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	<title>SwamplandCategory: Afghanistan &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>SwamplandCategory: Afghanistan &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Hamid Karzai Welcomes Chuck Hagel to Kabul—His Own Way</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/11/hamid-karzai-welcomes-chuck-hagel-to-kabul-his-own-way/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/11/hamid-karzai-welcomes-chuck-hagel-to-kabul-his-own-way/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:45:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mujib Mashal/ Kabul</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=90177</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If Chuck Hagel had hoped to have a smooth first visit to Afghanistan as the newly minted U.S. Secretary of Defense, he should have known better. Hamid Karzai has a long memory—and the Afghan president is known to hold grudges. This is what Karzai would have remembered Hagel saying to him ten years ago. “If you leave an impression that everything is going well…the next time you come back, your credibility will be in question,” then Senator Hagel told the visiting Afghan leader at the end of an embarrassing grilling at the Senate Foreign Relations committee in 2003. Sitting heads of state usually don’t testify to the U.S. Senate—the testimony occurred because of a mistake by Karzai’s Ambassador to Washington. President George W. Bush issued a public apology to Karzai over his treatment. Karzai then fired the ambassador. Ten years later, it is a crucial time of transition for Afghanistan, with Karzai preoccupied with his legacy. Who should show up but Hagel. And the Afghan president has apparently returned the favor he received in Washington a decade ago. Ahead of their talks, Karzai went on another of his now usual anti-U.S. tirades. He accused the Americans of double-speak, bordering on collusion with the Taliban. “The Taliban talk to the United States every day, but they detonate bombs in Kabul and Khost to show their force to the Americans,” Karzai said. “No, these bombs that went off in Khost and Kabul yesterday, this wasn’t showing force to America…in reality, it was a service to the foreigners so their presence remains in Afghanistan.” To read the rest of the article from TIME World, click here.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=90177&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/int-hagel-karzai-0311.jpeg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Karzai and Hagel</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>How to Dismantle an Occupation: U.S. Soldiers Tear Down Afghan Bases, Take Home Memories</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/11/how-to-dismantle-an-occupation-u-s-soldiers-tear-down-afghan-bases-take-home-memories/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/11/how-to-dismantle-an-occupation-u-s-soldiers-tear-down-afghan-bases-take-home-memories/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:26:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nate Rawlings/ FOB Altimur</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=90121</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The journey home begins as the first stabs of sunlight crest the mountains east of Forward Operating Base Altimur, a hunk of land on the slope above a wide desert valley, deep in Logar Province. A sergeant from Bull Battery, one of the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s field artillery units, rouses Afghan drivers from their slumber in the cabs of their flat bed trucks. They park beside the base each night and sleep in the trucks to keep them running. They often fill their radiators with water to keep their engines from freezing. Throughout the day, the troops and a few civilian contractors load truck after truck with T-Walls–eight-foot tall slabs of thick concrete that surrounded most buildings when the base was full. A driver can fit about four walls on the flat bed of his truck, or two twenty-foot metal containers, or four heaping pallets of ten-foot long lumber. Load by load, the 300-man base grows smaller, and soon it will be about a quarter of its original size. Closing smaller bases is the first step in what the military calls retrograde–the arduous and complex process of bringing home all of the U.S.’s equipment in Afghanistan. The paratroopers from Bull Battery tackle the Altimur base closure with alacrity; they’ve done this mission before, and although this time the task is much larger, it many ways it’s an easier assignment. “Here it’s been unique for us because, to put it simply, we don’t have a lot of people shooting at us,” says Lieut. Colonel Kelly Webster, commander of 4-319 Airborne Field Artillery Battalion, Bull Battery’s parent unit. To read the rest of the story on TIME World, click here. (PHOTOS: America’s Long Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Photographs by Yuri Kozyrev)<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=90121&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/11/how-to-dismantle-an-occupation-u-s-soldiers-tear-down-afghan-bases-take-home-memories/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/wpkoy201301270009.jpeg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Afghanistan</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>America’s Long Withdrawal from Afghanistan</title>
		<link>http://lightbox.time.com/2013/03/07/americas-long-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-photographs-by-yuri-kozyrev/#2</link>
