. president to finalize his overhaul of America's...

As Baker's flag-draped casket was lowered from a small charter jet into the hands of six fellow Marines, his family and friends stood arm-in-arm, weeping on the tarmac at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Stillness and silence dominated the scene. The sound of passenger planes taking off and landing was drowned out by the weight of the scene unfolding at ground level. That silence was broken only when a police bagpiper began playing "When the Saints Go Marching In." Baker's casket then was loaded into a waiting hearse, and scores of policemen and firefighters — from no fewer than 25 area...

Yesterday, a squad of Navy SEALs engaged in combat operations in Afghanstan had several men badly wounded by RPG explosions. Freeper "Wardaddy" is related to one of them. Navy SEAL Bryan Stuart is Wardaddy's close cousin's son. He has been medevaced to Germany for surgery. Other details are sketchy as of yet.

President Obama is within weeks of making a decision on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, Chief White House Advisor David Axelrod said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

In his slick PR fashion, Obama's answer to the charge that he is "dithering on Afghanistan" is to feed the hungry media a military photo op. Yes, Obama can be seen in the pic saluting a US Soldier's flag-draped casket coming back from Afghanistan. Now we know why the White House insisted that our battlefield casualties should not be shielded from the media. You need tame media access for photo ops. So Obama is finally showing some respect. For the Hollyweirdos, appearance is reality. We now have a Commander in Chief who knows how to salute. He must therefore be...

Obama Requests More Options for Troop Levels The Washington post reported two officials as saying late Friday Obama asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama grappled Friday with the costs and consequences of a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, but reached no decisions about troop levels, a top aide said, as military advisers briefed the president on an armed services already taxed by challenges around the globe. The president reviewed his options with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and made clear he wants at least one more meeting with...

New Delhi - Former US president George W Bush on Saturday warned that the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan must be won else the world would face "serious threats."Addressing a conference in New Delhi, Bush said defeating the radical Islamic groups was necessary to stop a return to "brutal tyranny" in that country. "The mission in Afghanistan has been long and difficult and costly but I believe it is necessary for stability and peace," he told the conference organized by the Hindustan Times. "If the Taliban, al-Qaeda and their extremist allies were allowed to take over Afghanistan...

At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20 direct hours" in meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.Gibbs says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time" thinking about the war in Afghanistan.Gibbs was asked about a statement by the mother of one of the fallen soldiers, Sgt. Dale Griffin, killed in Afghanistan this week whom Obama met with at Dover early Thursday morning....

Obama Considering Scaled-Down Afghan War ‘McChrystal Light’ plan would send fewer troops than sought by commander Oct . 29, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is considering sending large numbers of additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan next year but fewer than preferred by his war commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. officials said. Such a narrowed military mission would escalate American forces to accomplish the commander's broadest goals, protecting Afghan cities and key infrastructure. But the option's scaled-down troop numbers likely would cut back on McChrystal's most ambitious objectives, amounting to what one official described as "McChrystal Light." Under the pared-down...

The Washington Post reports tonight that Barack Obama and top administration officials have concluded the Taliban cannot be beaten and that they are looking for ways to cede parts of Afghanistan to the Taliban without those regions becoming safe havens for al Qaeda.The article also reports that Obama may wait until after he returns from a 10 day visit to Asia that begins November 11 to decide his policy for Afghanistan.The Post article is largely about Obama's request made this week, two months after he received Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands more troops to fulfill Obama's counter-insuregency...

War On Terror: Sen. John Kerry, who was so wrong about Iraq, now says our commander in Afghanistan is "reaching too far, too fast" and that a "good enough" policy should suffice. It won't. Offering his advice on how to micromanage the war against the Taliban, Kerry said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, President Obama's hand-picked general to fight what he called a "war of necessity," is wrong in saying he needs 40,000 more troops to fight and win it. Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Kerry advocated a "good enough" policy designed not to achieve victory in al-Qaida's...

Bret Baier just said on Special Report that senior officials are telling various news outlets that Obama is going to ask for 20,000 more troops for Afghanistan. Nothing up on the website yet or anywhere else- just reported. Expect to hear the offical announcement within the week.

<p>Years ago, I bought an old Time magazine - the issue with the 1965 Man of the Year on the cover. I kept it around to remind me both of the fallibility of men, and, even, of Time magazine. It was of Gen. William Westmoreland. He was the Vietnam era's Gen. Stanley McChrystal.</p>

There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn't led to anything close to victory. Now, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for tens of thousands more troops to stem the escalating insurgency, raising the question of how many more troops it would take to succeed. The commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the extra forces are needed to implement a new strategy that focuses on protecting civilians and depriving the militants of popular...

Eight Americans died in combat in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, bringing October’s total to 53 and making it the deadliest month for Americans in the eight-year war. September and October were both deadlier months overall for NATO troops. The troops, along with an Afghan civilian accompanying them, were killed in several attacks involving “multiple, complex” improvised bombs, according to a statement from the NATO-led coalition. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said that Taliban in Zabul Province were responsible. He said they had blown up two armored vehicles carrying the troops. He also said that the Taliban had engaged in...

