Word: afghan
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...ruling clique will stay in power. The new constitution reserves top government positions for members of the military, and an esoteric set of rules seems specifically designed to keep Suu Kyi from participating in the electoral process. International monitor groups also have little doubt that vote-rigging will reach Afghan proportions. Nonetheless, the State Peace and Development Council, as the regime has designated itself, appears interesting in having the outside world approve of the elections - if only to confer legitimacy on its continuing rule...
After chastising those reporters who had not heeded White House warnings and published leaked speculation about President's Afghan decision, Gibbs admitted that the time change, long flight and lack of sleep might be getting to him. "See, I went cranky on that one," he said, prompting laughter from the press corps. The President is also sure to need patience as the trip progresses, lest he too get cranky at the focus of the international press...
...guys are. According to counterinsurgency doctrine, the troops should have been sent to secure the Pashtun population center - Kandahar city, which is now in the process of slipping into Taliban control. The military has been shockingly slow when it comes to matching U.S. training companies with Afghan battalions. No such joint units currently exist. The press has been led to a model town in Helmand, where counterinsurgency seems to be working - but it's an all-American operation. There are no Afghans to take over when we leave, which means the effort is a mirage. And the idea that illiterate...
...President send to Afghanistan? But there is a more important question: How long will he send them for? The military planners assume a five-to-10-year commitment. A more reasonable strategy would be to focus on the next year and see if there's any progress. Can the Afghan troops be trained? Will the Karzai government buckrake, or cooperate? Who are the Taliban, anyway? I'd send more trainers, and more troops to Kandahar, immediately, to give the effort its best chance to succeed. But the President should be as rigorous in evaluating the progress of counterinsurgency...
...Pakistani army's relationship with its lesser-evil militants is unlikely to please the U.S. These are groups that have trained their guns principally on U.S. and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan and have assisted Afghan Taliban who have established bases on the Pakistani side of the border. But Shuja Nawaz, director of the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, says the army is not strong enough to take on the Afghan Taliban based in Pakistan and their friends in the tribal regions. The army, he says, doesn't have "the numbers or the equipment to do that...