Word: iraq
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...there is good chemistry in this group. Hagel and Obama serve together on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have worked in tandem on nonproliferation issues and once even came across each other by happenstance traveling on congressional business in Russia. Reed and Obama have not only consulted on Iraq, but collaborated on legislation involving West Africa - a significant number of Reed's Rhode Island constituents have roots in Liberia - and enhancing middle school education in this country...
...trip comes at a time when Obama's Iraq stance is being criticized from both ends of the political spectrum. Republicans say the fact-finding trip is merely for show, given Obama's commitment to troop withdrawal, which he repeated in a speech July 15. McCain noted that Obama gave the speech about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan "before he has even left, before he has talked to General Petraeus, before he has seen the progress in Iraq, and before he has set foot in Afghanistan for the first time. In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best...
...this, Reed has promised, will not be the typical, carefully stage-managed view that visiting dignitaries usually get in Iraq and Afghanistan; nor will it merely echo the kind of briefings that lawmakers can get back in Washington from top Pentagon officials and commanders. The goal, he told MSNBC, is "to get down to the brigade combat teams. It's to get out and talk to troops. It's to get out and talk to the advisers, the embedded special forces and SEALs. That's what's critical, I think, and it's what we hope to accomplish...
...bombing outside the Indian embassy on July 7 killed 40 and injured over 100. Many of these assaults are planned and supported from safe havens across the border in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Western troop casualties are climbing; the last two months exceeded the monthly death toll in Iraq. On July 13, nine U.S. soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters swarmed over their base in the eastern province of Kunar - the worst attack in three years...
...after 11 months as a regional administrator in southern Iraq, I returned to Afghanistan to set up an NGO called the Turquoise Mountain to restore part of the old bazaar of Kabul and support traditional crafts. The garbage was then 7 ft. (2 m) deep in the streets, 200 yd. (180 m) from the presidential palace; there was no drainage, sewerage or water supply. Once famous traditional buildings were collapsing, and the craft-masters of ceramics, woodwork and jewelry were dying without passing on their skills. Most of the children in the area were not in school, most people were...