-- Roadside bombs today killed eight U.S. service members in Afghanistan, the military said.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the...

Note: The following text is a quote: DEA Mourns the Loss of Three DEA Special Agents in Afghanistan OCT 26 - WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) today confirmed that three Special Agents were killed during a counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan. “Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration mourns the tragic loss of three DEA Special Agents and seven U.S. service members killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan,” said Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “The incident occurred during the early morning hours of October 26, when these heroic individuals were returning from a completed, joint counternarcotics mission.”...

The image of young women in a hot , dusty combat zone toting automatic weapons is still startling to some. But right now there are 10,000 women serving in Iraq, more than 4,000 in Aghanistan. They have been fighting and dying next to their male comrades since the wars began. "I can't help but think most Americans think women aren't in combat," says Specialist Ashley Pullen who was awarded a Bronze Star for valor in 2005 for her heroic action in Iraq where she served with a military police unit. "We're here and we're right up with the guys." Technically...

U.S.: 4 Troops Die in Afghan Chopper Collision Hostile fire ruled out in Monday morning crash; two soldiers injured KABUL - The U.S. military said four American troops were killed and two injured in a collision of two helicopters in southern Afghanistan Monday morning. Hostile fire was ruled out in the crash. No further details were released. In an unrelated incident, another helicopter went down Monday during a joint, international security force operation against insurgents in western Afghanistan in which a dozen militants were killed.

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) - Fourteen Americans died in a pair of helicopter crashes in Afghanistan on Monday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. In the deadlier crash, a helicopter went down in the country's west. "Seven U.S. service members and three U.S. civilians were killed," an ISAF statement said. "Those injured include 14 Afghan service members, 11 U.S. service members and one U.S. civilian."

KABUL, Afghanistan - International Security Assistance Forces have responded to false accusations that a U.S. service member burned the Quran last week in the Maydan Shar district, Wardak province. In response to accusations that international forces dishonored the Quran after striking an improvised explosive device in Wardak province Oct. 14, ISAF troops conducted an investigation in conjunction with local Afghan National Army commanders and found the claim groundless. A spokesman for the Governor of Wardak, Mohammad Alim Fadayee, and Mullah Qari of the ANA unit in Wardak, publicly stated that ISAF troops were not responsible for the desecration and found...

ZABUL PROVINCE, Afghanistan — More than six years after sending the first Stryker armored vehicles into desert combat, the Army has decided that it’s probably a good idea to start painting them tan so they will blend in with the environments in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Safeguarding soldiers is the primary purpose for this color change,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Peter Butts, commander of the 1st Battalion, 401st Army Field Support Brigade, who announced the change in a news release from Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, earlier this month. “Strykers will blend into surroundings better. They’re less likely to stand out...

Does the Obama administration understand why we invaded Afghanistan? Does the Obama understand that we have no choice but to remain in Afghanistan until we can establish a stable government that will not allow the country to be a base for terrorism? The Christian Science Monitor has reported that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN it would be "irresponsible" to send more troops into Afghanistan before the political situation is resolved. Actually it would be irresponsible to wait for the political situation to be resolved before committing sufficient troops to stabilize the situation. We invaded Afghanistan in...

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...

<p>This photograph from Afghanistan recently made rounds on the Facebook and e-mail accounts of folks whose work centers on military women's issues.</p> <p>The image itself didn't surprise them. It showed four Marines resting at a makeshift patrol base, their guns and helmets propped up against the familiar dusty backdrop of an Asian battlefield. Two of the Marines seemed to be snacking. One picked at her foot.</p>

A mile from South Station, an outpost of US marines in Helmand province, the tribal chief was openly hostile. “The Americans threaten our economy and take our land for bases. They promise much and deliver nothing,” he said. “People here regard the American troops as occupiers,” said Haji Khan, a leader of the Baluch tribe, who rules like a medieval baron. “Young people are turning against them and in time will fight them.” Inside South Station, soldiers are proud of the progress...Until they arrived, this remote part of Helmand had not had a government presence for years. But many are...

Members of a Tucson Army National Guard unit are shipping out late next week for a year-long tour in Afghanistan. More than 80 members of the 158th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion will help provide food, water, ammunition, fuel and other necessities to U.S. and allied troops in the war zone. The citizen soldiers will spend several weeks training at Fort Hood in Texas before heading overseas. They are due to return to Tucson in October 2010, said Maj. Paul Aguirre, a spokesman at Arizona Army National Guard headquarters in Phoenix. About half of the unit's 84 soldiers are from Southern...

