Word: afghanization
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...speech to the West Point cadets. "You can't tell soldiers to fight for a draw," says one of Gates' staff aides. But Gates never got to give his pep talk. There would be no trip to Kandahar, or anywhere for that matter. The helicopters were grounded by the Afghan weather...
...best few days for Gates. At the Arg Palace in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told Afghan and foreign journalists that the country's security forces would be dependent on the U.S. for at least 15 years. Gates stared stonily at the floor in front of him, then politely corrected the Afghan President. A few days later in the New York Times, Maureen Dowd lamented that puppets just aren't what they used...
...General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. He ushered Gates through a hangar outfitted as NATO's new cyber-command-and-control center. One of his staff whispered, "An enormous well-oiled machine for eatin' bad guys." In another hangar, Gates got a glimpse of the fledgling Afghan air force and stepped into the cockpit of an old Russian Mi-17 attack helicopter. "Don't you love the irony of Gates in the pilot's seat of an Mi-17 that he was getting Stingers to shoot down?" said his spokesman Geoff Morrell...
Today Gates is fighting to buy more of those Russian helicopters, considered the Kalashnikovs of the sky. The Iraqis and Afghans are familiar with them. They're hardy and easier to fly than Black Hawks, and their engines are better at handling the tough Afghan altitudes...
...boldest attacks on the Afghan capital since Hamid Karzai became President, insurgents laid siege to several areas of Kabul on Jan. 18. Suicide bombers blew themselves up near Karzai's palace and the Education Ministry, while another three of the seven perpetrators took over a shopping complex across from the Justice Ministry. All the attackers were killed, as were two civilians and three members of the Afghan security forces. At least 70 people were wounded. The incident--a reminder of the Taliban's ability to strike at the shaky Afghan government--came as Kabul mulled a program aimed at persuading...