Word: afghanistans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...more troops. The Pentagon says it's half that. But a new study by consulting firm Deloitte makes clear that fighting inside a landlocked country where the Taliban has shut down much of the meager road network has drastically inflated even routine costs. The average U.S. trooper in Afghanistan requires 22 gal. (83 L) of fuel a day--but the cost of buying a gallon of fuel and shipping it to the deepest corners of the country averages $45. That's nearly $1,000 a day per soldier...
Beyond the financial cost is the danger: more troops would need more fuel, which would require sending more supply convoys into harm's way. The study warns that stepped-up operations in Afghanistan could more than double the 5,400 U.S. casualties already suffered there (including 927 killed...
That's one reason Obama may face such a tough sales job when he rolls out his Afghan strategy after nearly three months of debate. Following Obama's expected speech to the nation about his plan, General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, will testify before Congress with other members of Obama's national-security team. They'll have to convince skeptical Americans--as well as NATO allies at a Dec. 7 meeting--that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a solid partner in the war effort. That's a daunting task given the allegations of corruption enveloping...
Back on Capitol Hill, Obey is concerned that increased spending for Afghanistan could doom Obama's efforts to improve the U.S. economy. He says the domestic initiatives of both Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson stalled because of the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Says Obey: "We don't want that to happen again...
...Indian analysts believe Obama's foreign policy team imagines India mostly in the context of other regional challenges, particularly the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. China, with its booming economy and position as America's primary creditor, now carries far more weight in U.S. strategy. "The ground reality is India at the moment does not count for the U.S. in the same way that China and Pakistan do," says Bahukutumbi Raman, a former top Indian intelligence official and head of the Centre for Topical Studies in Chennai. (See pictures of Barack Obama visiting Asia...