Here is video of Robert Gibbs on "Morning Joe" talking about Afghanistan. Gibbs was asked when he thinks Obama will make a decision on Afghanistan. He answered "I think in the coming weeks, I think in the next several weeks the President will make a decision and announce that decision and talk to the American people." Gibbs was also asked "does the President still consider Afghanistan a war of necessity?" He answered "absolutely." (Video)

In an interview with CNN's John King on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said President Obama is now asking tough questions about Afghanistan "that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side." It was a not so subtle dig at Mr. Obama's predecessor and was meant to distract from the White House's mishandling of the war. The Bush administration did in fact conduct a top-to-bottom strategic review of Afghanistan in 2008. That review was provoked by two developments...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday night accused the White House of dithering over the strategy for the war in Afghanistan and urged President Barack Obama to "do what it takes to win." "Make no mistake. Signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," Cheney said while accepting an award from a conservative national security group, the Center for Security Policy. Cheney disputed remarks by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel that the Bush administration had been adrift concerning the war in Afghanistan and that the Obama administration had to...

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kerry says President Barack Obama should wait until after the new Afghanistan presidential election is conducted before making his decision for the war. The Massachusetts Democrat told it wouldn't make "common sense" for Obama to determine whether more U.S. troops should go to Afghanistan without knowing the election results. He said, "You really want to know that this has worked and you want to know what's coming out of it."

Australia on Wednesday flagged moves to bring military operations in Afghanistan to a quick end, despite US and NATO calls for more troops to shore up the campaign against a resurgent Taliban militia. Defence Minister John Faulkner said Australia was studying how to complete the mission in the "shortest time-frame possible". Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan with no date set for their withdrawal. "I've certainly asked the Australian Defence Force for any recommendations they have about ensuring we do complete that important role and responsibility both effectively, but in the shortest time-frame possible," he told ABC radio. Faulkner...

Republicans are warning President Barack Obama that he will risk losing GOP votes for any troop surge in Afghanistan if he requests fewer than the 40,000 additional troops sought by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The GOP threat is significant, because with many Democrats opposed to an infusion of troops, Obama may need Republican votes to pass a war supplemental bill. “It’s dangerous to water down what seems to be necessary from a military point of view,” said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), a member of the Armed Services Committee. “A lot of us would say he’s making a political decision and not...

Only nine months ago, the Pentagon pronounced itself reassured by the early steps of a new commander in chief. President Obama was moving slowly on an American withdrawal from Iraq, had retained former President George W. Bush’s defense secretary and, in a gesture much noticed, had executed his first military salute with crisp precision. But now, after nearly a month of deliberations by Mr. Obama over whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan, frustrations and anxiety are on the rise within the military. A number of active duty and retired senior officers say there is concern that the president...

10/19/2009 - CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (AFNS) -- A Charleston Air Force Base technical sergeant was honored Oct. 15 for his heroism and bravery while suffering from injuries sustained during a patrol on his seventh deployment to the Middle East. Tech. Sgt. Michael Williams, an explosives ordnance disposal technician with the 437th Civil Engineer Squadron, was on patrol Aug. 2 near the Mushan Village in Afghanistan after one of the locals said they knew where an improvised explosive device was located. With one step, his foot landed on a different land mine with an IED on it. "(Following the...

Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, bluntly accused President Barack Obama of deliberately "destabilizing" the government of Afghanistan, in an interview this morning on the Fox News Channel.Rove said Obama sent Democratic party henchman James Carville to help the campaign of one of President Hamid Karzai's opponents for the August presidential election.An article by NPR last summer says Carville's strategy was to drag the election in to a runoff to aid his candidate, former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani.Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel made remarks this weekend that questioned whether the Obama administration would send...

The White House is now signaling that no troop decision will be made until after the Afghanistan election is resolved. It would be irresponsible to send more troops to Afghanistan until a legitimate and credible government is in place, the White House and top Democrats said Sunday. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said the most critical issue facing U.S. strategy is whether the Afghans can be an effective partner in destroying Al Qaeda safe havens and bringing stability to the region. "It would be reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop levels if in fact you haven't...

Here is video of Texas Sen. John Cornyn today on Face the Nation where he said President Obama's "deliberation" in making a decision on whether to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal the troops he needs to win in Afghanistan is now looking like "indecisiveness," and is "emboldening our enemies." He also said it causes our allies to "question our resolve." “Deliberation is a good thing when it comes to fighting wars, but we’ve been at war for eight years in Afghanistan following 9/11… At some point deliberation begins to look more like indecisiveness, which then becomes a way of emboldening our...

Conflicting reports emerge a day after thousands of soldiers launched an offensive against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in South Waziristan. 'We have not been weakened,' a Taliban spokesman says.Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan - On the second day of Pakistan's major offensive to uproot the Taliban from tribal areas along the Afghan border, the military claimed to have killed 60 militants, while the Taliban countered that it had fended off the troops' initial surge. Wildly differing interpretations of progress being made on both sides are expected to continue as the military pushes forward with its most crucial ground operation so...