Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...with itself - that handles its combustible elements with care and gets strong, accurate performances from Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman. The release of the film has either perfect or ominous timing, for it opens just after President Obama's announcement that he was sending additional troops to Afghanistan. Brothers, written by David Benioff and directed by Jim Sheridan, is about a soldier sent to that perilous region, with dire results for him, his fellow Marines and the family he left behind. (See pictures of Natalie Portman's career...
...Therein lies the irony of Obama's downsizing effort: he needs to ratchet up conflicts at first - by sending more troops to Afghanistan and perhaps pushing new sanctions against Iran - to gain the diplomatic muscle to cut deals that don't look like abject American defeats. It's a risky strategy, since there's no guarantee that the bigger sticks will work, and if they don't, pulling back will be even harder. But it's a gamble Obama may have to take. The harsh truth is that the U.S. is significantly weaker in the Middle East now than...
...Mohamed Mukhtar Abdirahman, known as Abu Zubeyr, though several senior officials are believed to guide the group, which is divided into three regional units. Al-Shabab has claimed an affiliation with al-Qaeda since 2007, and its leaders are believed to have received training at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. In February 2008, al-Shabab was added to the U.S. government's list of foreign terrorist groups. (Read "The Fort Hood Killer: Terrified ... or Terrorist...
That trend is sure to be the undertone during discussions between Obama and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, when the two leaders meet in Washington to discuss a high-stakes list of concerns topped by Afghanistan and Iran. "The U.S. side needs to impress diplomatically on Prime Minister Erdogan how much his anti-Western populist rhetoric damages Turkey's position with its key partners and pro-Turkey constituencies in Washington and Brussels," analyst Hugh Pope wrote in a recent paper for the Transatlantic Academy...
...Before leaving for the U.S, Erdogan said Turkey was already "doing what it can" in Afghanistan, suggesting the Turks will resist Obama's call to commit more troops. Turkey has 1,750 soldiers in the Hindu Kush on a strictly humanitarian, noncombat mission that includes building roads and schools and patrolling Kabul. Ankara is wary of fighting fellow Muslims in a region with which it also has historic ties. "A midway solution could be for Turkey to increase its troops but not engage in warfare in southern provinces like Kandahar and Helmand," says Cengiz Candar, a commentator for the Radikal...