Calm Down and Draw Down: The New Goals in Afghanistan
You can sum up the White House's diplomatic surge following the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians in two phrases: Keep calm and draw down.
Advertisement
Afghan president Hamid Karzai isn't ready to give up his financially beneficial relationship with the CIA just yet. No, he wants those backpacks full from cash to keep coming.
You can sum up the White House's diplomatic surge following the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians in two phrases: Keep calm and draw down.
By offering surveillance footage revealing the shooter involved in Sunday's violence and sending over the head of the U.S. military Wednesday, the United States is striving to generate some good will at a time when relations between the two countries are at a sad but understandable "all-time low."
After a U.S. soldier allegedly massacred Afghan civilians over the weekend, the country suddenly seems a lot less safe for U.S. troops and local government officials as the Taliban vowed revenge through beheadings.
In a rare moment of agreement, President Obama and Mitt Romney are carving out the same position on the war in Afghanistan following the alleged massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by a rogue U.S. Army soldier.
Cartoonist Tom Toles on the tragedy in Afghanistan.
In Afghan and regional media, the most pressing question about the horrific killings of 16 Afghan civilians by a rogue U.S. soldier is whether he acted alone.
A soldier in Afghanistan wandered off his base and entered three civilian homes, then proceeded to methodically shoot each of the residents in the head. 16 are dead, several of them young children.
The Afghanistan government, which was embarrassed last April when nearly 500 prisoners escaped from its largest prison, has reached a deal with the U.S. to take custody of some 3,000 detainees within six months.
The five U.S. soldiers responsible for incinerating a pile of Korans will be punished and could lose rank but that's not likely to quel the rage of Afghan clerics and citizens.
Here's an interesting question, courtesy of ABC's Jake Tapper: "If the purpose of the Afghanistan war is to fight Al-Qaeda, when was the last time we actually did that?"
President Obama did the right thing when he apologized to Hamid Karzai for the Koran burnings in Afghanistan, but not for the reason he stated last night.
Less than a week after the NATO Koran burning incident at Bagram Air Base, a suicide car bomber attacked Jalalabad airport on Monday and killed nine.
NATO is withdrawing all personnel from Afghan ministries after two American advisers are discovered shot to death inside their heavily-guarded offices.
As violence over the burning of Korans by U.S. troops in Afghanistan enter their fourth day, the controversy has hit the campaign trail with Newt Gingrich slamming President Obama's apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
As the protests over the burning of Korans at a U.S. base claimed their first U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama sent a letter of apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Karzai's office reported on Thursday.
Thousands of Aghans protested at Bagram Air Base, the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan, on Tuesday, as local laborers found out that NATO personnel had been burning Korans at the base.
Haroon Aloko has been sent back to Kabul for either physically or emotionally mauling his colleagues. What really happened is up for debate.
The U.S. and Afghanistan governments have been in quiet contact with the Taliban, holding three-way meetings as the Taliban gets tired of carrying on its fight, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Wall Street Journal, but a Taliban statement says that's not true.
Time's military guy Mark Thompson managed to get ahold of the Excel spreadsheet showing the U.S. military's snack plans for the big game on Sunday.
The Obama administration is considering the release of five Taliban prisoners to improve peace talks with the Afghan insurgency and now we know who's on the short list.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced plans to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year.
It appears the White House is moving to transfer five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as an incentive to bring the Afghan insurgency closer to peace talks.
The BBC says that a leaked NATO report "fully exposes" the intimate relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan's internal security services.
Relations between U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops are at an all time low, according to a spate of new reports.
The U.S. Marine Corps said it's investigating a horrible video that shows Marines urinating on dead bodies.
The White House is denying a plan to release high-ranking Taliban officials held in Guantanamo Bay in exchange for an agreement by the Afghan insurgency to open a political office to begin peace negotiations in Qatar.
This week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is poised to deliver a humbling assessment of America's military capabilities in a budget plan to the White House, reports The New York Times.
The United States and Taliban certainly has a tense relationship this last decade - the U.S. ousted it from power in Afghanistan, after all -- so mending that relationship in 2012 needs a very basic starting point: a place to negotiate.