		<comments>http://lightbox.time.com/2013/03/07/americas-long-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-photographs-by-yuri-kozyrev/#2#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:08:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nate Rawlings</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=89948</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=89948&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://lightbox.time.com/2013/03/07/americas-long-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-photographs-by-yuri-kozyrev/#2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/koy5043.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Afghanistan</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>The U.S. Dismantles in Afghanistan: Lessons from a Logistical Nightmare</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/02/05/retrograde-lessons-learning-from-afghanistans-logistical-nightmare/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/02/05/retrograde-lessons-learning-from-afghanistans-logistical-nightmare/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:14:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nate Rawlings</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=87163</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=87163&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://world.time.com/2013/02/05/retrograde-lessons-learning-from-afghanistans-logistical-nightmare/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/koy2013020400033.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Afghanistan</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/509f545dfcf07266c1eb847a42170416?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>Afghan Troops Numbers: How Low Can the U.S. Go?</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2013/01/09/afghan-troops-numbers-how-low-can-the-u-s-go/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2013/01/09/afghan-troops-numbers-how-low-can-the-u-s-go/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:26:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84517</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84517&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2013/01/09/afghan-troops-numbers-how-low-can-the-u-s-go/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/sl_obama0912_0615_19.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Platoon Chaos C</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/509f545dfcf07266c1eb847a42170416?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>The IED That Turned A Senior Republican Against The War</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/09/25/walking-through-a-minefield-on-a-daily-basis/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/09/25/walking-through-a-minefield-on-a-daily-basis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:08:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78941</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last Thursday the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee held a hearing on the Pentagon’s efforts to defeat improvised explosive devices, the homemade bombs that are now the leading cause of death among U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Lieut. General Michael Barbero, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, told the subcommittee that the number of “IED events” had jumped 42% — from 9,300 to 16,000 – between 2009 and 2011. That’s 44 IEDs detected or detonated every day. “We’re on track, for 2012, to meet or exceed the historic number of IED events we saw last year,” the JIEDDO chief added. “As a matter of fact, this past July — July 2012 — we had the highest number of monthly IED events we’ve recorded.” But nothing that was said was particularly noteworthy. Rather, it was what was read that got attention.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78941&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">calabresim</media:title>
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		<title>At NATO Summit, Obama Seeks Clean Break from Afghanistan Conflict</title>
		<link>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/05/21/only-one-year-of-u-s-led-fighting-left/</link>
		<comments>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/05/21/only-one-year-of-u-s-led-fighting-left/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 14:33:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NATO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=71174</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[President Obama’s goal at the NATO summit this week is looking increasingly clear: wrap up U.S. troops’ combat role over the coming year, and get the allies to pay more money to enable the Afghan military to fill the gap. All signs are that NATO will agree to the first of those two goals Monday in Chicago.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=71174&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/05/21/only-one-year-of-u-s-led-fighting-left/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>War</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/war-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">mt53</media:title>
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		<title>On Unannounced Visit, Obama Outlines &#8216;New Chapter&#8217; for U.S. Role in Afghanistan</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/05/01/obama-makes-surprise-visit-to-afghanistan/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/05/01/obama-makes-surprise-visit-to-afghanistan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 19:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=70244</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[President Barack Obama on Tuesday made his third unannounced trip to Afghanistan – the first in more than two years &#8212; this time to sign a strategic pact that will guide U.S. relations with the country for the next decade. The pact, negotiated over the past 20 months, could be key to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan because it establishes guidelines for the relatively small force that will remain behind to continue training Afghan security forces. &#8220;Today, I signed a historic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries – a future in which Afghans are responsible for the security of their nation, and we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states; a future in which the war ends, and a new chapter begins,&#8221; Obama said in a nationally televised address from Bagram Air Force Base on Tuesday evening Washington time, around 4 a.m. in Kabul. &#8220;My fellow Americans, we have traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war. Yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon. The Iraq War is over. The number of our troops in harm’s way has been cut in half, and more will be coming home soon. We have a clear path to fulfill our mission in Afghanistan, while delivering justice to al Qaeda.