I agree with Les Gelb’s assessment that we can be out of most combat operations in Afghanistan by the beginning of 2013. (In fact, I made a similar proposal last January.) Here’s how it would work:
Afghanistan
The Pir Mohammed School Reopens
A little over a year ago, I visited the town of Senjaray in Kandahar Province and reported on the remarkable, but seemingly futile, efforts of an U.S. rifle company from the 4th Infantry Division, led by Captain Jeremiah Ellis, to reopen a school that had been closed and booby-trapped by the Taliban. I’ve been following the progress of …
Meanwhile in AfPak….
Since the start of the Arab Spring, the American media has paid precious little attention to the war in Afghanistan and our related headaches in volatile neighboring Pakistan. But less news has not meant good news. Today the New York Times reports that Pakistan is demanding the CIA sharply scale back its activities in that country, …
What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan, Cont’d
Perhaps TIME’s most memorable cover of 2010 featured the image of an Afghan woman who’d had her nose sliced off by the Taliban, with the cover line, “What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan.” The story was a reminder that it’s women who could suffer the most if the Taliban, with its primitive cultural mores, was to regain control of the …
Afghan Massacre
The first thing that you need to know about the massacre of 12 people that took place in Afghanistan today is that Mazar-e-Sharif is not a particularly radical town. It is not Pashtun, it is not Taliban. It is so quiet that NATO dispatched the near-pacifist Germans to keep the peace there. And so today’s massacre–in protest of the …
WW W. D?
Regular Swamp readers will have noticed that I have been on a bit of a hiatus of late. My mother died suddenly and two weeks ago. While I’m still immersed in family issues, I couldn’t watch the flood of GOP responses to President Obama’s speech on Libya go through my inbox unremarked. I received statement after statement hammering …
Rolling Stone’s Grisly “Kill Team” Photos: The Tip of the Iceberg?
Rolling Stone has published a trove of grisly photos from a now infamous case of a small group of U.S. soldiers who allegedly murdered Afghan civilians early last year.
This case made headlines last summer when the Army charged five soldiers in the murders of three unarmed Afghan civilians. In a particularly morbid twist, the alleged …
Psy-Ops Scopes Senators, But a Cover-Up Could Be the Real Scandal
By TIME contributor Mark Benjamin
Rolling Stone‘s Michael Hastings has penned another potential career-ender for a U.S. Army general. In this case, however, the most riveting aspect of Hasting’s expose on Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops, isn’t Caldwell’s possible crimes, it is the …
Morning Must Reads: Realignment
President Obama stops to view a generator as he tours a General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York on January 21. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
–John Heilemann tells the story of Obama’s White House realignment at the hands of Pete Rouse and the first flickers of the re-election effort as a shattering of hubris.
–His State of …
Morning Must Reads: To Tucson
President Obama and the First Lady take part in a moment of silence on January 10 in honor of the victims of the shooting in Tucson. (REUTERS/Jim Young)
–President Obama will travel to Arizona Wednesday to speak at a memorial for the victims of Saturday’s shooting.
–Gun control advocates Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Carolyn …
Morning Must Reads: Next
(Tom Williams/Roll Call)
–John Boehner is poised to take the Speaker’s gavel today. Alex raises the curtain.
–Ahmed Rahsid reports on the incredibly precarious path ahead in Afghanistan.
–Biden chief of staff and all-around White House heavyweight Ron Klain will depart for the private sector.
–Steve Schale, Obama’s …
Morning Must Reads: Tell
Senator Joe Lieberman gives a thumbs up while arriving with Majority Leader Harry Reid for a press conference on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal on December 18. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
–The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty will face a test vote on Tuesday, but the path to 67 votes and final ratification is steep now …
Morning Must Reads: Review
–As Mark reports, the Obama administration’s Afghan war review depicts a fragile effort nonetheless on track for draw-down starting next year. The Times gets a Taliban commander on record saying “the government has the upper hand now” in Kandahar.
–The standalone “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” repeal heads to the Senate as the tax deal …