It will be days before we can unpack what actually happened in this week’s meetings between U.S. and Afghan officials. The big question concerns reconciliation: Will the U.S. back Hamid Karzai’s efforts to lure the Taliban into a coalition government? In the meantime, the estimable Spencer Ackerman has a report from a source in Kandahar, …
Afghanistan
President Obama Claims Accountability For Civilian Casualties In Afghanistan
In a joint press conference with Hamid Karzai at the White House Wednesday, President Obama spoke rather directly about an issue that is central to his Afghan strategy.
When there is a civilian casualty, that is not just a political problem for me. I am ultimately accountable, just as General McChrystal is accountable, for somebody
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Morning Must Reads: Brave Face
Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson
–Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Washington today for meetings with President Obama. Our colleague Tony Karon writes it will be a tense debate over when and how to strike a deal with the Taliban. Marc Ambinder describes the optics: “two parents who tolerate each other and cannot …
Who are the Taliban?
Marc Thiessen, the Washington Post’s new pro-torture columnist, has a typically brutish piece today in which he argues that if we only treated our latest Taliban trophy-capture, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the same way we treated Khalid Sheik Mohammed–i.e. waterboarded him in a CIA black site–we might find out who was running the Time …
Karzai’s Coming
David Ignatius has a good account of the issues at stake as Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai arrives in Washington this week. I’d probably put a bit more emphasis on the reconciliation issue–to my mind, the big question this week is whether the President will give Karzai approval to begin formal talks with the Taliban. The U.S. military is …
Military Candor
One of the big changes in the U.S. military over the course of my career has been the diminution of happy talk and propaganda designed to hoodwink the public about the true situation on the ground in war zones. There are no more 5 o’clock follies–a reference only those of us old enough to remember Vietnam will understand (it refers to …
And the Winners Are…
The deadtree cover this week is TIME’s annual 100 most influential people of the year. Who’d we miss? Who shouldn’t be on this list? Let the debate begin.
Update:
Even better: TIME’s least influential list. Hysterical.
Talk to the Taliban
Ahmed Rashid, perhaps the best informed journalist in the world when it comes to Afghanistan and Pakistan, confirms my belief that Hamid Karzai’s recent maneuverings are part of a reconciliation strategy with the Taliban:
According to U.S. and Afghan officials, Karzai’s first question when he arrives will be whether Washington supports
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What’s in a Debate?
An excellent primer lies below from TIME’s London bureau chief, Catherine Mayer, of what to expect from Thursday night’s second ever debate of British prime ministerial candidates. The first debate catapulted Nick Clegg into newfound stardom — he’s even overtaken or tied Prime Minister Gordon Brown in some polls — so it’ll be …
In Taliban Country
Tempted to call this…”On the Ground in Afghanistan.” But when I wasn’t falling down on patrol, I managed to report and write this story, which–without making judgments–says a lot, I think, about the difficulties American troops are facing in this war. I’ll have broader observations, and opinions, about the war in a few days, …
Morning Must Reads: Just Getting Started
US President Barack Obama (R) toasts with his Czech Republic’s counterpart Vaclav Klaus (C) and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after signing the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Prague on April 8, 2010. JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
–Obama and Medvedev signed the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty today in …
White House to Karzai: Check Yourself
The White House isn’t just turning the other cheek to Hamid Karzai, though they’re not yet throwing counter-punches either. Following the Afghan president’s allegations of dastardly foreign meddling and fraud, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told a gaggle of reporters in his office this morning that the administration wants Karzai to …
Morning Must Reads: Trust
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Dexter Filkins and Mark Landler describe a growing deficit of trust between the White House and Hamid Karzai.
–Obama prods him in an interview with Matt Lauer on “Today.”
–AHIP caved fairly quickly to the administration’s needling over pre-existing conditions for minors. The …