&#8221; (PHOTOS: Fighting for Afghanistan’s Future) There are currently more than 90,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the U.S. is expected to draw down that number to 65,000 by the end of 2012 and to less than 20,000 by the end of 2014. Obama made no firm pledge on the number of soldiers who will remain over the next decade to further train Afghan security forces and hunt down al Qaeda and White House officials said that decision won&#8217;t be made until the next draw down is complete at the end of this summer. “The [continued U.S.] presence will be hugely important—not only for specific help<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=70244&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/sl_obamaafghan_0501_blog.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">sl_obamaafghan_0501_blog</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>The Afghanistan Attacks</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/04/17/the-afghanistan-attacks/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/04/17/the-afghanistan-attacks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:38:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[In the Arena]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=69674</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I think Max Boot is on the right track, dismissing the coordinated Haqqani Taliban attacks in Kabul and elsewhere as no big deal&#8211;and while I&#8217;m sure Max sees this as a reason for staying the course in Afghanistan, I see it as the exact opposite: another good argument for speeding our withdrawal. Why? Three reasons: 1. The excellent performance of the Afghan military, which took the lead in responding to and repelling the attacks. If the Afghan National Army (ANA) can defend Kabul, our job is pretty much done. If the predominantly non-Pashtun ANA and the Taliban want to continue their intermittent, several centuries old civil war, that&#8217;s their business. Furthermore, I suspect that the ANA, not the Karzai government, will provide the leadership for the country in the near future. We should continue to fund and train the ANA, and get our combat troops the hell out of there (except for special operations forces, if the Afghans allow us to continue to base them there). 2. The Haqqani managed to pull off coordinated guerrilla attacks. That&#8217;s not such a big deal. They certainly didn&#8217;t bring the troop strength to occupy anything more than a few buildings. And how often can they pull off this sort of thing? The Tet Offensive in Vietnam was far more extensive than this&#8211;they were like the D-Day landings compared to this Bay of Pigs, a massive country-wide assault&#8211;and yet they left the Viet Cong spent, and near-defeated, according to recent military histories. It took years for them to regain the offensive. I don&#8217;t see the Haqqani Taliban as much more than a violent, despicable, lethal nuisance. 3. Pakistan&#8217;s role in all this is outrageous. The Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) funds and shepherds the Haqqanis. We continue to provide military support for the Pakistanis, and they continue to pass it along to guerrillas killing young American troops.  I know that there have been efforts to patch up the breach with the Pakistanis&#8211;they were really, really angry that we took out Osama bin Laden without telling<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=69674&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/04/17/the-afghanistan-attacks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<title>Afghanistan Opinion Reaching Peak Anti-Iraq Levels</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/27/afghanistan-opinion-reaching-anti-iraq-levels/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/27/afghanistan-opinion-reaching-anti-iraq-levels/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:28:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=68286</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just how unpopular has the war in Afghanistan become? In the latest CBS News-New York Times poll, 69% of respondents said they didn&#8217;t think the U.S. should be at war there. Just 29% say we&#8217;re &#8220;doing the right thing&#8221; by continuing the conflict. Incredibly, that opposition is even greater than the levels seen in some of the darkest days of the Iraq war, when the casualties, carnage and damage to American interests was far worse. An August 2006 CNN poll, for instance, showed 61% of Americans opposing that war at a moment when the country appeared to be sliding into an unstoppable civil war, with dozens of Americans dying there each month. How can that be? Among other things, Iraq became a kind of partisan issue, one that seemed to rally hard-core conservatives behind George W. Bush. Perhaps related, Bush spent far more time making the case for that war than Obama does. White House aides bridle at the idea that Obama doesn&#8217;t talk enough about the war, noting the letters he sends to the relatives of fallen troops. But it&#8217;s true that Obama has said precious little about Afghanistan since he appeared in prime time to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. Propping up public opinion probably requires making a stronger case. The question is how strongly Obama himself believes that case; it&#8217;s far from clear.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=68286&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/sl_afghanpoll_0327_blog.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Republicans Stay to Obama&#8217;s Right on Afghanistan</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/15/republicans-stay-to-obamas-right-on-afghanistan/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/15/republicans-stay-to-obamas-right-on-afghanistan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2012]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mitt romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rick santorum]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=67694</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The massacre of sixteen Afghan civilians near Kandahar has thrust Afghanistan back into the political debate. (Yes, there is a real war going on, and it&#8217;s not the one for bound delegates in Tampa.) For a moment early this week it looked like we might be near a tipping point, at which Republicans could lunge to Obama&#8217;s left on the war. Newt Gingrich proclaimed Afghanistan &#8220;not doable,&#8221; while Rick Santorum said we should either double down with more resources or &#8220;probably get out sooner&#8221; than planned. Mitt Romney, true to form, played it more cagily, cautioning against a rush to change policy based on a single demented act. But even Romney said that &#8220;we should on a regular basis reassess what&#8217;s happening in Afghanistan,&#8221; which was not exactly a cry for death or glory. Yes, the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll shows that Republicans are evenly divided about whether the Afghanistan war is worth fighting, the first time that poll has failed to find majority support for the war among GOPers. But it&#8217;s not clear we&#8217;re about to see the party&#8217;s leaders start calling for a rapid exit from the Hindu Kush. For starters, Josh Rogin details the efforts of Republican hawks on the Hill, like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, to beat back talk of an accelerated withdrawal. Nor do either of the two presidential candidates who still matter, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, seem to be shifting significantly. Last night Santorum told Fox&#8217;s Greta van Susteren that Obama&#8217;s plan is &#8220;doomed to failure,&#8221; but that he would follow a &#8220;completely different strategy in Afghanistan and would be successful in executing that plan.&#8221; He also bashed Obama for setting withdrawal timelines that could encourage the Taliban and makes our allies &#8220;hedge their bets.&#8221; Likewise, in CBS interview yesterday, Romney called Obama&#8217;s timelines a mistake. Opposing timelines runs against public opinion on the war. But it also puts Republicans in their preferred role of alignment with the Pentagon brass, which has a symbolic political power of its own. That&#8217;s probably<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=67694&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/15/republicans-stay-to-obamas-right-on-afghanistan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/sl_afghan2_0314_blog.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>&#8220;Green-on-Blue&#8221; Violence Could Alter U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan</title>
		<link>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/03/02/green-on-blue/</link>
		<comments>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/03/02/green-on-blue/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:24:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leon panetta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pentagon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[war]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=67032</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Pentagon officials won’t concede it, but privately defense officials say the spate of “green-on-blue” killings by Afghans of their purported U.S. allies over the past two weeks could lead to major changes in U.S. strategy. If they continue, the U.S. will face a brutal choice: pull out, or double down.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=67032&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">mt53</media:title>
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		<title>Afghan Reality</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/01/afghan-reality/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/01/afghan-reality/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:33:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[In the Arena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[war]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=66949</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two more Americans were killed today in Afghanistan&#8211;in Zhari district, just outside Kandahar, a place I know well, having embedded twice with U.S. units there. This has become business as usual in Afghanistan, especially since U.S. troops accidentally burned some Qurans a few weeks ago. It is, of course, infuriating. And it raises a larger question: why are we still hanging around there, now that Osama bin Laden is dead and Al Qaeda pretty much obliterated? Fareed Zakaria gets it right in this column today. We have two remaining national interests in Afghanistan. The first is the terrorist breeding ground across the Pakistani border. The second is a moral commitment to prevent the Taliban from retaking the entire country. I suspect that the latter is easier to handle than the former: As Zakaria notes, the Afghan National Army is, essentially, the old Northern Alliance on steroids. We are the steroids. And while I&#8217;m not sure that a continuing investment of $12 billion a year for the ANA is feasible, we can certainly stay involved on some level of funding and training&#8211;and it&#8217;s a pretty safe bet that the non-Pashtuns who make up 90% of the ANA will be more than happy to continue their centuries-long fight against the Pashtuns, and prevent the Taliban from retaking Kabul. (It would be nice if Pakistan stopped funding the Taliban, but that seems a remote possibility at the moment.) Aside from this military support, we should have as little as possible to do with the corrupt and incompetent Karzai government. (MORE: Crunch Time for Defense Authorization and Military Detention) The more difficult goal is to keep monitoring, and attacking, the terrorist training bases in the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands. It would be nice if we could keep a presence at Kandahar Air Field, and run drones and special operations from there. But that may no longer be possible in the long term, either. I&#8217;m not sure of the logistics, but this mission might be undertaken, in a more limited way, from our naval presence in the Indian<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=66949&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/01/afghan-reality/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<title>Are We at a &#8216;Tipping Point&#8217; in Afghanistan?</title>
		<link>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/02/28/tipping-point/</link>
		<comments>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/02/28/tipping-point/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pentagon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=66678</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So just how close to the tipping point – that’s the phase heard most over the past several days – is the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan? Not close, according to the Obama Administration. Remember, this was the “good war” – justifiable in 9/11′s wake, unlike the invasion of Iraq two years later. So Administration officials were peddling it that way on Monday, following a week of riots and the killing of four U.S. troops after American soldiers at Bagram apparently mistakenly tossed Korans into a trash fire.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=66678&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>War</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/war-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">mt53</media:title>
