Word: afghanistanism
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...Kabul A Vital, Violent Election A series of shootings and suicide attacks in Kabul during the run-up to Afghanistan's landmark Aug. 20 presidential election killed at least 15 people before the polls even opened. The violence, combined with the Taliban's threat to amputate the ink-marked fingers of anyone caught voting, was part of the militant group's effort to keep Afghans away from the polls, tainting the legitimacy of the election. If a runoff between the top two candidates is necessary, the final outcome may be delayed...
...weeks after president Obama took office, his Administration sought to manage expectations on Afghanistan. Yes, it was the right war, a war of necessity--but winning didn't require turning the country into a "Jeffersonian democracy" (Obama's phrase) or a "Central Asian Valhalla" (as Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it). The implication was that President Bush had become too distracted by secondary, nation-building goals, such as ensuring that Afghan girls went to school. Obama would focus on the main task: defeating al-Qaeda and the Taliban...
...Afghanistan holds its presidential election, the Obama Administration has arrived at the same conclusion that Bush did: nation-building is essential to defeating extremism in Afghanistan. U.S. security goals in the region cannot be achieved purely by military means; in order for American and NATO troops to someday be able to head home, Afghanistan needs good governance and modern institutions...
...eternal flame. But this was Arlington, where some two dozen burials take place each day. Solemnity hangs over those hills like the atmosphere. Some of those many funerals are for white-haired old warriors, but not in Section 60, where the honored dead of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are marked in spreading ranks of white headstones...
...Obama Administration, the Pakistani military's reluctance to take on the TTP doesn't bode well for the pursuit of U.S. interests. Washington would like Islamabad to confront the groups that pose a direct threat to NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan - the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. But "it's not clear that the Pakistanis are prepared to pay more than lip service to that," says Riedel...