For Afghans, having to use Taliban approved ring-tones in order to save one's life wouldn't be so bad if the tones didn't have gunshots in the background.
Since posting this story, we've gotten a few reader emails suggesting that the FBI never had Mullah Omar on its most wanted terrorist list in the first place.
Army officials still haven't made it clear whether they think Pvt. Danny Chen shot himself or if the bullet that wound up in his brain came from one of his comrade's guns, but they're holding eight other soldiers accountable for his death.
Reuters report that the U.S. government has been in talks with the Taliban to broker a peace with the militant Islamists the U.S. invaded Afghanistan back in 2002 to overthrow in the first place.
McClatchy reports today that the Marines may have publicized a version of the story that won Dakota Meyer a medal of honor this September that doesn't fit what actually happened.
Skepticism abounds over whether Congress' freezing over $700 million in aid to Pakistan will have any real effect in stopping the rampant bomb-building on both sides of its borders.
The Shiite-Sunni sectarian fighting that drove so much of the violence in post-war Iraq has largely been absent from Afghanistan, but suicide attacks that killed 58 people in Afghanistan on Tuesday point to a disturbing trend toward religious violence there.
Following the publicized lack of an Obama apology for the airstrikes which ended in the friendly-fire death of 24 Pakistani soldiers, the U.S. is vacating a drone base in Shamsi base in Pakistan--a move that sounds way more serious than it actually is.
In a glimmer of good news in an otherwise horrifying story, it turns out that the Afghan woman identified as Gulnaz who was jailed for or being a victim of rape or as Afghan law describes, "adultery by force", has been pardoned without the condition that she marry her rapist.
U.S. officials are claiming that Pakistan had given their approval for the American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistan soldiers on Saturday, adding to the messy aftermath and political posturing of this friendly-fire tragedy.
When we think of dogs serving in the military, the conjured images might be of the formidably enhanced heros that assisted the Navy SEAL team take out bin Laden--maybe not the estimated 5 percent of K9's who, like many soldiers, are also suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday is forcing the U.S. to brace for a spate of terrorist attacks, re-route its supply lines and engage in a public shouting match with Pakistan while it simultaneously holds private talks to salvage the shattered relationship.
The draw of all these Republican debates is the chance to see how the candidates act unscripted, and Tuesday night we learned that under pressure, some forget their name while others spill state secrets.
When will the brass finally learn that saying interesting things to reporters will lead to interesting quotes in widely distributed articles that can very easily get one fired?
The car-bombing that killed 13 Americans in Kabul is the worst attack in months, and part of a trend toward showy, high-profile attacks as Taliban influence dwindles.
In a grim reminder that America has been at war for nearly a decade, Mother Jones reporter Adam Weinstein notes that Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer B. Domeij was on his 14th deployment since 2002 when he was killed on Sunday by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Army's announcement.
There would have been few consequences if Herman Cain had said he couldn't be bothered to learn the name of the leader of "Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan" while he was just a talk radio host, but now that he's a candidate for commander-in-chief, he's now got the Afghan president mocking him.
Upon receiving a box of Bill O'Reilly's Pinheads and Patriots, a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan conducted a book burning--but it wasn't political, he swears.
After an unexpected visit to Libya, the Secretary of State made another unannounced stop in Afghanistan, reports The Associated Press.
The Afghan defense minister estimates that the country will need to spend $5 billion a year on security after the U.S. withdraws its forces in 2014 and would like the U.S. to foot the bill.
After a decade, Stanley McChrystal says the U.S. is "little better than" halfway to its goals
The Atlantic Wire is your authoritative guide to the news and ideas that matter most right now. Our team tracks newsmakers and opinions across the entire media spectrum: newspapers, web sites, television, radio and magazines.
But we do more than just collect information. By synthesizing, analyzing and summarizing what’s out there, and adding new information when we can, we are a news engine that gives you a quick and valuable account of the issues of the day.
Have a hot tip? A story we missed? Tell us on the Open Wire
How to send us editorial or technical feedback
Get Five Best Columns in your inbox each morning (preview)