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		<title>Inside Obama&#8217;s World: The President talks to TIME About the Changing Nature of American Power</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/19/inside-obamas-world-the-president-talks-to-time-about-the-changing-nature-of-american-power/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/19/inside-obamas-world-the-president-talks-to-time-about-the-changing-nature-of-american-power/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Fareed Zakaria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diplomacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exclusives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mideast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2012]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=63865</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Fareed Zakaria: When we talked when you were campaigning for the presidency, I asked you which Administration&#8217;s foreign policy you admired. And you said that you looked at George H.W. Bush&#8217;s diplomacy, and I took that to mean the pragmatism, the sense of limits, good diplomacy, as you looked upon it favorably. Now that you are President, how has your thinking evolved? President Obama: It is true that I&#8217;ve been complimentary of George H.W. Bush&#8217;s foreign policy, and I continue to believe that he managed a very difficult period very effectively. Now that I&#8217;ve been in office for three years, I think that I&#8217;m always cautious about comparing what we&#8217;ve done to what others have done, just because each period is unique. Each set of challenges is unique. But what I can say is that I made a commitment to change the trajectory of American foreign policy in a way that would end the war in Iraq, refocus on defeating our primary enemy, al-Qaeda, strengthen our alliances and our leadership in multilateral fora and restore American leadership in the world. And I think we have accomplished those principal goals. We still have a lot of work to do, but if you look at the pivot from where we were in 2008 to where we are today, the Iraq war is over, we refocused attention on al-Qaeda, and they are badly wounded. They&#8217;re not eliminated, but the defeat not just of [Osama] bin Laden, but most of the top leadership, the tightening noose around their safe havens, the incapacity for them to finance themselves, they are much less capable than they were back in 2008. Our alliances with NATO, Japan, South Korea, our close military cooperation with countries like Israel have never been stronger. Our participation in multilateral organizations has been extremely effective. In the United Nations, not only do we have a voice, but we have been able to shape an agenda. And in the fastest-growing regions of the world in emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region, just to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=63865&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Interviews</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/miscellany/interviews/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/obama_fareed.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">TIME.com</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/obama-cover.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
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		<title>The Great Bain Diversion</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/13/the-great-bain-diversion/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/13/the-great-bain-diversion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:19:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campaigns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democratic Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diplomacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Newt Gingrich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Primaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republican Party]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=63500</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The great debate about whether Mitt Romney was a vulture capitalist or venture capitalist at Bain Capital is useful and interesting, but not for the reasons many people pretend it is. The country benefits from a frank discussion about the wages of capitalism and what limits, if any, we should place on free markets. But the specifics of what Bain did under Mitt Romney don&#8217;t tell us much about what kind of President he would be, or what sort of economy he would preside over. For openers, a President&#8217;s influence over the economy tends to be exaggerated. Private-sector dynamics, especially those in in Europe and Asia, probably matter more to the American work force right now than federal policy. And remember that government moves exceedingly slowly, making it an inefficient hand on the tiller. Romney&#8217;s inauguration wouldn&#8217;t come for another 12 months, after which it would take Congress a few more months to pass a new economic program. It would take months after that for those policies to take full effect. So it would be fully two years before a Romney program was actually impacting the U.S. economy. By then it&#8217;s entirely possible that our economic situation will look quite different, and that the recession remedies people talk about today will be obsolete. The important issue isn&#8217;t so much how Romney will &#8220;get us out of this recession.&#8221; It&#8217;s about the larger and long-term issues what he considers a fair distribution of taxes and wealth, and the size and role of government. That&#8217;s a great debate to have in the general election. But for the purposes of the Republican primary, it&#8217;s a red herring. Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum all more or less agree on those points: They all want dramatically lower taxes, especially for the wealthy, and a much smaller federal government. Calling Romney a vulture is a pure emotional play, and a disingenuous one. These are all reasons, by the way, why we ought to hear more from the candidates about foreign policy&#8211;especially from Romney, who<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=63500&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>The Ahmed Wali Karzai Assassination</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/13/the-ahmed-wali-karzai-assassination/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/13/the-ahmed-wali-karzai-assassination/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:31:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=52171</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ahmed Rashid, as usual, provides the best and most personal assessment of Ahmed Wali Karzai&#8217;s death.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=52171&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<title>A Killing in Kandahar: What Ahmed Wali Karzai&#8217;s Death Means for the U.S.</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/a-killing-in-kandahar-what-ahmed-wali-karzais-death-means-for-the-u-s/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/a-killing-in-kandahar-what-ahmed-wali-karzais-death-means-for-the-u-s/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:22:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=52098</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A huge power vacuum has opened in southern Afghanistan with the assassination Tuesday of Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President Hamid Karzai&#8217;s half brother and, fundamentally, the godfather of Kandahar. U.S. officials are debating whether he will be followed by a more benign tribal autocrat or someone alleged to be just as bad &#8212; and how much influence the Taliban will have over whoever fills his shoes. Quick answer: There will be blood. Read on at Battleland.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=52098&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/a-killing-in-kandahar-what-ahmed-wali-karzais-death-means-for-the-u-s/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">mt53</media:title>
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		<title>Afghan Assassination</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/afghan-assassination/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/afghan-assassination/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:58:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=52076</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is huge news, but I&#8217;m not sure what it means. Ahmed Wali Karzai was the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan. He was President Karzai&#8217;s half-brother. He was most likely a major drug lord; he was definitely on the payroll of the CIA. He was therefore an iconic figure: the embodiment of everything that has made Afghanistan a brain-frying befuddlement for the United States. The Taliban claimed credit for his murder, but I doubt they had anything to do with it. It was more likely a tribal hit, part of the ever-shifting roundelay of payoffs, blood revenge, broken alliances and power plays that has been the eternal history of Pashtun society. The big question now is what effect this has on the successful U.S. military operations in southern Afghanistan: who replaces Karzai? Does this set off a round of inter-tribal warfare that disrupts the community-building efforts undertaken by our troops? It may be the best thing that&#8217;s happened to Kandahar politics in years, or the worst.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=52076&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<title>Petraeus and Obama</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/24/petraeus-and-obama/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/24/petraeus-and-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:35:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Petraeus]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=50945</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mark Benjamin landed a good zing on General David Petraeus yesterday by flagging the 450-word cloud that resulted when the general was asked during Senate testimony whether he supports Obama&#8217;s troop-withdrawal decision. It was something of an artful dodge. But it also contained some important truth. The fact is that it&#8217;s perfectly natural for a president to disagree with his generals. The job of the military is to come up with a feasible plan that maximizes the odds of success. David Petraeus is tasked with hammering the Taliban and smiting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan&#8211;not worrying about the budget deficit, or public opinion, or support in Congress, or allowing resources for terrorist-hunting around the world (though I&#8217;m sure this last point is never far from his mind). President Obama&#8217;s job is to prioritize the country&#8217;s many competing goals and needs. He may not be taking a maximalist position on global-warming policy, for instance. But he is balancing the alarms sounded by his environmental advisors with the realities of Congress, and the delicate economy, and our diplomacy with developing nations like China. As Petraeus rightly put it yesterday, &#8220;there are broader considerations than those of the military commander.&#8221; Nevertheless, expect to hear Petraeus&#8217; name cross the lips of the Republican presidential candidates quite a lot in the coming months, particularly if the war effort turns bad. Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, among others, are already using his revered name as a kind of club against Obama, making the case that the president is assuming too much risk in Afghanistan. After a tepid first statement Wednesday night, Romney sharpened his critique of Obama&#8217;s decision yesterday afternoon. Also see Toby Harnden on Petraeus&#8217; explanation to Democratic Senator Carl Levin of why he&#8217;s not resigning, as the general says some people have urged him to do. Among other things, Petraeus said, &#8220;I&#8217;m not a quitter.&#8221;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=50945&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Afghanistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/afghanistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/petraeus.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">petraeus</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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